Building Writing Process Skills

Jacob loves to color. Each month I include theme based coloring pages. I like to provide these as a prompt to talk about the theme. I try to help him make connections between the stories we read, the activities we do and the coloring pictures.

This month I wanted to take it to the next level. I wanted to do a little pre-writing activity, getting read for story writing. To do this I decided to color a page alongside of Jacob to model for him what I wanted him to do. As we colored we talked about the pictures and about the beach.

I finished coloring before he did. I then told him I was going to look at the picture and make a story about what I see. I kept it very basic and simple and I wrote the words as I said the story. After I was finished reading/writing my story I told him to use his picture to tell me a story of what was happening in his picture. He was into it and with just a little prompting from me, he was able to tell me a story. I guess they were about a paragraph long and very basic. This starts the mind thinking about the writing process. It also builds imagination and creativity.

After I started writing his story for him, he decided that he wanted to take over. I relinquished the pencil and let him try to write. He does not know how to right letters or even how to correctly hold the pencil but I do not want to discourage his excitement for writing. He attempted to write telling me what he was writing. I think the activity was a success and we will continue to do this each month.

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