We recently ran a webinar focusing on using Clicker to support children writing their own stories. I’ve gathered some of the ideas and resources we shared here.
Planning
We started off by looking at resources for planning stories. First, we looked at our Using Question Words Clicker Board and Talk Set. These resources can be used to help learners develop their question skills or build ideas for story writing.
We then looked at some resources for plotting different stages of a story with The Alien and Planet Earth Story Steps, Storyboard 5, and Pirate Story Builder Clicker Boards. These resources are great for encouraging children to get their creative writing ideas flowing individually, in groups or as a class.
Settings
We then moved on to looking at resources for developing settings for our stories. The Pirate story builder Clicker Board includes multiple story building elements, so after identifying key plot points in the Plot tab, we moved on to using the Setting tab to gather ideas for describing the setting of our story.
Thinking about a different style of story, we then looked at the Spooky House Talk Set. This resource includes a picture prompt with lots of detail and recording buttons to encourage learners to think about how they might describe this setting in a story. Alongside this resource we looked at the Spooky House Description Word Bank, which provides powerful vocabulary learners can use to help them describe this kind of setting in their writing.
Finally, we looked at the Setting the Scene – The House. This resource encourages children to explore different senses as part of a description, rather than relying predominantly on visual aspects of the description.
Character development
Next, we looked at character development ideas. For this, we returned to our pirate story ideas with the Pirate Wanted Poster Two Clicker Book. This Make-A-Book activity allows children to draw their own pirate character and then describe them in the style of a wanted poster. There is an in-built Word Bank in the resource to support learners building their descriptions.
We then moved on to designing superhero characters with the If I was a Superhero Clicker Board, which provides several prompts for, not only describing a superhero character, but also starting to develop their backstory.
Then, we looked at characters for a different style of story – fantasy – with the Fantasy Creatures Talk Set. Main characters aren’t the only characters that need to be developed in a story; this resource is a great way to give learners a starting point for describing fantasy creatures that might be involved in their stories.
Writing
Lastly, we looked at resources to support children through the writing process of their stories. The Fantasy Story Words and Fantasy Story A-Z Word Banks are excellent resources for supporting writers at the best stage for them. Fantasy Story A-Z provides a wider range of topic vocabulary organised alphabetically - this is great for learners who know the words they want to use but struggle with spelling. Whereas Fantasy Story Words groups words by characters, places, nouns, verbs, and adjectives, offering more support to learners who might not be as confident with the vocabulary.
For learners that need support structuring their stories, we looked at the Write a Traditional Story Connect Set. This resource gives children a selection of sentence starters, characters, and events which they can use to build their own traditional style stories.
Want to find out more? You can view the recording of this webinar here, or book a Customer Care Meeting to get some additional hints and tips from one of our Clicker consultants.
