How to make your own Story Spoons

This week is National Storytelling Week in the U.K. – I hadn’t heard of it until recently so if you are as unfamiliar with it as I was, there are some great resources here. 

The idea is to encourage and promote storytelling, whether that is folktales and fairytales or telling your own story. There are lots of activities you could do with children, ranging from reading their favourite story and acting it out with their toys, to creating a game where you write down different elements of a story, characters, plot etc, and ask them to choose different elements and arrange them together on the floor or table or in a Tuff Tray to make their story. 

You could also make these story spoons, which does involve a degree of artistic talent – though they don’t have to be perfect. You could also make them by cutting out pictures and gluing them on, and using some sort of craft sealant like Mod Podge over the top.

I drew these freehand using coloured marker pens (Promarkers) and then Mod Podge over the top. I bought a set of five wooden spoons on Amazon for just a few pounds and did the Three Little Pigs story and Red Riding Hood. I drew the three pigs on the first three spoons, and then on the back drew the house that each one built, so when you tell the story and hold up the spoon you can flip it over to show the other side.

The wolf spoon plays a role in both stories- so I drew a plain wolf on one side and the wolf in grandmother’s clothing from Red Riding Hood on the other, so again the spoon can be flipped around during the story. I then drew Red Riding Hood herself on the final spoon and the woodcutter on the other side.

I used these spoons with my daughter who had just turned three at the time (I actually made these nearly a year ago!) and she loved holding up the spoons and telling me the story. They act as prompts but also as characters and can help make storytelling easier for younger children and even more fun!