Sometimes I’m asked how “just playing” can POSSIBLY lead to learning. Especially “real” things like reading or math. Well, allow me to show you.

As a class we read “I Want to Be In A Scary Story” by Sean Taylor. The last page ends with the monster asking to “be in another story.”

Of course we had to oblige the little monster so the class dictated the story to me and I did my best to illustrate up to their specifications.

I hung up the story where it was discovered by kids in the other class. They asked the kids in my class what it was about and what it said.

They gleefully recounted the story they wrote then ran to get the book that had inspired it and all of them gathered around to look at it.

Then, they wanted to make their OWN letters. So we started off with the magnet Handwriting Without Tears materials I have

But that wasn’t nearly enough, so we got out all the lines and curves. Letters and words were created all over the classroom and the parent volunteer got drawn in to read story after story.

And that, my friends, is how one story, plus time to play, led to a literacy exploration.