Build the Bridge
We at JMC have been spending some meaningful time with children of classes 3-5 using the excellent FLN teaching-learning material developed by Language and Learning Foundation (LLF).
One of the sessions was simple on paper, but powerful in practice—making Picture Stories. Children were given a picture (or a sequence of picture frames) and invited to observe… and then turn what they saw into a story.
At the heart of Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN) resources are a beautifully simple idea: don’t ask children to leap—build the bridge.
Break big skills into small, doable steps like sounds to words, words to sentences, sentences to stories. With clear models, guided practice, and gentle scaffolding. That’s how confidence grows, one step at a time.
We see every day that our younger children are still finding their feet with words, spellings and sentence-making. When asked to “write a story” it can feel like reaching the top of a mountain, without having any resources to support that journey.
The struggle exists not because they don’t have imagination or creativity but simply because the journey to that destination requires tapping into certain parts of their thinking and simplification that is often missed in our learning pathways.
With picture prompts and guided facilitation, many of our children wrote their first stories- stitching their thoughts together and finding a voice to express and imagine freely.
One child said: “I found it easier to imagine the next steps of the story. Now if you give me a story, I will think of it in 4 parts and try to write it.”
A big shoutout to LLF for making learning easier and accessible for all.
LLF has many such free, accessible FLN resources online that teachers and children can use and build on to.
Access these resources- https://llfresources.org/