Make Up Your Own Story

Becoming known as an "author" can be a very motivating reason to write. Perhaps that is why so many elementary school teachers have created an "author's chair" in their classroom.

Make your child feel good about writing by:

- helping them talk and write about what interests them
- letting them see that writing is important to you
- praising their attempts to write
- displaying samples of what they write (you can do this on your fridge or by placing their homemade books in your home library).

Shown your child how books often have pictures and words. Something From Nothing by Phoebe Gilman is a great book that nicely separates the pictures and text (see below).



Encourage your child to write a book just like the way Something from Nothing is formatted (with the pictures above and the words below). You can even design a template for them like the one shown below to give them structure. Not only will this be a fun activity for your child, but it will also help build their awareness of print. By separating the pictures and text, the child is called to take notice to the print below.