Story retelling is an essential skill for all readers but it can be a challenge for some students. Luckily, I have the perfect solution that will improve students’ retelling ability! This engaging and effective strategy will benefit even your most reluctant readers. When students practice retelling with building blocks, they will be eager to independently implement the strategy!
How to Use Building Blocks for Retelling
Students can practice retelling by using building blocks to create the setting of a story or their favorite part. This visual can act as a tool to prompt their written retelling of the story. They can also use the lego characters to reenact and orally retell the story.
Setting Up a Retelling Center
Establish a location in your room where you can store the supplies for your retelling center. You can use any type of blocks you already have as tools they can use. The retelling center may also include art supplies and stickers for students who are more artistic.
My amazing friend Kelly Haynes @FromKindergartenwithLove created these toolboxes for her students. She was able to make these kits with materials all found at DollarTree! You’ll only need a few sets depending on how many students you have working at a center at one time.
Benefits of Retelling with Building Blocks
As we know, all students learn differently. Some students struggle to find the words to retell a story on their own. The building blocks offer a scaffold for those students.
By creating a setting or scene from the story with blocks, it helps students visualize the story. This makes it more concrete for them and leads to a better understanding of the story. Once they know what the story is about, it naturally makes it easier to retell it.
Not all students may require this type of activity depending on their specific needs. This strategy tends to mostly benefit students who are visual and/or kinesthetic learners.
Students who are reluctant writers also greatly benefit from this strategy. They may struggle to know what to write when asked to complete a written retelling of a story. But the building blocks provide a visual that helps prompt their writing. It is especially beneficial to have these students use the building blocks as props to orally retell the story first. Then they can use their own words in their written retelling.
Tips for Retelling with Building Blocks
Provide Time for Play
Before expecting students to use the building blocks to retell a story, you’ll first want to provide them with free time to play with the blocks. This familiarizes students with the tools and lets them explore without having to focus on an academic task. It helps decrease their desire to play with the blocks when it is time to work.
Model the Strategy
As with everything else, you’ll want to take time to model how to use the blocks and complete the task. Explicitly explain and demonstrate your expectations for students at the retelling center. Depending on your students, you may need to model it multiple times before they’re able to use the center independently.
Set a Timer
It’s no surprise that students love to play with Legos! As a result, some students may struggle with time management. They may want to keep building and adding more details without actually getting time to practice the whole purpose of the activity – retelling. For these students, you may want to set a timer to help keep them on task. When the timer goes off, they should stop building and begin retelling the story.
Putting It All Together
Hopefully, you’re able to see how this can be an engaging and effective strategy for your students. Be sure to download the FREEBIE below to start using this strategy in your classroom! You may also be interested in finding out about other engaging retelling strategies to try!
Have you used building blocks to retell a story? What other ways have you used building blocks in your classroom? Share in the comments!
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