All About Me! Use Photos to Write Stories
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Activity Description
Children love to share stories about themselves, whether telling how they learned to ride a bike or how they caught their first fish. Photographs can be a great way to help children tell their stories, reminding them of details they might not remember on their own. This activity has children write about photos and then choose their favorite sentences for a homemade memory book.
Why This Is Helpful
Part of learning to write well is learning to plan what we write and learning to write sentences about specific topics. This activity helps children plan and write clear descriptions of pictures before creating stories about their lives. In addition, when children read and write about their own lives they improve their understanding of their families and the places where they live and visit. It can also help get them excited to read and write because the topic is important and interesting to them.
This activity was modified from the ReadWriteThink lesson plan “Telling a Story About Me: Young Children Write Autobiographies.”
What You Need
- Favorite photographs (or camera to take photos)
- Paper and pencil, markers, or crayons
- Computer with Internet access and printer
- One copy of An Autobiography: Planning My Story
- Four copies of the Autobiography Page
- Construction paper and art supplies
Here’s What to Do
Before beginning this activity, print one copy of An Autobiography: Planning My Story and four copies of the Autobiography Page. Help the child to gather four favorite photos or ask the child’s caregiver to provide photos. If photos are not available, take photos of the child during an activity or event. These pictures should “tell a story” about the child. The activity works best if the child is in all or most of the pictures.
| 1. | Ask the child to tell you about each of the photos, asking questions about the people and places in them. While he or she is talking, write down notes on a piece of paper. Try to write what the child says, especially descriptive words and things that could be used in a story, such as:
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| 2. | Talk a little bit about the notes you wrote down and tell the child that he or she can make a book that tells a story about the photos. The book can have words and sentences like the ones you have written on the paper. If you have scrapbooks or photo albums with captions available, share them. |
| 3. | Talk about what order the pictures would go in if they were in a book. Put the photos in order to tell a story and place a number underneath each one. This part of the activity lets children practice putting the story in the right order. |
| 4. | Show the child An Autobiography: Planning My Story, which can be used to plan the story. Lay and temporarily attach the photos in the four boxes in the order the child decided. |
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Ask the child what sentences might work for the first photograph. Remind him or her to use the words I or me when talking about him- or herself.
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| 6. | After writing sentences for all four photos (which can be done over different days), have the child read them to you. Talk about which sentences he or she would like to use in the book. Which sentences tell the story the best? Circle these sentences and have the child make any changes needed to them. |
| 7. | Give the child four copies of the Autobiography Page. Help him or her tape or glue the pictures to each page and write the sentences on the lines. |
| 8. | Have the child make a cover for the story using construction paper. The cover can include a picture, a title, and of course, the author’s name. Staple or tie the pages together to make a book and have him or her read it to you. |
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