What child doesn’t love to color?

What child doesn’t like to tell stories?

What child wouldn’t like to create their own story?

As I planned this activity for a special Fairytale Entertainment Character Storytime at the Absecon Library, I thought it would be a great one to share with all of you for my first Professor of Play blog.

Tonight, after Princess Belle reads some of her favorite stories to children, she will help them create their own personalized storybooks. This is an activity simple enough that you can recreate it at home with your child.

This link will connect you to the one we created for this evening. Storytime Storybook

1. Start with any word processing or desktop publishing software program.
2. Consider the length of the book. Will you and your child work on this in one afternoon or a series of afternoons? Your answers will help you determine how many pages you will need.
3. Then, add lines to each page about 1/2 inch or more apart depending on the size of your child’s writing. These lines are where you will place the handwritten text to your story.
4. Determine the theme to you child’s story and search your clip art for images that will fit your theme. Microsoft Office and the Internet are good sources for clip art. You will want to search by clip art and black and white images to narrow down your selection. For example, our story is based on a winter theme. In my search I acquired images of snowflakes, snowman, winter clothing, etc. Once you have the images you need place them in your document on the appropriate pages.
5. Finally, with the right photo software, you can even take a photo of your child and convert it to a coloring page, making the story even more personalized.

That is it for the planning stage. And of course there is no reason why your child can’t be involved in the planning part. Once the story is printed, work with your child again to color the pages and create the story. Then, have fun reading it over and over again.

Not only is this a fun activity to do with your child, it helps build literacy skills. Looking at storybook pictures, creating a story or predicting what the words say help our children become excellent readers.  It is also another way to develop their imagination and build their creativity. An activity that offers so much, can’t help but be fun.

I hope this is something you can enjoy with your children. Please come back and tell me all about the stories you create.

Jenn

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