Do you know a child who loves those "choose your own adventure" books? Why not help them make their own? You can't be too young to start thinking like a writer. You'll need a big stack of unlined extra-large index cards. Write each of these letter/number combinations on its own card: A, B1, B2, C1, C2, C3, C4, D1, D2, D3, D4, D5, D6, D7, D8, E1, E2, E3, E4, E5, E6, E7, E8, E9, E10, E11, E12, E13, E14, E15, E16. (You may not have as many levels for younger children. Some kids may want more!)
Arrange the cards in rows by letter in the shape of a pyramid. Flip over card "A". Leave room for a picture and a couple lines of story. On the bottom of the card write: "If you think____, Go to B1" and "If you think____, Go to B2" Make sure you leave a big enough blank space for whatever wild options your child dreams up! Now, turn over "B1" and "B2". This time you'll write options "C1" and "C2" on the bottom of "B1" and "C3" and "C4" on the bottom of "B2". Continue on until you reach the final row of cards. The "E" cards are the end of the story. You can choose to end some story lines early, or jump ahead. Once you get the basic structure, you can play around with it a bit.
Make it shorter for young kids and help them by writing the words while they supply the pictures. Older kids can work on their own.
To read, place all cards letter side up and only turn over one card at a time.
While the kids are busy, why not work on your own writing? Have fun!
1 comment:
What a great idea. This will FINALLY get me started. I'll try a story based on some cards then tell you how it went. Thank you, Edythe!
JJ
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