Every Story Has a Beginning, a Middle, and an End

Try It With a Made-Up Character

Using the three-part shape to invent a brand-new, simple story instead of retelling a known one.

Now for the fun part: instead of finding the three parts in a story that already exists, your child gets to invent one from scratch. This is a bigger leap than it sounds like, because it means holding all three parts in mind before knowing exactly how the story goes — which is exactly the skill this whole band is building toward.

Try this: make up a character together in one sentence — "a small dog who is scared of thunder." Then ask three questions in order: "What is the dog doing at the beginning?" "What happens in the middle — something that changes things?" "How does it end?" Answer each question out loud before moving to the next one, so the story builds one part at a time instead of all at once.

Don't worry if the middle is simple, like "then it started thundering." A clear, small middle is a real win at this age — the goal is the shape, not the drama.