When using games as learning tools, we encourage teachers and parents to break the rules! With a little creativity, you can turn existing games into a classroom or homework activity that targets the lesson at hand.

Last year, we were fortunate to have  a teacher in Pennsylvania with over 20 years experience in elementary school education design lesson plans using our educational games. As a part of an ongoing series of posts, today we will be covering our creative storytelling game Tell Tale.

See the previous post in the series on Sumoku

Practicing Language Arts with Tell Tale

About the game:
Tell Tale is a storytelling tool consisting of 60 double-sided illustrated cards. Illustrations include characters, settings, objects and emotions. Players use the cards as prompts to build stories, either individually or collectively. Players may improvise and let chance lead their story, or plan it out.

Grade Level Application:  Kindergarten

Skills:  Language and vocabulary development by thinking in sentences and using a variety of descriptive words, observing details especially facial expressions of emotions in people pictures.

Lesson Plan Suggestions
Classroom activity or Small Group: 4-6 children
# Of Games Required: 1 per group
Noise level: Moderate to low

Practice Language and Vocabulary development
Everyone is dealt 4 cards then after looking them over picks 2 to use. Using a story paper worksheet, draw a picture using those 2 images and then write or tell a sentence about what’s happening.

Practice Observing Details
Place 4 cards with facial expressions face-up in the center of the group. Have the students draw a picture with someone making one of those faces then write or tell a sentence about how that person feels and why.

Grade Level Application:  1st

Skills:  Language and vocabulary development by writing descriptive paragraphs

Lesson Plan Suggestions
Classroom activity or Small Group: 4-6 children
# Of Games Required: 1 per group
Noise level: Moderate to low

Practice Writing Descriptive Paragraphs
Each student takes a card and then chooses one side to write about. Using three or more sentences, they should describe what they see. Encourage them to be creative with this, i.e. “Who or what is in the picture?” “Where is this person/object?” “What is happening?”

Grade Level Application:  3rd

Skills:  Language and vocabulary development by creating stories (with a beginning, middle, and end) and using a variety of descriptive words, writing skills such as handwriting and using sequenced events in stories

Lesson Plan Suggestions
Classroom activity or Small Group: 4-6 children
# Of Games Required: 1 per group
Noise level: Moderate to low

Practice Writing Stories With Beginning, Middle, and End
Write a story.  Write a story by taking the top six cards from the stack.  Using either side of the cards, line them up in the order you want to use them in your story.  Write a story with a beginning, middle, and end.

Practice Writing a Cooperative Story
Continue a story.  Each child draws one card and uses it to begin a story.   As each child completes writing about the first card they place the story on top of a stack of stories to be continued.  They take the bottom story from the stack, get a new picture card, read what has been written, and continue the story by using ideas from their new picture card.  Several stories could be in progress at the same time.   A child may draw the same story at a later time.  This is alright as long as someone else has written on it since their earlier writing.