Talking about films with young children

We look at ways of talking about film in CHOOSING,WATCHING AND TALKING FILM. There are though some special considerations when talking with younger children about films they have seen.

Talking about films
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Talk about film you have watched with young children can take place on the way home from a venue, in the daycare institution and even in the theatre itself – just remember to adjust the number and complexity of your questions depending on the group size. Let the children express their experience with the film through drawing combined with pre-planned questions to stimulate the dialogue. Avoid questions leading to right or wrong kind of answers.

To begin thinking about talk, we invite you to watch the film LAMBS by Gottfried Mentor, Germany 2013, 4 min.

The film is suited for children 3 years+ and the main theme is “We are all Alike and Different”. The main character is Little Lamb. His parents are worried, because he does not talk like them, eat like them or look like them. It is all about diversity as a positive thing: you can be friends and relatives in spite of differences. The children can discover “who am I” and “who are you”.

You can either just talk after the film, print out a few still photos from the film to talk from, or start the film again and stop by using the timecodes, which can help the children to recall and talk more freely about the questions.

Here is one suggestion for things you could talk about after watching LAMBS:

  1. What did you like about the film – and why?
  2. What is the little lamb doing?
  3. What does the mother and father think about this?
  4. Do you always do as people tell you?
  5. What does the two other little lambs say?
  6. How did the music in the film make you feel?
  7. What colors did you see in the film?

Task

Now we invite you to watch the film WOLF by Julia Ocker, Germany, 2015, 4 min.

After watching the film, devise three questions for introducing talk about the film WOLF with very young children. Write your questions in the box below and save them to your notepad when you've finished.

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