Getting children to write is one of my passions. That is why I started the annual Young Authors Day at our school over 10 years ago. Another of my loves is wordless books – they are so great for language development.
One of my fundraising activities this summer is a Story Writing class. This class combines my passion of getting children to write with my love of wordless books. This lesson could also be adapted for Young Authors Day.
The class is scheduled for 2.5 hours on one morning this summer. I am charging $13 but you can set your rate based on what you think the market will allow. I allow students in grades 2 and up to participate, although some of the second graders struggle some.
Story Writing – Students will be exposed to a variety of wordless books and challenged to write a story to go with them.
Supplies needed: a variety of wordless books (lists to follow), writing paper, pencils, colored pencils, crayons
Opening – Share Noah’s Ark by Peter Spier with the students. The students in my audience should all know the story and have an easy time of seeing the story in the pictures. If that is not the case for you, you may want to choose a different title with a well-known story.
Share some of the titles we shared previously during library times: Journey, Return, and Quest by Aaron Becker, The Lion and the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney, Flotsam and Tuesday by David Weisner, The Red Book by Barbara Lehman – I have a whole unit that I do during the winter on wordless books. The books listed here are ones used during that unit. I don’t want them writing the stories of books they are familiar with. Feel free to use titles your students are familiar with for this part of the lesson
Discuss – stories can be told through pictures and different people may “read” different stories in the same pictures.
Explain assignment – You will choose a wordless book and write the story you see in the pictures in the book. You have the option of using writing paper with only lines or writing paper with a space at the top so you can draw your own illustrations.
If that seems too big a task for younger ones, challenge them to choose a book and start with the first page and write the story they see – continuing on until time is up.
Wrap up – with about 15-20 minutes left (more if you have many students – or put in groups), give students an opportunity to tell/read the story they wrote.
Wordless Books
These are titles from my collection, feel free to use others you may have.
A Ball for Daisy by Christopher Rascha
The Boy and the book by David Slater
A Boy and a House by Maja Kastelic
Chalk by Bill Thomson
The Farmer and the Clown by Marla Frazee
Float by Daniel Miyares
Good Dog, Carl by Alexander Day
I Got It! by David Weisner
Little Fox in the Forest by Stephanie Graegin
Re-zoom by Istvan Banyai
Red by Jed Alexander
The Snowman by Raymond Briggs
The Tortoise and the Hare by Jerry Pinkney
Unspoken by Henry Cole
Wolf in the Snow by Matthew Cordell
Zoom by Istvan Banyai
Mama by Jeanette Winter
A Stone for Sascha by Aaron Becker
Imagine! By Raul Colon
You can shop for these and other Wordless books
