A picture and a connective, and the next child adds one sentence. Nobody has to invent a whole story, so nobody freezes — and by part ten the class has built something together. Run it round the room, then print the sheet and let them write it.
A build-a-story activity has a class write one story together, a sentence at a time, with each child adding the next line. Story Builder gives them a picture and a connective to work from — once upon a time…, but then…, luckily… — so nobody is stuck for what comes next, and the pictures keep it moving.
A child asked to invent a whole story freezes. A child asked for one sentence that follows on from the last one does not, because the hard part — what happens next — is already half decided by the picture and the connective they have been handed.
Connectives, mostly, and in the only way that really works: a child has to use because of that or suddenly to say something they actually mean. It also teaches listening, because a sentence that ignores the one before it stops the story dead and the class notices.
Go round in order so nobody is waiting to be picked, and take the sentence from whoever is next. Say the whole story so far out loud every three or four parts — that is what keeps it coherent, and it gives the child who was not listening a way back in. Ten parts takes about fifteen minutes.
Year 1 to Year 5 (US grades 1–5). Younger classes do better with six parts and a lot of modelling of the first sentence; older ones can be pushed to plant something early and pay it off at the end, which is a genuinely difficult skill and worth naming when they manage it.
From the classroom
The moment that decides whether this works is the second sentence, not the first. If the second child starts a new story instead of continuing, the whole class does the same and you end up with ten unrelated sentences. So take the second one yourself, deliberately, and make it obviously follow on. The other thing: someone will kill the main character in part four. Have a rule ready — the story has to keep going, so they have to get out of it — because turning that into the next child's problem is much better than banning it. For a written follow-up, the printed sheet gives every child the same picture trail, so they write the story that the class built together rather than a new one.
Yes. Generate the pictures on any topic you type — a jungle adventure, space, the seaside, the class novel's setting — or take a ready-made set of story pictures if you want to start now.
Yes. Print an A4 sheet with each picture, its connective and two writing lines, so the class writes the story after building it aloud. Ten parts fit on one page.
Give them the picture and ask a closed question about it first — who is in it? — and then ask them to put that into the story. Skipping them is easier and it teaches them that being silent works. A closed question first almost always gets a sentence second.
No. You can open any of these, set it up and see exactly what you would be running before anyone asks you for anything. Starting an activity uses a free trial token, and a Sage Pro subscription lifts the limit. Nothing here is behind an email wall.
| Use it for | How | How long |
|---|---|---|
| Teaching connectives | Ten parts, one sentence each | 15 minutes |
| A speaking warm-up | Six parts, quick round | 8 minutes |
| Story writing | Build it aloud, then write it on the sheet | 30 minutes |
| Beginners in English | Six parts, sentence stem on the board | 10 minutes |
Free, and no sign-up to look around.
Consequences · Sentence Scramble · Describe & Draw — or see all nine in ESL & Oracy.
Written by a practising primary school teacher, who built Sage Teachers to use in their own classroom. Every activity here is free to try with no sign-up.