Describing and comparing

When doing an activity you always have to find something relevant and meaningful for children. Today I will talk about how children describe draws or pictures.

First of all, when starting a new topic, you will need loads of drilling and also patience! You can introduce a topic from a poem, repeating and repeating. You can start by reading and showing them the poem itself and then from the words do little draws to give more meaning and make them understand it better. Another resource could be do mimic and/or start with a brainstorming.

When we already have chosen a topic and work a bit over it, you can ask them to describe you a picture, for instance, of a landscape with animals like that:

Let's say they are studying jungle animals, that picture can be kind of meaningful for them. While describing they can say "one giraffe", "there is one elephant"or just say "one elephant", using more or less grammar depending on their knowledge and the vocabulary they have learned before doing the activity. But what can be even more meaningful for them? Letting them to draw an animal, their own animal. You don't need to give them rules, just let them draw the animal they decide and however they want to do it. After that, you can ask them to compare their own draw with their classmates ones. While they compare the draws they will already be doing a description and empowering their language skills.

For example, if they have a cocrodile and an elephant, they can differenciate the colour, the size, what they eat, where they live, etc. Here's an example:

Lion
Paula, 5 years old

Giraffe
Ethan, 5 years old

We have here a Lion and a Giraffe, they can start by saying who is taller than the other, the color, the what they eat, where they live... there are many possibilities.

As I said before, it is so important giving them meaningful things to work on and they will always get much more motivated describing and comparing their own draw than a simple picture.