ESL Storytelling (part 1): Hammy the Hamster

Why Storytelling works

One of my favorite things to do in a class is tell a story. Storytelling works especially well with younger ESL learners because it turns listening into something meaningful rather than mechanical. Instead of trying to decode isolated words or sentences, students follow a narrative with a clear beginning, middle, and end. That structure gives them support: even if they miss a word, they can still understand the situation. By incorporating gestures, facial expressions, and variations in voice tone, you create layers of meaning that enhance students’ comprehension without the need for translation.

Storytelling naturally develops students’ key listening skills. During the story, they can listen for gist, pick out important details, and make simple inferences, all while staying engaged. Telling a story is flexible too: teachers can slow down, repeat, simplify, or expand depending on how the class reacts. Just as importantly, storytelling can create emotional engagement, humor, surprise, and curiosity. When students are interested in what happens next, they listen more carefully, and that’s exactly the habit we want to build in an ESL classroom.

How I Use Stories

I generally use storytelling as a filler at the end of a lesson or to freshen up a class that has gone a bit flat.

The students don’t really need to look at pictures because they can map out the story in their own minds, which is all part of the fun for them.

If the story is longer, I serialize it over several lessons. It’s fun to leave students on the edge of their seats, impatient to know what happens in the next class.

What is a Good Story to Choose?

Students love all kinds of stories. Everybody knows a story that would appeal to their students, don’t they? Floating at the back of your mind? Something interesting, mysterious, or funny from your childhood?

I personally enjoy telling humorous stories, but students are just as captivated by mystery stories, (slightly) scary stories, and even sad stories.

I have a few tried-and-tested stories in my kit bag for different ages and abilities. The story below, Hammy the Hamster, is for young learners, but if you are looking for something for older students, here is one for teenagers and another for adults.

So, for your students’ listening pleasure, here is a story which I originally heard on the radio and have adapted and expanded. It’s quite a long story, so it lends itself to serialization over several lessons. Feel free to cut and paste f use in your lessons (but not reproduce). Let me present you with an ESL classroom legend that is ….

