Does your child struggle with creative or descriptive writing? Knowing how to get started or what to write?
We often play a game I call ‘Funny Pictures’.
Have you played the game where the first person draws a head at the top of the piece of paper, then you turn it over and the other person draws the body. The paper then gets folded over and the first person (or the third person) draws the legs and feet.
You then open the piece of paper, and you are presented with a totally random picture of a person/creature/alien.
Once we have created the image, I then have a set of instructions numbered 1 to 6.
The first might be something along the lines of write a sentence containing 2 adjectives to describe the image. (An adjective is a word used to describe a noun, a person, place, or thing).
Number 2 is to say what he likes to do using an adverb. (A word that describes the doing word).
The third is to state a prepositional sentence to explain where he is. (A prepositional sentence is one that states the position of something: in, on, near, behind, etc).
Number 4 declares we need to write a sentence using a common noun. (Something that would deserve a capital letter such as the name of a person, place, location. My name is Dawn. Dawn is the proper noun).
5 is a simile. (A simile is when you compare something using like or as: the giraffe was as tall as a double decker bus. He was like a ray of sunshine).
6 declares we must use alliteration to describe him. (A string of 2 or more words that start with the same sound. It can be something as simple as bruised bananas, organic oranges, or longer such as “six sizzling succulent sausages successfully sampled”.
The order in which the sentences are written are dictated by the roll of a dice. At the end we read our sentences to the other person.
The idea is that the image and the instructions give us a starting point for what we must write. It also gets us thinking about what each of those instructions are.
If you wanted you could then use this as the basis for writing a story about this character, or an extended description. Either way it seems to be a game that goes down well.
If you give it a go, I’d love to see your quirky images and the sentences that you create. They don’t need to be the work of an artist, just a quick sketch.
