We’ve had a terrific year reading books by great children’s authors. Many of them offer book-related activities on their web sites, as well information about what they are doing now. Visit our featured authors’ web sites by clicking on the images below:
In Eric Carle’s own words from his blog:
“I was born in the U.S. and was raised in Germany. My background is in graphic design but since the late 1960’s when I illustrated Bill Martin Jr’s Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? I have been creating books for children. My illustrations are collages made with my own hand-painted tissue papers, a technique many children have replicated and enjoyed in their classrooms and at home.”
In K-2 library we planned a party to celebrate the birth of
Dr. Seuss. (March 2nd)
We read Happy Birthday To You
by Dr. Seuss
The children were asked to
listen carefully to the story because
we were going to plan a party.
Who would we invite?
What party supplies would we need?
What should we serve?
When the story was finished, the class
was divided into groups.
One group made a list of
Dr. Seuss characters
to invite to the party.
(Horton, Bartholomew, Sam,
The Grinch, The Cat…)
Another group made a list of
what we would serve.
(Ooblek, green eggs, ham, roast beast…)
The third group made a list of party supplies we would need.
(cups, plates, balloons, streamers…)
David Shannon
David Shannon began his career as an illustrator for well known authors like Jane Yolen, Jon Sciezka, and Audrey Wood.
David Shannon later started writing and illustrating his own books. In 1998, one of David Shannon’s first books, No David! won a Caldecott award for illustrations.
We will begin our 3 week long author study reading No,David! During class, Nursery and Pre-Kindergarten will discuss David’s behavior and color pictures of David.
The Kindergarten and First grade children will draw pictures and tell about what kind of trouble they think David might get into next, writing their own sequels to the story.
After listening to No, David!, the Second grade children will sequence the events of the story, recalling the order they happened in the story.
Students will hear a great group of stories this month written by an author who writes stories from his experiences as a self-professed “rough and tumble” young child.
The students will be introduced to the author by watching an interview with David Shannon on Reading Rockets.
Other books by David Shannon:
Duck on a Bike
Robot
How I Became a Pirate
Pirate’s Don’t Change Diapers
David Gets in Trouble
David Goes to School
Too Many Toys
Alice the Fairy
How Georgie Radbourn Saved Baseball
Mrs. Stevenson
Born in 1916 Ezra Jack Keats worked as an “inker” for a printer and a comic book artist before deciding to become an author and illustrator of children’s books.
Meet Ezra Jack Keats
Ezra Jack Keats
found a picture
of a little boy in
a newspaper, the
clipping hung on
his wall for years
before Ezra
decided to make
“Peter” the star
character in many
of his stories. Keats
thought that minority
children were not
being fairly represented
in children’s literature
and he decided to
spend his life
making these
children
central characters in
his books.
The Snowy Day was later awarded the Caldecott Medal for outstanding illustrations.
Children in Nursery through Second grade will be listening to the stories of Ezra Jack Keats while exploring the characters, setting, and plot of the stories.
In The Snowy Day the children will sequence the story and graph their favorite things to do on a snowy day.
Another story we will explore this month is A Letter to Amy, children will choose a partner and draw or write a letter like the one in the story. We will also graph the children’s birthdays after discussing the birthday invitation that Peter sent to Amy.
Peter’s Chair is another of Ezra Jack Keats most popular books. Peter, again the main character in the story, has a hard time sharing his things with his new baby sister. As a class we will focus on the feelings many of us share when a new sibling is introduced into a family.
Ezra Jack Keats is an author from my childhood and I am excited to share these timeless stories with my library classes.
❤Mrs. Stevenson
Gingerbread Baby, a beautiful story of the Gingerbread Boy and his adventures as he runs away from the little old woman and the little old man. The holiday pictures in this story are very festive and will get everyone in the holiday spirit.
