The Never-Ending Story

Keep your advanced classes on their toes with this fun story telling exercise. Ideal for use as a warm-up or as part of a full lesson for discussion of Western fairy tales and folk tales.

Skill Level: Advanced.

Materials: None.

Instructions:
To use the activity as part of a full lesson plan, first explain to students how Western fairy tales are structured. Typically, fairy tales start with “Once upon a time…” (or something similar identify the story as taking place in a strange, fantastic place), have a clearly defined hero and villain, contain a message, etc.
Then, read a fairy tale to read to the class. (If necessary, re-write the story before class using Simple English.) Discuss the message of the story, identify structural, thematic, and plot elements, and ask the students to tell any similar stories in their native language.
After having discussed fairy tales, it’s time to play The Never-Ending Story

Arrange students in a circle. Teacher starts the story by saying one sentence.
Example: “Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess who lived in a castle.
The student to the teacher’s left then says a sentence to continue the story.
She was very sad because she wanted to marry her boyfriend but her father said no.
Story continue around the circle until someone either reaches a logical end to the story and is able to finish it with “And they lived happily ever after” or a student isn’t able to continue the story. If the student isn’t able to continue the story she starts a new story (”Once upon a time…”)