Celebrate National Share a Story Month with your class

National Share a Story Month occurs in May and provides children with the opportunity to delve into various genres of stories. It is also a chance for them to share their own personal stories in a way to educate others and open up their feelings. This year, National Share a Story Month focuses on the theme of ‘sail away in a story.’ The theme is all about losing yourself in books and being fully immersed and engaged with stories.

To help you celebrate National Share a Story Month with your class, we have outlined some of our favourite stories to share, how you can share stories and why sharing stories is important for children.

Our top favourite stories to share:

• Grimms fairytales by The Brothers Grimm (1812)
• Stig of the dump by Clive King (1963)
• Toto the Ninja cat by Dermot O’Leary (2017)
• Kid Normal by Chris Smith & Greg James (2017)
• The story of Dr Dolittle by Hugh Lofting (1920)
• The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkein (1937)
• The story of Tracy Beaker by Jacqueline Wilson (1991)
• Room on the broom by Julia Donaldson (2001)
• The Borrowers by Mary Norton (1952)
• The magic key by Roderick Hunt (2000)
• The Twits by Roald Dahl (1980)
• Wonder by R.J Palacio (2012)

Find some of these books and more in our reading collections for different ages and reading levels. Our dark red banded collection is perfect for the higher primary years, and our dark blue banded collection is great for mid-primary years.

Story sharing activities to do

There are many story sharing activities to do with your class throughout the month to celebrate. To help you, we have suggested a few different and fun activities that pupils will love. Try them out and get children sharing stories.

Map drawing

Task pupils to draw a map of a town from a story you have shared or a place that means something to them. They can do this map in as much detail as they would like, so make sure to provide children with plenty of colouring pencils.

Once the maps have been drawn, task your pupils with sharing stories based on that town. This could be as simple as what it is like being someone who lived there or as imaginative as creating a story about what happens in that town or following a single character. It could be true to a map and be about a character on a treasure hunt. If the map is of a special place to a child, they should share their own personal story about that place. Each child will take turns to share their stories with the class and show the map as a visual representation.

Share stories through finger puppets

Let children’s imaginations run wild with telling stories through finger puppets. These could be ones you have for role play or you can task pupils with making paper ones. Create a setting to show the story with the class and let children work together to create and tell their stories. Each group will then put on a finger puppet show for the class. If a group is stuck, allow them to re-create a story that you have looked at throughout the month.

Pass the story

Start this activity off by creating a simple sentence and sketching it out underneath on a piece of paper. Ensure that pupils sit in a circle to be able to pass the piece of paper around. Pass it to the pupil sat next to you who will see the sentence. They will continue the story by adding a sentence on and drawing it out and pass it on to the next pupil. Encourage children to not look at every part of the story only the sentence before. That way when it reaches the last pupil and you share the story, it will be a surprise of how it turned out from one sentence.

Create a share a story podcast

Why don’t you create a school podcast for National Share a Story Month where you can encourage pupils record their stories? To put your class at ease, allow them to do it in small groups or pairs. These stories could be listened to once or twice a week on the school website. Remind pupils when an episode is live so everyone can listen to it and even listen to them in class together.

Benefits of sharing stories for kids

Sharing stories has many benefits for pupils and is a vital part of their development. When children share stories or books, their learning development grows as well as their language and communication skills. They start to grasp how words are used to tell stories and their vocabulary extends due to this.

Children will start to develop their talking and listening skills as well through story sharing as it requires them to focus and listen to whoever is telling the story. They need to stay quiet and tune into the story to understand it and not miss any vital bits. Plus, when it’s their turn to share a story, they have to speak out loud and learn how to tell stories in an exciting way to not lose others interest.

Sharing stories also involves children to delve into their imaginations to visualise what is being told. It also taps into their curiosity and emotions as they become immersed in the story.

Celebrate National Share a Story Month with your class using our suggested activities and top books that your pupils will love. Develop key reading and communication skills as well as bringing a fun and sociable aspect to stories. Pick a book each week and an activity to do to last you throughout the month. By doing this you encourage a passion for sharing stories within your class.

Want some more story sharing activity inspiration? Check out our ‘A guide to an amazing national storytelling week’ blog which can be used at any time especially for National Share a Story Month!

Share with us your story sharing activities on our Facebook and Instagram, we would love to see them.