Making our own picture books

        

We love books and we love reading. I recently wrote a post about my favourite books for preschoolers. There's nothing better than snuggling on the sofa with a pile of good books to enjoy reading together. Although D cannot read yet, she loves being read to. R loves to listen to stories too. I decided D might like to make her own picture book which retold one of her favourite stories. She could then use her picture book to retell the story.

Storytelling is an important skill. It aids comprehension and will give you a good idea of what your child has understood from the story. It will enable you to see if your child understands the structure of a story. Do they know that a story has a beginning, middle and end? Storytelling allows a child to use and develop their memory skills. Because of these things, I believe the ability to retell a story is a crucial skill to have and just as important as learning to read. When a child is ready, this skill will be beneficial for them when they begin to learn to read.

        

We chose an Alfie story to retell. It is one of D's favourites and the pictures are wonderful and gave D some inspiration for her drawings.

        

D chose one story from the book to retell through pictures; 'The very special birthday'. It is all about the time Aflie and his friend Bernard go to visit Alfie's Great Aunt to wish her a happy birthday. They make a cake and take her presents.

        

D thoroughly enjoyed drawing the pictures with her colouring pencils. She spent a long time doing this.

        

D used the pictures in the book to help her.

        

In the first picture, Alfie and his friend are looking at a book about aeroplanes.

        

Next, Alfie and Bernard help Alfie's Mum to make a cake for Great Aunt Hilary. D spent a long time drawing this picture and put a lot of detail into it.

        

Next, they all go to visit Great Aunt Hilary.

        

Finally, they blow out the birthday candles. I think D had get a bit tired of drawing by this point. You can see the difference between her first pictures and last ones.

        

D also drew a picture for the front cover of the book and wrote the title at the top.

        

She also wrote 'the end' on the final page.

        

Then we stapled the pages together and the book was ready to be used for retelling. D has enjoyed showing people her picture book and retelling the story of 'the very special birthday'.

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