P is for Pictures: Themed Activities.

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, they are an important part of a child's educational world. There are a variety of ways to incorporate pictures in activities. Pictures are part of personal expression, art and media.

1. Draw pictures with a variety of mediums: crayons, markers, pastels, paints, colouring pencils, ink etc. Draw them on a variety of materials: paper products, canvas, foil, wood, walls, fabrics etc. The pictures can be black and white, grey-scale or multi-colour and sepia, pastel or vibrant in nature. They range from random scribbles to multi-layered, highly detailed masterpieces. They can be copies of another person's design/vision or images from the surrounding world or unique creative expressions of personal ideas. They may or may not follow a set artistic style but the key issue is that it is your own drawing/art. The drawings can be part of a game such as Pictionary.  They can also replace words in notes such as drawing a heart to represent I Love You.

2.Not everyone has the same artistic ability due to variability in fine motor skills. Some are better at creating photographic pictures. Everyone can take a photo of something that they like and then, as their skill level grows, they can become more artistic in what they photograph and how, using angles and lighting to alter the expression in the picture. Photos capture moments in time that represent people and places etc that mean something. A photo of your grandmother teaching you to bake is likely to be cherished long-term for the memories it invokes of family, love and happy moments in time. Keeping a photo journal, in a book or online, is a great activity for children as it helps them to discuss what they see and why they value it at that moment of life. It builds expressive language skills. Maybe they include a photo of the meal they are thankful for, a friend they played with, or a top score in a game. All the photos can be items for thanksgiving, or family members. The child can create a collage of items that are green, or round, or found in nature as other examples of ways to use photography positively. These pictures can be kept private or shared on social media or via other public platforms as desired.

Pictures are part of the books children have and by looking at them they take in a lot of information. For example, a farm book depicts many of the items found on a farm so the child knows what to expect if they go to a farm. They learn the 'farm category' and can label the parts of the scene they are looking at. Do they see a pond? a barn? a gate? a dog? a tractor? a cow? What colours do they see?                Pictures can convey emotions and can support or deny the text. Mercer Meyer tends to write books where the text says something positive like "Mom loves it when I bake!" while the picture shows mom is very upset by the huge mess he left behind! They can suggest the tone of the situation. Sometimes pictures provide background knowledge such as a map of the journey the story is talking about or set the stage for what is to happen next such as when an evil character is portrayed in the scene before the main character is aware of their presence (foreshadowing). Help your child recognize these purposes as you look at pictures together.  

Another way to do this is to have wordless books as they create discussion. Tomie de Paola is known for this category of  literature. Turn pages and talk to your child. "What is happening? What do you see? Why do you think they drew that?" Using your own imaginations, tell your own version of the story. Perhaps the child would like to create their own wordless book that includes their own pictures or photographs or they may choose to cut and paste designs found in media materials such as magazine or newspapers or from internet downloads. Is it a book of fun places to go? The adventures of their puppy? A family album or collection of favourite foods? It can be whatever they creatively desire!

It is important to also discuss how pictures affect us. Consider the impact of advertising, commercials, social media. Consider the calming effects of nature scenes and the connections to history through art gallery displays. There are positive and negative sides to the world of pictures so please do take time to teach the cautions too before going on to expanding your child's enjoyment of learning about the world and experiencing new things through the world of pictures.Give them opportunities too to express themselves to the world through pictures. It is enriching for us all.