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Printout
From Picture to Story
Children and teens can use this chart to describe pictures that they look at. This organizer will help them describe the picture using their five senses, and will eventually allow them to be able to create writing about the picture.
How to Use This Printout
Teach children and teens to use visualization as a way to get creative with writing. Show the child an interesting picture that will spark their curiosity and imagination. Have the child or teen use their senses (sight, sound, touch, taste, and feel) to come up with words to describe different parts of the picture (people, time and place, events, and important objects). Children and teens will be able to take these visualizations and turn them into a sentence and, eventually, a longer piece of writing.
- Find a picture that will spark the interest of the child or children you are working with, or ask him/her to pick one out that he/she finds interesting.
- Print one or more copies of the "From Picture to Story" chart and make it available to the child or children with whom you are working. Ask the child or teen to look at the picture and think about what they see, what they hear, what they taste, what they touch, and what they feel.
- Have the child or teen write down words that describe these feelings in the different parts of the chart. Discuss with the child or teen why he/she wrote the things that he/she did and what the picture reminded him or her of.
- Ask the child/teen to take everything they thought about in regards to the picture and sum it up into one sentence at the bottom of the chart.
More Ideas to Try
- Discuss with the child/teen why he or she was reminded of certain sights, sounds, smells, etc. when looking at this picture. Have the child elaborate about these memories and discuss how they could help the child or teen write a story about the picture.
- Have the child/teen you are working with write a poem describing what they think of when they see this picture. For example, the lines could be "I see..., I feel..., I smell..., I hear..."