As your budding artist begins to make deliberate scribbles and doodles, not just random lines on paper, it’s fun to teach a toddler how to tell a story with pictures. Choose a classic tale, draw it simply on paper, and invite your little one to draw along with you!
Today, Veronika and I did a visual retelling of the Three Little Pigs.
I grabbed white paper and crayons, and began telling her the story. As we came to each character or plot point, I added basic drawings: silly circular pigs and basic shapes like squares and triangles to show the houses.
She giggled at the illustrations and – as I had hoped! – she soon jumped right in.
“I’m drawing piggies!” she said. “I’m drawing shapes!”
Your toddler might not draw anything that actually has to do with the story (Veronika then said she was adding a clock), but it’s a great exercise to help little ones realize that the lines they make can represent things.
This game would be fun with just about any classic children’s story. Or you can even make up your own tale with your child as the star!