Making books for creativity and verbal skills

Activity

Kids love to tell stories and you can use this natural love of imagination to encourage creativity as well as verbal skills.  To prepare for this activity, assemble 10-12 pages of blank paper and bind them with staples or string to make a blank book.  Then sit down with your child and have them dictate a story to you while you record what they say. You may need to provide some prompts to get the story going.  Here is one example:

·         Let’s imagine that we are going to get a new pet for grandma.  What kind of pet would grandma like?

·         What would grandma need to do to take care of her new pet?

·         Now let’s imagine the pet causes some sort of trouble.  What kind of trouble would this pet make?

·         Now how would the trouble the pet caused get fixed?

Once you have the narrative complete, let your child illustrate the book.

Optional extension: write the book for someone in need – maybe a friend who is sick or a neighborhood who could use some cheering up.  Once the book is complete, deliver it to that special person and have your child explain the story to him/her.