Can we get the conversation going on A4?
Did you have a toy phone growing up? My kids did too, though theirs looked very different from mine! No curly cords or rotary dials for them.
Phones are such big parts of our day – we use them to set alarms, check the time, listen to music, look up recipes, make plans with friends, watch how-to videos.
My kids are becoming increasingly interested in my phone, which they see as a miniature box of wonder that contains the answers to lots of questions they have. When they can’t remember what they had for lunch at school, they say, “Ask Google!” Phones can answer some – not all – questions. But sometimes phones can also be incredibly distracting, and it takes discipline not to let them take over our lives.
So why this exercise then? Well, because I hope paper phones will get your kids excited about pretend messaging. Because texting is a good way to practice dialogue and the messages have to be connected, so we are, in a way, telling a story, even though we don’t go into detailed descriptions of character or setting.
This week, you can download my phone worksheet here. This is a flexible exercise which the children can either do on their own, with you or with another child. If they have lots of ideas, they can keep the conversation going.
Happy Writing!
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