Pictures are a great way to get children talking. When they view photos that are familiar to them, they are motivated and better able to talk about what they see. By viewing images with parents and teachers, children can learn and develop descriptive language by describing what they are doing in the picture.

  • Place pictures of your child working on an activity or playing with friends or family around their environment. The child will initiate conversations around the pictures and generally enjoy seeing themselves and their friends. Ask them to describe what is happening in the picture. What are they doing? What are their friends doing? What do they remember about this project or activity?
  • Teachers can use pictures for documentation purposes and have children talk about their learning experiences by asking them about their favorite part of the project or activity. Teachers can write down the children’s words and display them for families and the rest of the school community to see. Children can learn names of objects, actions and feelings through pictures.
  • Teachers and parents can take pictures of children making different faces: happy, sad or mad. The pictures can be displayed on the walls or placed in an area that the children can refer to when they are having different feelings. Through this activity, they are identifying and verbalizing emotions that they are feeling through meaningful and familiar images.

Older children, ages 3-5,  can use pictures to begin practicing storytelling.

  • Parents and teachers can model telling a story about a picture of friends or family members doing an activity or project. It does not necessarily have to be the actual event of the picture. For example, teachers can use an image of children playing a restaurant game in the pretend area and tell the class a story. “One day, Sarah went to a restaurant and ordered spaghetti. Then her friend came and joined her for lunch. When they were finished eating, they went home and had vanilla ice cream for dessert.” This story has three parts, a beginning, middle and end. The activity also encourages children to use their imagination about what is going on in the picture.


By: Jessica Volkers, Teacher at Early Learning Foundations Preschool
Through her work as an Early Childhood educator, Jessica encourages children to explore their world and become intrinsic, self-motivated learners. She holds a B.S. degree in Early Childhood Education from SUNY New Paltz, and a Master’s degree in Literacy Education form Hunter College CUNY. She loves to see her students make new discoveries and find the joy in learning. Jessica also enjoys taking pictures, baking and decorating cakes. She has a cat named Snowball and a dog named Ryu.