Hammy the Hamster

When I was young, I used to live in a big house in the countryside. Behind the house was a large garden and behind the garden was a huge forest, and behind the forest, far into the distance, was the sea.
I lived with my mom, dad and older sister. My sister’s name was Lisa. She was bigger and stronger than me and I was very scared of her. She was also ALWAYS grumpy.
But there was one thing that did make Lisa happy. Hammy. Hammy was her hamster. He wasn’t a cute hamster. He was an ugly hamster. He had a ragged ear and angry red eyes and a pointy nose. Worst of all, Hammy had two crooked orange teeth. Gross!! But Lisa really loved him, and he loved Lisa.
Hammy really hated me though!He lived in a big cage in Lisa’s bedroom. Whenever I went near the cage, he would growl at me like a dog…“Grrrrrrrr”.
Whenever Lisa took him out of his cage, he would snuggle in her arms and purr like a cat…“Purrrrr”.
But if I tried to stroke him, he would snap at me like a snapping turtle, “Snap! Snap! Snap!”…Oh yeah…Hammy REALLY hated me.
One day my mom, dad and sister visited my grandma in the city. I had a cold so I couldn’t go. My mom said I had to stay in bed.
“Are you sure you will be ok?” asked my mom.
“Yes mom,” I said.
“OK. Be a good boy and stay in bed,” she said.
“Yes mom,” I said.
“You have to give Hammy his 12 o’clock carrot,” said Lisa, “Don’t open his cage, he doesn’t like you. You might scare him.”
“Ok sure…,” I mumbled as I got into my bed. Soon I fell asleep.
………………………………………………………………….
Beep Beep! Beep Beep! Beep Beep!
“Huh…what’s that?’’
It was my alarm clock ringing…11.55 a.m.
“Time to give Hammy his 12 o’clock slice of carrot,” I thought.
I walked into Lisa’s room. There, on her table, was the long slice of carrot she had left for me to give to Hammy. I picked it up and walked towards Hammy’s cage…but where was he? I couldn’t see him.
“Hammy!…Carrot time!,” I said, trying to sound brave. Slowly, very slowly, from the far corner of the cage, something started to move. Out from under the straw and sawdust came a pointy nose, a pair of red eyes and a disgusting pair of orange teeth. Hammy knew it was carrot time. He started shuffling towards me, as I held the long slice of carrot through the bars of the cage, staring at me with his red eyes.
He sat up on his back legs and sniffed the carrot with his pointy nose. Then he began taking bites, tiny little bites at first, as he held one end of the carrot with his two front feet and I held the other end. “Aww…he looks quite cute,” I thought as I watched him gently eating his carrot.
“Dring dring…dring dring…,”. It was mom phoning me.
“How are you feeling?”
“Much better thanks mom,”
“Did you remember to feed Hammy his carrot?”
“Yes, I’m feeding him nOWWWWW!” I looked down at my fingers holding the carrot. The carrot wasn’t there. Hammy had eaten it all in a second, and then tried to eat one of my fingers!
“David are you OK?” asked mom.
“Yes, yes mom…I’m fine…I’ll talk to you later,” I said. But I wasn’t fine. My poor finger was THROBBING and blood was dripping out.
Hammy was looking up at me. He didn’t look cute now. He was hissing at me like a snake…“HISSSSsssHISSSSsss!”…he was laughing, Hammy was laughing at me!
I ran to the bathroom and washed my finger under the cold water tap. Suddenly I had an idea, “Right, Hammy that’s it!” I muttered to myself. It was time for revenge!
After I had stuck a band aid on my finger, I went into my bedroom and took out my favorite toy from its box. It was an old fashioned bi-plane with two sets of wings. It was bright red and I loved to fly it above the garden. I was very good at controlling the plane with the control box in my hands. I especially loved hearing the sound of the engine whine as I made the bright red plane fly higher and higher, and then dive back down towards the earth.
I took the little plane outside and put it on the grass. Then I went into my dad’s garage and put on his thick gardening gloves, “This should help protect my hands,” I thought. Next I ran into the house towards my Lisa’s bedroom. As soon as I entered, Hammy started growling at me like a dog. When I opened his cage, he started hissing at me like a snake. When I grabbed him, he started snapping at me like a snapping turtle. But it was too late. I was too fast. I grabbed him with my gloved hands. “Got you!!…hahah!” I held him up and looked into his red angry eyes. “Today Hammy, is a day you are NEVER going to forget!” I said.
I carried Hammy downstairs and walked outside to the red plane. The plane had a little cockpit just behind its propeller, and I squeezed Hammy into it. He was a perfect fit, not too loose and not too tight. Hammy was furious. He spat like a camel, hissed like a snake, and snapped like a turtle, but he couldn’t do anything. He was stuck.
“Well Hammy today you’re going to be a pilot! You’re going to fly up there into the blue sky,” I said and pointed up. But the sky didn’t look very blue, it looked grey and cold. Suddenly I had another idea. I ran into Lisa’s bedroom again. She had lots of dolls in the corner of her room. I took a scarf from her teddy bear and a little leather hat from her elf doll. Then I went back to the plane.
