First-School.ws
Story Paper for Drawing and Handwriting
for Preschool, Kindergarten and Early Elementary

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Story Paper features:
*Top line for child's name and artwork title
*Frame: a simple frame that emphasizes the artwork, explain the purpose of a frame.
*Two primary handwriting lines with
"stop lines" for lower extending consonants: g, j, p, q, y

Every piece of artwork is unique and special even if it's just a dot. That dot can be a seed ready to grow, or a special star in the sky. What a special dot

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Story paper has been commonly used to encourage creative writing for emergent readers and writers. There are many other ways to incorporate it at an earlier stage. Here are some ideas:

Encourage children to make their own drawings instead of using coloring pages as much as possible within any educational activity. Draw simple pictures frequently in front of children so that they are comfortable with the activity.

Provide a variety of materials to keep their interest in drawing and making their own artwork: markers, watercolor pencils, erasable crayons and color pencils, water soluble pastels, poster paints, different sizes of brushes, Q-tips. Erasable materials help children to easily make the changes they want along the way and eases frustration.

Learning the Alphabet:
Children can draw, paint, color pictures relating to a letter of the alphabet.

Make a memorable My Alphabet Art Gallery Book. Children will select their favorite piece of artwork from each letter of the alphabet to assemble the book.

Preschool - K: After children have practiced writing letters with dotted guideline worksheets, have them practice writing the letters independently. Write one letter example for the children to follow.

Kindergarten and older:
When presenting a topic, such as an animal theme-- have children draw their own representation of the animal and suggest to include elements of their habitat. Present realistic images or video materials to help for inspiration.

Learning Numbers and their Value:
1. Have children practice numbers by drawing a number of objects within a theme, or holiday activity to represent the number.
2. Have children paste a number of fairly flat items: used stamps, leaves (seasonal), theme stickers (apple stickers on a simple tree trunk drawing).Practice simple addition and subtraction by adding or removing objects before pasting them.
3. Use rubber stamps or small cookie cutters (holiday or seasonal) with a washable ink pad to stamp a number of images.

Example: Have children draw stars or candy canes Christmas, hearts (St. Valentine's) to represent a number. Children can practice writing the numeral and or the number word in the handwriting lines.

Learning Shapes and Numbers
Have children draw a designated shape and practice to write the shape word.
Have children draw or glue a certain number of shapes (paper cut-outs or foamies) representing a number. Practice writing the numeral and/or number word.

Reading | Comprehension: Suggest to draw their favorite character or their favorite part of a story, picture book, poem, song, nursery rhyme, educational video or TV program. Help children write a sentence that explains their artwork. Example: Make a drawing of your favorite part in Little Miss Muffet: Miss Muffet running away from the spider!

Visual Arts | Art Appreciation:
Present the concepts of a self-portrait, a landscape, a collage, a still life and more. The concept of shapes, lines (zigzag, straight, curved), and colors (primary, secondary and complimentary) within any learning theme. Explain the use of frames in art. Encourage children to decorate and or color the frame to complement their artwork.

Science and Social Studies:
Children can make depictions that allows them to present a particular subject discussed, such as the water cycle, weather conditions (a gray cloud with rain drops, a sun), from caterpillar to butterfly, seed germination steps, etc.

Emotions:
Present what is a self-portrait, show examples from art books, museum or online museum visit. Ask children if they can tell how the person feels, is the person happy, sad, surprised, etc. Ask children to make drawings of themselves when they are happy, sad, surprised, angry. Help children write a sentence that explains the drawing: I am happy when ...., I am sad when ..., I was surprised when ....

All About Myself:
Create a drawing gallery book depicting family members (my family), favorite things, my home, pet, food, snacks, holiday, etc.

Make sure children write their name and give a special title to their artwork. Adult can help add the date and other annotations on the back as well. Display artwork and make it special.

Other Gallery Book ideas:
The seasons: A tree depicting the seasons, a different flower, fruit or plant commonly in season in your region.
The months and special holidays of the year: a favorite holiday depiction for every month, and a special drawing depicting the child's birthday month.
The days of the week: a favorite activity that happens each day of the week.
Colors of My World: a depiction of objects of a certain color. A yellow sun, a red balloon, an orange pumpkin, etc.

First collections:
This paper can also be used to start a collection of flat objects: leaves, postcards, stamps, stickers. Attach and laminate over the object. Adults can assist to write or compose the descriptions.