beginnerswork

At this point because children know they will be communicating their ideas to an audience and they become very interested in accurate expression. They welcome accurate visual information and correct spelling. Correct visual information is to drawing like correct spelling is to words.

Here she is using directions for a castle and a pattern to make stone walls.

Their teacher is helping students write the words on their cards.

Learning to draw while they learn to write is a natural and logical step for young learners just as it was historically for humans in our acquisition of written language.

With a bit of structure children can draw. At first they are awkward at writing but as the year goes on they understand, from direct experience, that words are are more universal and also more accurate than pictures. By the end of the year they often use the words before the pictures. Whether they use word or pictures first, they will have the ability to visualize and communicate their ideas.