I tied the scarf around Hammy’s neck and attached the little leather hat with a strap under his chin. It was a perfect fit! “Wow! Hammy you REALLY do look like a pilot now!”. I looked up at the clouds again. They were floating across the sky quickly. “Hmm, It must be windy up there. Hammy is going to need some eye protection,” I thought. I ran up to my bedroom and went to my toy box, “Where is he? Ahah! here he is! My G.I. Joe swimmer doll!” I took off the doll’s swimming goggles and ran outside to the plane. “You’ll need these up in the clouds Hammy,” I said as I put the swimming goggles over his eyes. Now Hammy was ready.
I picked up the control box and stood back. I pressed a red button and the propeller started spinning…I pushed a green button and the little engine in the plane began to whine. “Have a good time, Hammy!” I shouted above the noise of the engine.
I pushed the little joystick to the left and the airplane started to move along the grass, slowly at first, and then faster until it took off up into the air. I quickly pushed the little joystick forward and the plane immediately started to climb higher. It passed over the tree tops going higher and higher still. I turned the joystick in a small circle and the little red plane began to fly above the house and garden in a big circle. “Wahhhhey Hammy!! This is awesome!!”
After a while I decided to check if Hammy was ok and pulled the joystick down. The plane went into a steep dive, the engine whined as it came straight down towards the earth. Then I pulled on the joystick again and the plane pulled up and flew past me.
In the cockpit, I could see Hammy looking at me with his angy red eyes. I stood to attention and saluted as he flew past my face and then sent the plane climbing up towards the sky again. “Ok then Hammy, one more time around the garden and then I will bring you safely back to earth,” I murmured.
I made the plane begin to turn in one last big circle. Halfway through the circle, I pulled on the joystick to turn the plane around, but it didn’t turn. I pulled on the joystick again. It didn’t turn. Something was wrong!
I pulled hard on the joystick, but the plane didn’t turn, it just kept flying straight towards the forest. I looked down at the control box. The little light on the control box wasn’t green. It was red, which meant…the batteries were dead!
I wasn’t controlling the plane anymore. I looked at the plane. It had flown over the garden fence and was flying out across the forest…further and further it flew towards the sea.
I watched the plane until I couldn’t hear the noise of the engine anymore. I watched the little red plane until it became a little red dot…I watched until the little red dot disappeared.
“Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!!!!…Hammmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmy!!!”
“What, What can I do?” I thought to myself. Lisa is going to kill me! Then I had an idea. First, I ran to the kitchen. I took a spoon from the drawer. Then I ran to Lisa’s bedroom. I pushed the spoon between two bars of the cage. I pushed and turned the spoon. Slowly one of the bars began to bend and then the other bar began to bend. Finally I made a hole in the cage big enough for a hamster to squeeze through.
“I hope this works,” I said to myself. It had been a very very busy afternoon. Suddenly I felt really tired. I went back to my room and fell fast asleep.
A few hours later I awoke to the sound of the front door opening. “David! We’re back!”…I heard Lisa’s voice shout. I heard her footsteps on the stairs. Then I heard her opening her bedroom door. It was quiet for a few moments and then…“HAMMY! Where’s HAMMY?” She screamed so loudly my dad came running up the stairs. “What’s wrong?” he asked. But my sister couldn’t answer him. She just pointed to the hole in the cage and cried and cried.
My dad sat my sister down on the bed and explained to her that hamsters have very strong teeth, which can easily bend the bars of a cage. Hammy had bent the bars with his big orange teeth and escaped.
For the next few hours, my whole family searched around the house and garden looking for Hammy.
My dad looked in his garage.
My mom looked in the kitchen.
Lisa looked in the garden…and I…well I looked up at the sky.
But no sign of Hammy was ever found again. It was a complete mystery.

Follow-up Lesson ideas

Telling a story provides a wellspring of spin-off ideas for further lesson activities. If we take Hammy the Hamster as an example, here are a few extra things you can do during the telling of the story and after the story has been finished.

1. At stages of the story, you can ask students to predict what they think will happen next (Hammy the Hamster is great for this!).
2. Asking the students to continue the next stage of the story….where did Hammy fly to? What happened to him? 😨😨😨
3. A good old-fashioned quiz asking the students about details in the story.
4. Having the the students quiz each other about details in the story.
5. Asking the students to sketch out the story in a storyboard format (Good for a homework assignment).
6. Waiting a couple of weeks and then asking the students to retell the story (Good as a group assignment).

If you tried this story and the students enjoyed it …. let’s be honest, they did! Then check out my class activity book, which is packed with this kind of cool ESL classroom stuff.

Polish adapt, and the story’s content will improve, as will your storytelling skills.