In the primary grades, much emphasis is put on the drawings that coincide with your writing. I remember telling my students daily (multiple times, daily) that their pictures would have to match their writing (I always had one or two who would draw their favorite cartoon character or a random ninja😋). We would also work on adding details to our pictures, creating anchor charts that showed different levels of detail and color in our pictures. I loved seeing my kiddos referencing our anchor charts and spending lots of time adding details and color to their drawings. I did not love seeing a decrease in time spent on writing. 😨 We held a much needed picture intervention and as a class agreed that Mrs. O needed to give a thumbs up before students could start their pictures. We had smooth sailing after that.
I've been out of the classroom for a full school year now and I still think about our picture problem. I think about how hard my students worked to draw pictures that represented their writing and how this was helping them understand the importance of connecting the two.
When you begin teaching children to read, you teach them to read the words and the pictures in books. Babies, toddlers, preschoolers, they're all reading the pictures in books and using what they see to build their understanding of a text. When students enter into the primary grades, you go on picture walks for the books that you are going to read and discuss what you see and why it may be significant to the text. We use pictures to make predictions, to activate prior knowledge, to make connections, and to ultimately, build comprehension. If we were doing this in reading, why were not doing it in writing?!
After much thought and planning, I decided to create something to help with my dilemma. Picture prompts!
I recently finished, "Tell Me a Story- Picture Prompts", for the month of September. The set includes 20 prompts across 4 themes, with 5 prompts for each theme. There is also a page of lined paper.
The first theme is back to school!
The second theme is family/ at home!
The final theme for September is apples!
I designed these prompts to be used in grades K-2. The purpose of them is to not only work on your kiddos' writing ability, but to help them improve their comprehension skills. To use in kindergarten, simply begin by having your students identify what they see in the pictures and write the words on the lines.
Your high flyers may write some simple sentences, while it may take a little longer for your low babies to get there.
Towards the end of kindergarten through the end of first grade, your students may begin to expand on their sentences. They will see that they can move beyond identifying what is in the picture and demonstrate that they comprehend what is going on in the picture.
Towards the end of first grade and throughout second grade, most students will begin to understand that the one picture that they are seeing can be apart of a bigger picture. Although they cannot see that picture, it doesn't mean that they cannot create it with their words.
"Tell Me a Story- Picture Prompts" make a great addition to writing workshop, a writing center, an activity for early finishers, morning work, or as an addition to a sub folder! Remember your students are unique and their writing abilities will vary greatly, but picture prompts can adapt to their needs without any extra prep.
If you would like to try a FREE week of September's picture prompts, click HERE!
If you love the sample, you can buy September's picture prompts HERE!
Keep an eye out for October's picture prompts by following my TPT store HERE!
Hello! I downloaded the freebie you have on your TPT store but was wondering if you ever created these for other months. These are awesome and perfect for the little guy that I tutor. Thanks for a great resource!
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