- writing and drawing materials
- author
- beginning
- end
- first
- front cover
- illustrator
- next
- title
MA Standards:
Writing/W.PK.MA.2: Use a combination of dictating and drawing to explain information about a topic.
Head Start Outcomes:
Literacy Knowledge/Early Writing: Experiments with writing tools and materials.
Literacy Knowledge/Early Writing: Uses scribbles, shapes, pictures, and letters to represent objects, stories, experiences, or ideas.
PreK Learning Guidelines:
English Language Arts/Composition 16: Use their own words or illustrations to describe their experiences, tell imaginative stories, or communicate information about a topic of interest.
My River Story
© Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Early Education and Care (Jennifer Waddell photographer). All rights reserved.
Skill Focus: Concepts of Print (Print Conveys Meaning), Listening and Speaking, Storytelling, Early Writing, Vocabulary
Tell children they can make their own books about a river. Say, You might imagine you’re riding with the bear family in Row, Row, Row Your Boat. Or you might sail along with the little boat in Toy Boat. Or you might be a leaf floating down the river in River Story. You’re the author, so the story is up to you!
- Give children paper folded to create a four-page book.
- Help children write “My River Story” and their names as author/illustrator on the first page (cover).
- Guide children to understand that they can draw their stories on the other pages. Stories can be wordless or children can dictate picture captions for you to write.
- Ask questions to help children sequence their stories. Who is in your story? What happens first? What happens next? How does your story end?
- Have “authors” share their stories with the group on Day 5. Then let children take the books home or compile them to be placed in the Library Center.