I absolutely loved doing this a prewriting activity with the boys. The boys really enjoyed it as well and engaged in it for a long time.
There was no pressure to create anything specific. This prewriting activity was a real social activity in which everyone could relax and drawing alongside one another.
The idea behind this prewriting activity, which we named “Doodle Dice” is to roll a dice with different ‘doodles’. Each player needed to draw a similar doodle on the paper in any size or position as he/she wanted.
Making the Doodle Dice
Creating the Doodle Dice was easy and super quick. It involved cutting small white stickers to fit on the sides of a wooden cube (which was sourced from the boys’ wooden blocks).
The doodles I choose for each sticker were based on some of the common formations needed for writing words.
To Play Doodle Dice
We needed:
- A doodle dice
- Pens or pencils
- A large piece of paper (which in our case was several sheets of A4 paper stuck together)
We each took turns rolling the dice and adding doodles to our group drawing.
Well, that’s how it started. After a while, it was anyone’s turn to roll the doodle dice and we all ended up drawing side by side at the same time.
I love the way the boys began to create different shapes and add their own ideas. Before long, creatures were appearing which incorporated the different doodles.
There was a zebra.
A person.
A lion and lioness. (This is a bit like playing the “Where’s Wally game?” Can you find the lion?)
However, the aim wasn’t so much to create particular objects, but to encourage the boys to draw different shapes.
As the project progressed, we even looked at the effect dots have when you place them close together and then further apart. This was our first introduction to shading.
While the process was definitely the focus, I also love the end result. At the risk of sounding like an art critic (which I’m definitely not!), the final drawing was full of so much movement and character and also showed the individuality of the drawers
From an educational perspective, there was plenty of opportunity to use fine motor skills (writing). The boys really didn’t even know they were doing “writing work” as they were having fun.
Yes, this was definitely a very worthwhile prewriting activity which we will certainly be repeating. After all, it was so much fun!
You may also like these are activities art activities which also involve drawing/prewriting skills:
 Scribblely Paintings |
 Food Colouring Paint |
Return to the Articles List for other children’s learning activities or children’s book reviews.