September 22, 2008

Teaching Toddlers to write-(Part 3) Using story sequencing

Dominique Thoughts Picture sequence, Writing

In a build up from Using Visuals the next step uses more pictures to help build up a story line.

For this example I have chosen pictures which Ryan can easily relate to in his daily life. Eg: Hanging out the clothes, Cooking dinner, Making the bed

I showed him the pictures and asked him these questions.

1) What do you see in the picture?

2) Where is this place?

3)Who is in the picture? What are they doing?

Ryan’s answers based on the pictures

Photo 1)

: Image by Ted Abbott via Flickr

The mother is hanging up the clothes

I help mummy to hang up the clothes.

She is hanging clothes in the balcony.

: Image by sean dreilinger via Flickr

Photo 2)

I think she is cooking dinner.

Cooking Macaroni and cheese.

Yummy.

: Image by Travis Seitler via Flickr

3) Reading a storybook

The little girl is reading the storybook with her daddy.

I read storybook with mummy and Roy.

I though him to use the words.

In the Morning, Later , After and at night before bed

to join the sentences that he had earlier mentioned and we wrote down together.

The completed essay reads:

In the morning,Mummy wash and hang up the clothes

Later ,mummy cook dinner for me.Macaroni and cheese. My favourite.

At night before bed we sit together and read storybook .

The essay is not gramatically correct as he should have been using the past tense instead of the present tense. However since the emphasis is on building up the storyline it is quite an achievement for him I will teach him on when to use the correct tenses another time.

This right brain activity is suitable for kids from 4-6 years old.

For other examples on story sequencing cards you can get some printables from DLTK

Learning Goals for this activity:
Children will be able to:

-identify different object pictures.

-follow the sequence of the pictures to tell a story with a beginning, middle, and end.

– create their own stories using the picture cards.

Teaching Toddlers to Write- (Part 2) Using Visuals

A picture tells a thousand words. Toddlers and young kids are highly visual. They learn best through visualization of items. To get their ideas flowing there must be something visually attractive as a medium to stimulate their creative juices.

Enchanted Learning has picture prompt worksheets which one could download and print. I find it a good resource to get ideas on how to promote creative writing ideas to the kids.

Using such pictures as the bear with a fish you can get your child to

: Image by moonjazz via Flickr

come up with 2-3 sentences describing what they see. They will slowly need to build up their ability to describe what they have seen to a 5-6 sentences long composition which they will be expected to write independently when they reach primary 1.

This is how I went about eliciting sentences from him.

I asked him these questions.

What do you see in this picture?

Does it remind you of anything/anybody?

This is what Ryan said upon seeing this picture.

The bear is brown.

Ruffy is carrying a fish.

* Ruffy is the name of a brown teddy bear which we have at home.

Ryan was using his prior knowledge and applied it to what he saw in the picture. I find it very important to give a child very wide exposure to different situations/circumstances so they will build up a wide and vast vocabulary which they can tap on when the need arises.

I had to help him with the spelling of the words -bear,brown,Ruffy and carrying as they were words that he is still not that familiar with. In time he should be able to spell these words independently.

We spent about 15 minutes on this exercise as it took him some time to write out the 2 sentences. Have you tried writing with your child?