Storytelling

Storybird is a site that allows you to tell short stories using artwork submitted by others as inspiration. First you choose a collection of art, then you write your story arranging the art and pages any way you wish.  You can also collaborate with others by inviting them to join you while you write a story. It is extremely simple to use and would be easy to incorporate into early elementary classes.  Watch the video below to learn more about Storybird...


Storybird Quick Tour from Storybird on Vimeo.

Picture Book Maker is a site for creating children's books.  Choose from a variety of settings, animals, and props to create a scene and add text.  Email or print your completed book!

Tikatok is a site where children can write, illustrate, and save their story for free.  These books can be ordered as a softcover, hardcover, or pdf ebook for prices listed on the site.  Children can create a story from scratch or use a storyspark to prompt them.  They can upload their drawings to illustrate their story.  This site features a free teacher registration that includes a teacher dashboard and ideas for using Tikatok in the classroom.

Storyjumper - is a place for children to publish their own stories.  The site provides 7 steps for writing stories for those who do not know where to start.  you can use your own illustrations or pictures in your story and share your story online for free.

Storysomething features various children stories that can be personalized by changing the names of the main characters.

BigUniverse is an excellent site for creating stories.  Choose from thousands of images, arrange and resize them the way you want, add a background, and add text! Also read the stories created by others.  Both free and premium options are available.  

Zooburst is a site where you can create digital 3-d pop-up books.

The Art of Storytelling is a site created by the Delaware Art Museum.  On this site children can use artworks to inspire their stories.  They begin by choosing an artwork under tell a story or they can go to picture a story and choose the genre, background, characters, and props. Next they write a story based on the scene they have created and then they can tell the story using audio recording.  They can share their story through email and submit it to the Delaware online gallery of stories.  This site features a teacher resource section with lesson plans for grades 3 and up.

One Million Monkeys Typing is a collaborative storytelling website.  This website would be great to use in a high school classroom.

The website provides a nice explanation of how it works:

1. Read Start reading. When you finish a snippet of text, click 'read more'. You will be presented with three unique paths that continue the story. If you like your options, keep reading.

2. Write  If you reach an end, or simply don't like the story's trajectory, graft a new snippet and take the story's direction into your own hands.

3. Publish  Publish so that others may add on to your story. If it gets ranked well and has enough offshoots it stays, if not, watch it wither and die.

The Story Starter Jr. provides 729 story prompts for kids.  There is also a Story Starter site for all ages with more than 763 million story ideas.  These sites are great for generating creative writing ideas!