This was another week of exploring the Caldecott titles. I so enjoy sharing these books with my kiddos. This week was especially fun as we did wordless books. For second, third, and fourth grades I used the “Wordless Book Story Chart” worksheet found on the Library Sparks web site. The fifth graders had to fill out my Caldecott Criteria Questions worksheet. A copy of this worksheet is available for signing up for my mailing list. I also had them do a creative writing exercise which I will explain in a bit.
I used Flotsam by David Wiesnerwith the second and fifth graders. We started with a couple of YouTube videos: a book trailer by Literature for Youth and the video which won a competition put on by Houghton Mifflin. I then showed them the pictures of the book which I had to actually explain. When you think about it, while this book is not that old but it is about old technology. The students did not understand having film in a camera and having to take the cartridge to the store to get it developed. After going through the book I explained their assignment to them. For the second grade we did the first part of the Wordless Book Story Chart together and then they had to complete the bubbles with the beginning and end and three events from the middle. After the fifth graders completed the Caldecott Criteria Questions I divided them into groups of 3 or 4. I had 7 folders spread out on the tables with the words DO NOT OPEN. In each folder was a print out of one of the larger illustrations from the book along with a couple of sheets of blank paper. I gave each group 2-3 minutes to look at the picture in their folder and then each write one question about the picture. Questions needed to require more than a one-word answer. When time was up I switched the students so that each group had a different folder. Again their assignment was to each write a question about the picture. This was followed up by rotating the folders again but this time they had to answer the questions – in a sentence and IDK was not an acceptable answer. This exercise challenged some of them to think outside of the box when coming up with their answers. If time had permitted I would have done a second round of answering the questions.
With third grade I started with this video from Aaron Becker’s web site. We then went page by page through Journey. After the viewing I allowed several students to tell me the story they saw in the pictures. It is always interesting to hear the differences in the stories told by the students. Once the re-tellings were complete, we did the first part of the Wordless Book Story Chart from the Library Sparks web site together and then they had to complete the bubbles with the beginning and end and three events from the middle.
The fourth grade did the same assignment as the second and third graders. With them we used The Lion and the Mouse illustrated by Jerry Pinkney.
With my younger students we focused on Concept books in preparation for creating our own next week. With my pre-k kiddos we read the four stories in Phil Vischer’s The Veggiecational Book – How Many Veggies?, Junior’s Colors, Pa Grape’s Shapes, and Bob and Larry’s ABC’s. With Kinder we read Counting God’s Creatures, White Rabbit’s Color Book, and Black and White Rabbit’s ABC. ABC Animal Jamboree and The Greedy Triangle were my stories for first grade. For all three classes we also read Green and Blue by Laura Seeger. I’ll tell you more next week about the project we will be doing in conjunction with these books.
Amazon Affiliate Links for books mentioned in this post (your purchase helps support this blog)
The Lion & the Mouse
Journey (Aaron Becker’s Wordless Trilogy)
Flotsam
ABC Animal Jamboree
The Greedy Triangle (Scholastic Bookshelf)
Counting God’s Creatures: My Very First Counting and Rhyme Book
White Rabbit’s Colors (Little Rabbit Books)
Black and White Rabbit’s ABC (Little Rabbit Books)
The Veggiecational Book
Blue
Green
