March 2008 Author
During the month of March we will celebrate Dr. Seuss as America recognizes "Read Across America" on Monday, March 3. After we honor Dr. Seuss, we will learn about Tomie dePaola and enjoy reading some of his books.
January 2008 Author of the Month
In January we will learn about Jan Brett. She travels around the world to do research before writing her books. In addition to drawing pictures to support the main story, she includes borders on the side of the page that have pictures adding additional information about the supporting characters, and sometimes gives a preview as to what will happen on the next page. We will also learn how Mrs. Brett uses her pets and the people around her to pose as the characters in the books. It is fun to look at the real person or pets photographs and compare them to what she has drawn in the book. Jan Brett has a fantastic website. You can visit it at http://www.janbrett.com
November 2007 Author of the Month
This month we are finishing our study of Eric Carle. We read Draw Me a Star and drew the picture on our own before we looked at the pictures in the book. The next week we read Little Cloud and made a picture of a cloud using cotton balls. After Thanksgiving we are going to start learning about Lois Ehlert.
Eric Carle October 2007
This month we are learning about Eric Carle. We love that he adds extra touches to his pages. Some of his books have sounds, lights, or cut out pages making guessing games out of what is on the next page.
Leo Lionni September 2007
The kindergarten students are learning about Leo Lionni this month. We have read his Caldecott Honor book Swimmy. We have been introduced to the idea of books winning an award for having the best picture. We also understand that Swimmy came in second place for this award, which is still really good. After we watch a video about Leo, we will read Alexander and the Wind-Up Mouse.
December
Lois Ehlert is our author during the month of December. We have learned how she likes to use items found around the house, such as corn kernels, coffee beans, and beads. The entrance of the media center and the hall is lined going out to the buses with snowmen we made using these same "around the house" items. We also learned how Lois likes to create four-legged animals with a triangle face. We made porcupines, tigers, elephants, bears, cats, dogs, and many other animals all with triangle faces. It is amazing how with the same triangle shape the students can go in so many different directions with their art work. Lois Ehlert's creative art crafts have allowed kindergarteners a lot of creativity as well this month.
