Patterned Story

Ever notice how many “early reading” books have phrases that repeat over and over? You may remember, for example, classics like “Brown Bear, Brown Bear,” or “The Three Little Pigs.” Turns out that these books are more than just cute: reading patterned stories with repeated sentence structure or refrains builds important reading skills, including word recognition, prediction skills, memory skills, and knowledge of sentence structures. And of course patterned stories are still lots of fun. Even beginning readers can predict the text and join in on the reading fun! Encourage your kindergartener to read and re-read a favorite patterned story so that she can build confidence as a reader, and become an expert on the story. That’s when the fun begins. Now she can use a similar pattern to create her own patterned story – perhaps even one about her family! Lesson plan in which students read or listen to a patterned story (Example:  Brown Bear, Brown Bear) and then use a similar pattern to create their own patterned story. Teachers may choose to use digital photos to inspire the story. The students sequence a story and then create their own story with an appropriate sequence.