Modeling Writing for Children
An important step in moving from oral language to print is the discovery that print has meaning. Prekindergarten children may learn that a particular red sign with white letters tells a driver to stop. They may recognize their favorite breakfast cereal, candy, or fast-food restaurant by the shape and color of the logo. Or, they may learn to recognize their own names.
You can help strengthen such connections between language and print by modeling writing for the children to see. The following activities will assist in this process. A general description of the activity is followed by a specific reference to a story in the Breakthrough to Literacy prekindgarten program. Each activity can be tailored to work with a variety of stories.
Rebus Writing
Collect magazines, catalogs, or advertising supplements from newspapers. Cut out pictures of items that are familiar to the children, such as household items, people, animals, or foods. Paste some of these pictures on note cards or other heavy paper. Label the items. Invite students to make up sentences or stories about the pictures.
What Kind of Dog Am I?
Have the children cut out pictures of dogs. Give each child a blank page with the following phrase at the bottom:
A __________ dog.
Each child chooses a cut-out picture to glue onto the page. The child can copy or dictate an appropriate describing word for the dog in the picture.
My Story
Have the children dictate pages for personal storybooks. The children can illustrate their books. Provide photos of the children, and encourage them to paste their photos above their names in their storybooks.
Big Enough
Encourage the children to bring in a photograph of themselves as a baby or toddler. Ask what they are doing in the picture. Extend the activity by recording the children's responses. The pictures and responses can be added to the children's personal storybooks.
Words All Around
On note cards, write the names of items found in your classroom. Tape the note cards to the items. Tell the children that the word they see attached to each item is its name.
Circus
Talk about how print has meaning and helps people in many ways. Ask the children for examples.
Today's Activities
As you talk with the children about what you will do together today, make a list of the activities. Write the day's list on a chalkboard or chart paper so that the children can see it. (Use simple, one-word descriptors, such as "Story" or "Snack.") When the time comes to change activities, point to the appropriate word and read it to the children.
Tick-Tock
Use your own class activity chart - or make one using the Tick-Tock story structure - to describe the activities during a typical school day.
Dictation
Provide opportunities for the children to "write" and illustrate their own simple books. Ask the children to draw pictures of such things as their family, activities they like to do, or foods they like to eat. As they dictate a word or sentence about each picture, write it down, repeating each word as you write.
Snowman
Use the blackline master to make a copy of the Snowman story-related picture for each child to color. As an extension, help the children dictate or write about their pictures.
This Book Has Class
Tell the children a story or encourage them to make up one. Write the text of the story on large sheets of newsprint, saying each word aloud as you do. Give each page to a child, or pair of children, and ask them to illustrate it. Reassemble the story pages when the children have finished their drawings. Read the story to the children again. Allow time for the children to explain their drawings to you.
Animal Sounds
Create an innovation on the story, focusing on one animal category (e.g., "Animal Sounds in the Zoo," "Animal Sounds on the Farm," or "Animal Sounds at Home"). Write the text at the bottom of the writing sheets. Have each child choose one of these pages and draw a picture of an animal corresponding to the text.
Wall Stories
Start by writing a story on several large pieces of finger-painting paper. Ask the children to illustrate the events of the story with washable markers or crayons. Hang these on the wall in sequence. After a few days, take down the papers and bind them into a book to share with the children.
My Feet
Read aloud The Foot Book by Dr. Seuss. Then trace around each child's feet. Have the children color in their tracings and dictate an ending to this sentence:
(Child's Name) can ____.
Mural, Mural on the Wall
Cut a long sheet of butcher paper from a roll. Divide the sheet with vertical lines so that each child has one section. Invite the children to draw in their sections. Ask the children to dictate a sentence or sentences telling about their drawings. As you write each word, say it aloud. Post the finished mural on the hallway wall so that other children and teachers in the school can enjoy it, too. After a few days, take down the mural and cut the sections apart to send home with the children, or bind them into a class book.
I Could Be
Give the children paper on which to draw pictures of themselves as grown-ups. Encourage the children to draw in details associated with the occupations that they envision for themselves. Then have each child dictate the name of his or her occupation for you to write on the drawing.
Make a List
Help children to organize information by making short lists on chart paper. Add picture clues next to each word. For example, as you tell the children about an upcoming activity, make a list of the supplies they'll use or things they'll do. Read each word as you write it. Draw a corresponding picture next to the word, if possible. For example, you might write "Color," and draw a picture of a crayon; "Cut," and draw a pair of scissors; and "Paste," and draw a jar of paste. Be sure to keep the list very short (no more than three or four words).
The "Gotcha" Box
As a class, brainstorm a list of the colors mentioned in the story. Add other colors to the list throughout the week. When adding each color word to the list, use a crayon or marker (in the corresponding color) to color in a box next to the word.
Picture Labels
Add labels to pictures or drawings. Write one-word labels on sticky notes. Place the sticky notes next to the appropriate item in the Big Book picture.
A Cat's Day
Draw a simple outline of a cat on chart paper. As a class, identify the parts of a cat (e.g., tail, legs, paws, nose). Talk about the importance of each body part as you write its name on the chart paper.
