Picture Notes — Secret Rebus Messages

Parent and child send each other short messages made only of little drawings and invented signs, discovering that pictures can be “read” like words.

  1. Draw a simple picture message on a strip of paper while the child watches — for example an eye, a heart, and a stick figure of the child (“I love you”), or a sock and an arrow pointing to a drawer.
  2. Ask: “Can you read my note?” Point to each picture from left to right as they work it out.
  3. Leave a few picture notes around the house during the day — on the fridge (“apple + plate” for snack time), by the door (“shoes + tree” for going to the park).
  4. Invite the child to write a picture note back — a wish for dinner, an instruction for you to act out, or a message for a grandparent.
  5. Read their note aloud exactly as drawn. If you cannot work it out, say so kindly: “I can read the dog, but I am stuck on this part — what could you add so I understand?”
  6. Agree on two or three made-up signs that only your family knows — a zigzag for “hurry,” a spiral for “hug” — and use them in later notes.

Variation: make a picture recipe or picture instructions together (for a sandwich, or for feeding the cat) and let another family member try to follow it.

Requirements

  • Space: Anywhere — kitchen table, sofa, or car seat
  • Surface: Table, clipboard, or a book to lean on
  • Materials: Paper strips or sticky notes and a pencil or marker; tape or a fridge magnet for posting notes
  • Participants: 1 adult + 1 child; other family members as readers
  • Supervision: Light — adult takes turns as writer and reader

Rationale & Objective

Picture writing sits exactly between drawing and real writing. Vygotsky argued that children first learn that they can “draw things” and then make the crucial discovery that they can also “draw speech” — that marks in a row can carry a message to someone who was not there. Sending and receiving rebus notes makes this concrete: the symbols must be clear enough for another mind to decode, which is what Callaghan’s research on graphic symbols identifies as the communicative function children are still mastering in the preschool years. Inventing arbitrary family signs goes a step further, showing that a symbol does not need to look like its meaning as long as people agree on it — the same principle behind letters and numerals. The activity supports Teaching Strategies GOLD Objective 14a and the emergent-writing goals in Head Start ELOF, without requiring any letter knowledge.

Progress Indicators

  • Early: names single pictures in a note but does not join them into a message; own notes are one drawing that needs a spoken explanation
  • Developing: reads two- and three-picture notes in order with a little help; draws notes with two or more separate symbols; remembers one family sign
  • Proficient: reads new picture notes left to right and acts on them; writes notes another person can decode; adds detail when a reader is stuck
  • Advanced: invents new signs and teaches them to others; mixes pictures with letters, numerals, or arrows; writes multi-step picture instructions that someone can follow

Safety Notes

  • Very low physical risk; use washable, non-toxic markers and keep pen caps away from younger siblings
  • Keep it a game — do not turn decoding into a test or insist on left-to-right order if the child is tired
  • Children who dislike drawing can build notes from stickers, stamps, or cut-out catalog pictures instead
  • If a 5-year-old rarely recognizes what simple pictures show, or does not seem to grasp that pictures and signs carry meaning, discuss it with the pediatrician or teacher

Hints

  • Playfulness: call it spy code. Roll notes into scrolls, post them under the bedroom door, or hide one in a lunch box. Whisper when you read them
  • Sustain interest: keep a “code book” page of your family signs and add one new sign a week; send picture notes by post or phone photo to a relative who replies in pictures
  • Common mistake: adult notes that are too long or too clever. Start with two or three bold, simple pictures — success on the first read is what hooks the child
  • Limited space: no paper? Draw notes with a finger on a steamy window, in sand, or on the child’s back for them to guess
  • Cross-domain: saying the message aloud in a full sentence builds language; left-to-right pointing and mixing in first letters supports print concepts; picture recipes add sequencing and early cooking skills
  • Progression: read one picture clue → read a three-picture note → write a note back → add invented signs → mix in letters and numerals (“2 + drawing of eggs”) → write picture instructions for a real task

Sources

  • Vygotsky, L.S. (1978), Mind in Society — “The Prehistory of Written Language” (from drawing things to drawing speech)
  • Callaghan, T.C. (1999), “Early understanding and production of graphic symbols,” Child Development, 70(6), 1314–1324
  • Bodrova, E. & Leong, D.J. (2007), Tools of the Mind: The Vygotskian Approach to Early Childhood Education — drawing and scaffolded writing as symbolic tools
  • Teaching Strategies GOLD — Objective 14a (thinks symbolically) and Objective 19 (demonstrates emergent writing skills)
  • Head Start ELOF — Literacy sub-domain, Writing (writes for a variety of purposes using increasingly sophisticated marks)
  • DeLoache, J.S. (2004), “Becoming symbol-minded,” Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 8(2), 66–70