Students sit in a circle and build a story together by taking turns. Where one storyteller leaves off, the next one begins. This basic structure is adaptable to all grade levels and can be used in various ways.
The most challenging version is for each storyteller to add a single word to the progressive storyline. But players can take turns adding sentences or paragraphs. To make this game more academic, students can practice building proper sentences or paragraphs. Or the format can be used to review a story that the class has read together.
A modification of this game (attributed to Arnold, 1972) is called Because. In Because, the first player describes an event; the second player describes the cause; and the third player describes a consequence. For example: (Player 1) “The cat jumped out of the window onto the lady’s head”; (Player 2) “The cat jumped out of the window onto the lady’s head because there was a fire in the house”; (Player 3) “The cat jumped out of the window onto the lady’s head because there was a fire in the house. Then the lady realized the house was burning, and she called the fire department.” Now it goes on to another Player #1 to begin a new thread in the story.
