Playful Parables – Social Stories that Stick

We are super excited to formally introduce our newest edition to Learn From Play: Playful Parables! Our idea was simple; children love to read along with visuals, but they also have lessons to learn… so we created a new series of read-along video stories! Each blends whole-text immersion with evidence-based instruction, letting children practise reading whilst they learn everyday social lessons.

What makes Playful Parables different?

Each parable is a video picture book. They focus on ideas of washing hands after visiting the bathroom and why clean hands count, being a good friend who shares, invites others to join in and take turns and being kind and sharing while being allergy-safe.  The words change colour as they are read, illustrations and soundscape match the story’s action, and the narration is warm and steady. Children can hear the words, see the exact print and follow the sentence all at once. Re‑watching provides repeated exposure that allows the message to become embedded. Because the narration is in third person and the characters are students, the message lands without blame - it feels like watching a classmate make a good choice, not like they are being told off.

How we know these work

As a teacher for more than 25 years I know that sometimes another voice is exactly what a class needs. These stories let you reinforce the same message daily without sounding like a broken record. By pressing play for three minutes you can provide the message you want your class to learn and then step in as a friendly coach to ensure they retain the information.  The story can be paused for students to predict what might happen, you could prompt a choral read of a repeated line or a joint singing of the handwashing song, or ask a quick ‘what would you do’ before the next scene. The video carries the teaching load while you get to keep your great relationship with your students.

Listening & learning

There’s a long history of rich read‑alouds and whole‑text experiences. There’s also clear evidence for explicit teaching in phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension. Playful Parables bring these two methods of instruction together. The highlighting of the words as they are read draws attention to grapheme–phoneme links while the story provides meaningful context. There are also follow‑up activities for each story so children can move beyond listening to and reading along with the story to explicit instruction in each story’s message so that it definitely sticks.

The first 3 Playful Parables

Washing Away the Ninja Germs is the story of Luca who discovers that ‘ninja germs’ are sneaky but no match for soap and water. Through this story children are taught a fun hand washing song, they can rehearse a simple handwashing routine and they learn sequence language like first, next and after. They also meet cause and effect because unwashed hands lead to tummy bugs and a “Splash Mountain Disaster”, while clean hands help us stay well. Repeated phrasing builds orthographic mapping for high‑frequency words while vocabulary such as germs, rinse, lather and hygiene expands language. This story is perfect for during fruit break or before students go to lunch or recess so they remember to wash their hands before eating and after using the bathroom.

Being a Friend to Have a Friend  uses Maya to model the social skills required to make play work - sharing equipment, taking turns, using kind words and inviting others in. The dialogue gives natural sentence frames children can borrow in the playground, like ‘Can I have a turn after you’ and ‘Let’s play together’. After viewing you can use the provided activity sheet to create a quick movement break where children move to either side of the room to show what they think a friend would or would not do such as sharing and including others versus being mean or stopping you from playing with other children. They can then demonstrate their understanding with a fine motor skill task involving cutting, sorting and pasting picture based examples of things friends do and do not do to each other.

Sharing is Caring but Not When it Comes to Food tackles sharing with care. In this story Sarah learns that there is a clear distinction between sharing food or drinks which can harm a friend with allergies, and sharing pencils, scissors or sports gear which is a kind choice and a sign of friendship. Children practise decision language – because, if… then, safe, unsafe – and link health to everyday playground behaviours. After viewing the story, students could make their own poster like Sarah’s, to remind them of ‘kind ways to share safely’; or they could sort between safe and unsafe items to share with their friends.

Smart use in school and at home

Each parable is short, device‑light and intentional. Families who wish to avoid open‑ended screen time can comfortably allow a three or four‑minute viewing that is closer to a read‑aloud than a device based free for all. In classrooms, the stories fit neatly into fruit breaks, the five minutes before recess or lunch, morning routines, the final bell, or the transition back from the playground. The stories can be viewed multiple times on consecutive days until a routine settles before rotating to the next message, and can be easily revisited to ensure retention of each message. 

What’s coming next

We have an additional three new parables in the pipeline to be released over the next month. These cover methods for overcoming separation anxiety at morning drop‑off, teaching children when and how to seek help if they are experiencing difficulties on the playground and a story showing how the concept of ‘ask three before me’ can be used to encourage students to have a go at solving problems themselves before asking for help. Each of these stories has the same friendly tone, is told in third‑person narration and uses a read‑along design with bright images and a related soundscape to ensure children enjoy the books while learning the embedded social message it contains.

Access for members

Just like our printable activities, the read‑along videos require a member subscription to be able to view them. If you’re new to Learn From Play, becoming a paid member unlocks every Playful Parable plus our full library of book activities, Maths ‘N’ Movement activities, Bloomsmath lessons and posters. Memberships are what keep this side hustle alive - thank you to everyone who supports the work so we can keep creating and you can keep reading in the classroom!

Happy reading and playing,

Rachel

Founder, Learn From Play