27 Alternative Narration Ideas for Children

Narrating stories and books is an awesome skill for children to learn. In fact, it’s so important that educating pioneer Charlotte Mason had this to say about it:

“Now children have a natural talent for language: by his fourth year many a child has collected an amazingly good vocabulary, and uses his new words with a fitness which amuses his elders; children are very well able to narrate and to narrate well; and to get into the habit of telling a story, giving all the circumstances in due order, adding nothing and omitting nothing,--why, this is a liberal education in itself, quite invaluable in these days, when that of speaking well, and to the point, is of far more use to both men and women than the power of writing equally well.

There is a time for all things; there is a season of natural readiness of speech in children which teachers would do well to take at the flood, and not "get them on" to write miserably ill-spelt, ill-written, ill-expressed "compositions." As a matter of fact, it would be well that a child should not know how to express himself in writing until he is fully ten years old. The real difficulty is, set a child to write a narrative and he is out of your way, you are free to attend to other matters; set him to speak his narrative, and he claims your whole attention-- now is your time to get clear enunciation, exact statements, orderly arrangement.” ( Volume 6: Towards a Philosphy of Education, Charlotte Mason, p 193)

Although we are not Charlotte Mason purists, I have read all the volumes written by Miss Mason and believe that she really understood how to teach children so that they wanted to learn and retain the information. We incorporate a lot of her suggestions, but academically and practically (I am constantly explaining to people why I leave my windows cracked, even in the freezing weather of winter time!) so it behooved me to discover some interesting ways to let my children narrate the stories that they read. At this point, seven years into our homeschooling journey, most of my children can narrate orally with ease and do so even without me requesting or requiring it. However, there are times that we like to mix it up a bit.

Thus, our 50 Alternative Narration Ideas for Children!

1. Pretend to be the main character in the story and tell the events from their perspective.
2. Tell “Every thing I know about…”
3. Describe only the imagery (real or metaphorical) used in the passage.
4. Compare the passage to modern day life where you live.
5. Describe the character traits of the main character and how it effected the events that happened.
6. Discuss what you would have done differently than the person you read about.
7. Pretend you’re arguing in front of a judge for the main character. Why did they do what they did?
8. Tell the events of the story backwards.
9. Tell the story from a minor character’s point of view.
10. Write a journal entry from the person you’re reading about.
11. Write a letter to the main character.
12. Write a letter from the main character.
13. Create a newspaper article based on what happened in your reading.
14. Create a brochure to invite people to visit the setting of your story. Be sure to include a section on the local people!
15. Write five sentences about the passage
16. Make a fill in the blank quiz for your mother to take. (Be sure and make it challenging and know the answers!)
17. Write a summary of the passage for your little brother so that they’d understand what you learned about.
18. Write a book review.
19. Write a book report.
20. Draw a map of the location of the story.
21. Draw a picture of the main character.
22. Draw a comic strip showing the sequence of the story.
23. Draw a depiction of the clothing worn in the passage.
24. Draw a depiction of the scenery in the passage.
25. Draw a depiction of the architecture in the passage.
26. Draw a portrait of the main character.
27. Draw and paint any of the above.
28. Write a monologue from the main character and perform it.
29. Make a video acting out what happened in the passage.
30. Do your best impression of the  main character.
31. Record yourself reenacting the dialogue from the story using different voices and sound effects to tell the story. 
32. Demonstrate a dance performed in the story.
33. Recreate the artwork described using the methods the characters used in the story.
34. Using a tin can telephone, attempt to tell the story to your sibling and then find out how much they actually learned.
35. Recreate an accomplishment of the main character.
36. Recreate an experiment performed by the main character.
37. Make a model of the architecture described in the story using clay.
38. Make a model of the accessories worn during the story using clay (or other mediums).
39. Make a model of the machines/ tools used during the story using clay (or other mediums).
40. Make a model of the weapons used during the story using clay (or other mediums… just nothing hard or dangerous!).
41. Make a diorama of an important event in the story.
42. Find examples of flora (plants) and fauna (animals) described in the story in your own yard or park.
43. Create a scrapbook page or shadow box of items that are both available to you and mentioned in your story.
44. Create a collage of images to retell important events in the story.
45. Create a scene from the story from Lego’s, Lincoln Logs, or building blocks.
46. Create a mural showing the story’s timeline.
47. Create a sculpture of the main character.
48. Design (and sew if possible!) an outfit for the main character based on what you’ve read about their environment. Explain why you’ve included each piece and demonstrate how they’d have looked!
49. Knit or crochet an accessory that is used within the story.
50. Learn a skill (like fire-starting, making pies, etc) that is used in your story.

So there’s my best ideas… share your best ideas for narration with me!