More on explorations with the very young

Author: tcc854

Posted by Alythea

I teach a creative thinking class for three-year-olds, and I’ve been experimenting with different ways of adapting critical exploration for people with short attention spans who are new to many of the materials I show them.  But I have come across a fantastic way to do this:

Picture books!  Without words!  If there are words, pretend there aren’t.

I started with David Weisner’s Flotsam which is a visual tale of a regular boy who happens upon a fantastical underwater camera.

I asked the students to tell me what was happening in the story.  It was my version of ‘what do you notice’ without directly asking (since they don’t answer that question very well in my experience).  Instead I asked, “What do you see?” and they were very eager to answer that one!

As I turned the pages, I kept asking the kids what was happening and/or what they saw.  If they missed something really big that was important to the story, I pointed it out and asked, “What’s happening here?”  There were many different responses, some more creative than others (and some were way out there, as you would expect)!

So, I’ve scrapped storytime in the traditional sense, in favor of this new, more creative/involved activity.

Thoughts?

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