Center Focus

Paint a Picture with Words

  1. Provide several varieties of magazines for students to peruse.
  2. They will need to pick one picture that they want to describe through a story. For example, in a travel magazine they might find a picture of a family at the beach. They will need to describe this scene by telling a story about this family's day or just a moment of their day.
  3. Encourage students to be descriptive and detailed. Try to get them to zoom in rather than speaking or writing in generalities.
  4. Provide a list of things needed in their descriptive story at the center table, such as:
    • each characters' feelings (inside and out)
    • the atmosphere around the subjects
    • what the subjects saying or thinking
  5. Have them create a final draft of their story and give it a title.
  6. Have them mount their story and picture separately on construction paper. Later on in the week when everyone has completed the writing center, students can try to match the stories with the pictures.