How to Turn Dollhouse Play into a Writing Activity for EVERY Age

I just realized how writing heavy all of these activities for this workshop are. I suppose it is because I think writing is an important skill. 

Do your children span age ranges? Are you trying to figure out ways to include everyone? 

This activity will help!

In my house, my children are 1.5, 4, 9, and 11 years old.

But, Jessica, we don’t have a dollhouse. 

Fear not! You can do this with any type of small world play. You can use dinosaurs. You can use LEGO minifigs. You can use PollyPockets. You can use fast food toys. Just see what you have around your house. 

I recorded my youngest and I playing for about 3 minutes. Then I had my oldest daughter watch it and write the story.

My youngest-middle child decided he would do both the acting and the writing.

He started to get upset that he didn’t know how to write “Bunny,” so we decided to create name cards thathe could use as a reference. 

He loved looking at these cards and pointing out the beginning letters.

With my oldest two, we talked about how movie scripts are stories. Scripts are written BEFORE the movie is made. So they wrote a script:

And then created a stop motion movie using a free app.

 

What stories/movies have your kids created this week?