Thursday, March 10th

Sharing Our Favorite Books

Thank you for helping your child choose their favorite story from home.  
​We have enjoyed designating time each day for reading these books together. 
If your child has not yet brought in a favorite book to share, please have them bring it to school!

Reasons why these books are our favorites... 

Johnny Tractor's Fun Farm Festival - It's about parties and I like parties. - Capers
Little Blue Truck Leads the Way - Because him! - Luke (pointing to little blue truck)
Biscuit - It's new and it was my brothers and he gave it to me and mom thought it was perfect for me. I just like it. - Cate
Sofia Valdez, Future Prez - Because she makes a playground. - Frannie 

Hugh and Michael have also shared their favorite books, but decided they preferred to take them back home. 
Hugh shared a non-fiction book about dinosaurs because... it's about dinosaurs. It's more of a telling book.
Michael shared Mickey's Big Boat Race because... that's my favorite. It's because Mickey Mouse clubhouse. 

Reading these books together have inspired discussion questions about different types of books and what constitutes a story.

What does a book need to be a story?

It needs to have like a page and not just a flip open book. - Cate
A dragon. - Daniel
Flip up pages are kind of like pop up books. - Wilder
It needs to have like pages and words. - Lily
And pictures. - Cape
And drawings. - Hugh 
* Lucas mentions a book he has at home with “words and no pictures”. 
* Lily mentions a book she has at home with “only pictures”. 
And chapter books sometimes have no pictures. - Hugh
I can read stories and make up the words and I can imagine the book and it feels like the story is with words. - Saul 
And you can draw words and pictures. - Cate 

In addition to reading our favorite storybooks from home, we have also explored storytelling in the form of:

Shadow Area & Puppets
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​Construction Area

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​Small World 

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Stop Motion
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​​"Pass the Story"  
(turn taking story inventing)
 

Narrative Improvisation 
(adding words to books with only pictures) 

Cate demonstrated how she can read her favorite book, even when she can't remember all of the written words. 

Children have continued to use their "littles" when exploring stop motion storytelling work this week. 

​Lucas and Frannie

Cate and Remy - Day 1

As you can see, Cate and Remy had the idea to incorporate props, accessories, or other characters into their story. Inspired by her favorite book, Cate decided to draw Biscuit the dog to include in their work. 

The following day, Cate and Remy wanted to continue their story and added additional hand drawn items to include in the process. In addition to her hat, Remy also gave herself a "necklace for little Remy" and cate continued drawing "Biscuits things" including a blanket, a bed, a feeding bowl, and a bone.
​Biscuit was also given a baby named Ice Cream. 

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Today, we also began using wire and exploring its properties in relation to movement.
We are excited to share more of this work with you in the near future.