Art and language work together hand-in-hand. Art helps students to visualize concepts if they are having trouble understanding, and language can help students to understand what they are seeing.

My art activity to promote language development is storytelling. This activity is intended for grades 2 and 3. The activity starts with the students writing 3-5 sentences that tell a short story about their summer. The second part to the activity is drawing a picture to go along with the story.

I picked this activity for three reasons

1. It gives students the opportunity to be unique and creative

2. This activity builds a connection between literacy and art

3. It is an activity students WANT to do

Introduction

I introduced this activity by telling my students that today they have the freedom to create their own stories, and I said this in an excited tone.

I did my own example on the board to show them the kinds of sentences I wanted and also to help get them thinking.

I told them they can use their picture to help tell their story, or they can use their story to explain their picture.