Resource
Build-a-Story Group Cards
Build an original group story from setting, character, object and change cards. Includes a two-page A4 printable, specific educator guidance, adaptations and a cut-off quick-reference card.
Ready for a real OSHC session
Preview both printable pages
Download 2-page practical printableCheck the preview, printing notes and licence before use.
When this resource is useful
Separate story ingredients help a mixed-age group contribute without requiring every child to write.
What children do
Draw one card from each group, decide an order and create the story aloud, in pictures or in writing.
Materials and preparation
Materials: Printed pages and pencils; use only the optional ordinary materials named on the page.
Allow about 2 minutes to print and place the resource. The activity itself usually takes 25 minutes and can pause when the group needs to transition.
Run the activity
Place cards in four piles and give groups five minutes to plan before telling or drawing the story.
The child-facing prompts are:
- SETTING: rooftop garden
- SETTING: underwater station
- CHARACTER: careful inventor
- CHARACTER: lost messenger
- OBJECT: map with one blank space
- OBJECT: machine with two buttons
- CHANGE: the lights go out
- CHANGE: an unexpected helper arrives
Adapt participation
Simpler way to join: Use one character, one place and one event.
More challenge: Add a second viewpoint or non-linear ending.
Children may draw, dictate, point, work beside a peer, observe or join later. Start, Explore and Extend labels describe task routes, not children.
Extend the idea
- Create replacement cards.
- Turn the story into three frozen scenes.
Safety and privacy
Keep stories fictional; children may pass on personal or frightening themes.
Learning opportunities
Look for collaboration, communication, fair participation and shared problem-solving. Record what children choose, explain, test or revise rather than treating completion as proof of learning.
Checking an open-ended response
There is no single required answer. A useful response follows the printed condition and can be explained, demonstrated or revised by the child.
Printing notes
Print at actual size on A4 paper. Page one is child-facing. Page two contains educator guidance and a dashed cut-off reference card that can be kept with the activity or laminated.
