Free templateChild Development & Programming

Storytelling, Imagination & Dramatic Play

Two PDFs from the Storytelling, Imagination & Dramatic Play Learning Lab. A four-page educator takeaway holds a Storytelling Invitation Idea Bank and a Storytelling Prompt & Documentation Toolkit. A nine-page set of activity pages covers Story Basket Discovery, Puppet & Prop Play and the Story Scene Challenge, each written for 12–18 months, 19–36 months and 3–4 years.

Format: Printable PDF · US Letter
Pages: 4 + 9 (two PDFs)
Best for: Educators · room leads
Updated: Oct 2026

Download free template See what’s inside

Also download: Explore, Create & Build activity pages (9 pages) →

No sign-up required. Print it and share it with your team — it’s free for any child care program to use.

Preview of the Storytelling, Imagination & Dramatic Play

What’s inside

An idea bank, a prompt toolkit and nine activity pages

Storytelling Invitation Idea BankThe formula “Story + Prop + Possibility” and “10 Easy Invitations to Try”, including Story Basket, Mystery Story Bag, Puppet Hello, Finish the Story, Story Walk and Photo Story Starter. A second page, “Make It Work Across Ages”, gives set-up, educator role and phrases to try for each age group.
Storytelling Prompt & Documentation ToolkitPrompts grouped under Notice & Describe, Invite Language, Extend Imagination and Support Problem-Solving, plus a note on what to do when a child doesn’t answer.
Communicating the Learning to FamiliesA documentation formula — what happened + child’s action/words + learning observed + a question for home — with an example family message for each age group and five quick family prompts to share.
Explore, Create and Build activity pagesStory Basket Discovery, Puppet & Prop Play and Story Scene Challenge, one page per age group (nine in all). Every page has What Children Are Learning, How to Set It Up, Basic Materials, Educator Prompts and What to Notice.
Sharing the Learning with FamiliesEach activity page ends with an example note to a family, three family conversation prompts and a “Keep it simple” reminder.

How to use it

Four steps to put it to work this week

1
Pick one invitationChoose from the idea bank or go straight to the activity page for your age group. The basic materials are things most rooms already have: a basket, a board book, a soft puppet, scarves, blocks.
2
Set it up smallFollow How to Set It Up. For 12–18 months the Story Basket page asks for only 2–3 safe props; for 19–36 months, 4–6 props matched to one familiar book or rhyme.
3
Use the prompts, then pauseTry a few of the Educator Prompts and give children time. The toolkit points out that a prompt does not require a verbal response — gestures, sounds and choosing are also communication.
4
Write the family noteUse the documentation formula and the example messages as a model for a daily report or pick-up conversation, and add one of the family conversation prompts.

Tips from operators

What centers that use this well do differently

Learned the hard way across 3,000 child care spaces — and from the directors and educators who join our Lunch & Learns and Learning Labs.

Keep one puppet for gathering time

The idea bank’s “Puppet Hello” suggests a single simple puppet that greets children or introduces a story. Using the same one each day makes it a familiar routine.

Leave the props out

Several pages suggest keeping the basket or scene available so children can return to it later in the day. Repeated play is where retelling and new endings appear.

Change the names, keep the structure

The example family messages use sample children’s names. Reuse the sentence structure with your own observation instead of copying the wording.

Do it digitally in ChildFriendly Pro

Plan the week in the app — tagged to your framework automatically

Build the same plan in ChildFriendly Pro and every observation you log is tagged to FLIGHT, ELECT, ELF or your own outcomes, added to each child’s portfolio and shared with families in their daily journal.