Guest Author - Diane Claus

This is a simple and fun activity that engages the preschooler and can encourage them to continue writing as they get older.

Preschoolers love to share stories about things they have done and places they have been. Giving them an opportunity to share and create a book is a great way to encourage them to develop a style of expression that is unique to them and encourages them to write stories when they enter elementary school and are able to write and illustrate on their own.

If you want to see how their story telling skills develop, I recommend doing this about every six months or so. You will be able to see the differences in their story telling when you allow a longer amount of time between books. It is really amazing to watch and preschoolers love being having books that they ‘wrote’ and illustrated themselves.

It is easiest to have the preschooler tell you the story while you write it down. This allows the preschooler to not be limited by page count for their story. If the preschooler wants to tell a story but can’t think of anything try giving him/her a package of stickers with a certain theme that they like and have them create a sticker scene to help them get started. When their story is finished you can have them cut out the scene and past it into their book.

The key to exciting preschoolers about telling a story is to tap into something they like. Most preschoolers will not care about telling a story that is about something that has no meaning to them. A preschooler who loves dolls and couldn’t care less about cars will not be as motivated to talk about cars and vice versa.

Here are some topic ideas that can appeal to preschoolers and inspire them to tell stories:
-A recent field trip
-A family vacation
-A favorite movie
-A favorite story
-A favorite animal
-A favorite toy

There are several ways to create a book with the correct number of pages, but I have found that preschoolers will treasure a book they make more if the book looks like a real book, not just some paper stapled together.

Below is a link to an article about creating an inexpensive hardback book. If you cut and staple the pages together, your preschoolers can finish gluing it and taping on the cover.

Make your own Hardcover Book