Assisted Storytelling
3/30/2026 | 1m 4sVideo has Closed Captions
This activity helps children create a story using a character and setting from a book.\
This activity gives young readers a chance to tell their own stories. The parent provides a character and setting from a familiar book. The child is then prompted to create a story around them and to draw a picture. The parent asks leading questions to help add detail, or move the plot along. Storytelling helps kids identify important story elements while building confidence in speaking.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Learning to Read is a local public television program presented by WNPT
Funding for LEARNING TO READ is provided by the Dollar General Literacy Foundation
Assisted Storytelling
3/30/2026 | 1m 4sVideo has Closed Captions
This activity gives young readers a chance to tell their own stories. The parent provides a character and setting from a familiar book. The child is then prompted to create a story around them and to draw a picture. The parent asks leading questions to help add detail, or move the plot along. Storytelling helps kids identify important story elements while building confidence in speaking.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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Providing Support for PBS.org
Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship- Young readers hear lots of stories, but they rarely get to create their own.
Encourage them to tell you a story.
Give them a character and a setting from a book.
- I love these little birds here.
I wonder if you could make a little story with them.
- [Instructor] Ask your child to come up with a story using the character, and draw a picture too.
- [Parent] Are they a family, or are they all friends?
- They're all different families.
- Oh, okay.
- The main character is a bluebird, and all the other birds are red.
- Ask questions to help them add details, or move the story along.
- They leave the tree, they fly, they get berries.
What happens next?
- Once they've developed their story, ask them to come up with an ending.
- The red bird found the blue bird lying on the ground and they became friends, since they said that they both didn't have any friends.
- That's nice.
- Storytelling helps kids identify and understand important story elements, while also building confidence in speaking.
- [Announcer] Sponsored by the Dollar General Literacy Foundation, helping build literary skills and encouraging parents and children to spend 20 minutes a day reading together.
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Learning to Read is a local public television program presented by WNPT
Funding for LEARNING TO READ is provided by the Dollar General Literacy Foundation