Our class participated in an author study of Mo Willems, and now we can say that Mr. Willems is one of our favorite authors. He has written many children's books (Knuffle Bunny and Cat the Cat series), but we focused on the Pigeon books and The Elephant and Piggie books.
We learned that Mo Willems uses speech bubbles to have his characters tell the stories. We used this method all week in our writing. When writing in our journals or drawing pictures of the pigeon, we used speech bubbles. Our final writing project was to write our own pigeon book using this method.
Mr. Willems characters are very easy for kindergarten children to learn to draw. We started the week with a directed lesson on how to draw the pigeon. By the end of the week, they were all expert pigeon artists.
We started with Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus. After reading the book, we wrote our own class book using the frame, "Don't let the pigeon drive the _____." We had many terrific ideas of things that the pigeon should not be allowed to drive.
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| Jason wrote, "Don't let the pigeon drive the train." |
During the week, we also read, Duckling Wants a Cookie and Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late.
One kindergarten standard is to know the difference between needs and wants. When reading Pigeon Wants a Puppy, we were able to learn and practice that skill. In the whole group, we sorted pictures into needs and wants, and we did individual cut and paste activities. We had some interesting class discussions trying to determine if something was a want or a need. Many of us were sure that we needed toys!
Our author study ended with the book, The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog. This is a fun book for the children to read along with and act out. We made another class book with the frame, "The pigeon found a hot dog. He put ____ on it." Besides the standard ketchup, mustard and relish, the students were encouraged to write something silly that can be put on the hot dog. They certainly did that!
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| Teddy writes, "He put stinky socks on it." |
And of course, the week was topped off by our own Hot Dog Party!
The children and I had a terrific week with Mo Willems and the pigeon. To find more information about Mo Willems and to find games involving his characters, please have your child go to his web site at www.mowillems.com .
