Craft Lesson - Many Colored Days

I wanted to do something different than just working on colors. My lesson is more for grades 3-5. One my favorite aspects of the book, besides the illustrations, was the use of strong verbs. He used verbs such as kick, jump, and flap. This lesson would not only be entertaining, but also teach grammar.

Read the story to the children. Then discuss the different moods and days. I would like them to create their own versions. They could change the colors and use different verbs. We could focus on nouns and adjectives as well. They would create their story then paint pictures to match their own many colored days.

Yumm Mmm Que Rico!

I really liked this book, despite the fact that haiku is not one of my favorite poetry styles. I loved the illustrations and colors. I thought the book was informative without being boring. I liked that it had so many different foods and flavors and combined cultural aspects together.

Reading Plan

Reading Plan
Lucha Libre: The Man in the Silver Mask
A bilingual cuento written and illustrated by Xavier Garza

For a 2nd or 3rd grade dual language (or regular) classroom

If it is in a dual language class, I would want them to comprehend the Spanish and English. I would hope that they would enjoy the story and put the pieces together.

Bibliography

Ever since I was a little girl, I can remember reading. I read everywhere I went. I was a little nerd. My parents and my grandparents read to me all the time. I still love the feeling of starting a new book.
I think a big benefit for me was that my mom is a second grade teacher. She loves to read, and she passed that love to me. I took a book everywhere with me. I used to read at the dinner table too. I got in trouble a few times for that. To this day I still read when I eat at home. It is about the only time I can find to read something that is not a textbook.
I read all kinds of books when I was younger. When I started I read Dr. Seuss and Disney books. My mom told me about a time when I was in her classroom when I was about 3. She said one of her kids saw me "reading" a Dr. Seuss book. She told them that I really just had the book memorized because she had read it to me so many times. I read Baby Sitter’s Club, Goosebumps, and Nancy Drew. I liked going to the library to check out books too. My favorite kinds of books to check out were science books. I know I checked out a book about the Bermuda Triangle a lot. I loved reading the stories about the unknown. I remember having that book and then figuring out that my parents were going on a trip and they were going to fly through the Bermuda Triangle. I was so scared that they were going to disappear. I still like hearing or reading about things that are unexplained.
We had the AR reading program in my elementary school. I actually enjoyed it. I liked reading and I was always a few levels above. I do not know if was supposed to be a competition, but I felt like it was and I liked that. I was on a basal ball team in elementary school. Basal ball is a reading competition. We would read words out loud from a screen. The words were on different levels of difficulty. Some were first base words, second base words, and so on. We also had home run words. I loved this competition. We scored points for every time we crossed home base. We would travel around and compete against other teams. I learned a lot of words through this competition.
In junior high I began to read more difficult books. I read John Grisham’s "A Time to Kill" and loved it. It was so intense and I loved the trial aspect of it. I still read a lot on my own, but we also started reading in out literature and language arts classes. The only thing I can remember reading specifically in class was The Odyssey and a lot of Greek mythology stories. I was not a fan. We also memorized poems and the preamble to the Declaration. We did read some Edgar Allan Poe poems and I started reading some of his work on my own.
In high school we read so much Shakespeare, I could care less to ever read another work by Shakespeare again. I did actually like to read the plays out loud. I also read "The Great Gatsby" and "To Kill a Mockingbird". Those are two of my favorite books now. I hated reading "The Metamorphosis", and I had to read it again in an Introduction to Fiction class three years ago. I still do not see the beauty or brilliance of this story. I hate that reading in high school darkened my view of reading somewhat. I really enjoy poetry, but I hated over-analyzing and memorizing it in class. We could not just read it and appreciate it; we had to find iambic pentameter and deeper meaning in the words. I still to this day cannot figure out why that was necessary.
Although now about the only time I read for pleasure is to read children’s books, I still love to read. I love opening a book for the first time and that feeling of finishing a good story.

My Many Colored Days

This board book by Dr. Seuss was unlike anything I've ever seen from him. It still had the same creativity and great story, but the pictures were so different. I truly enjoyed this book. The colors were incredible and I liked its message. The pictures were so great as well. You could read this book for years, regardless of the fact that it's a board book.

M&J Craft Lesson

Wong, Janet. “Minn and Jake.” Frances Foster Books. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003

Creative Writing Activity

Discussion

Writing can be tedious for some children. However it is something that they must learn to at least appreciate. At the third grade level an on, they must be able to write to pass the TAKS to continue on in school. Instead of strictly teaching TAKS writing, teachers should encourage every kind of writing. For creative writing, concepts such as a beginning, middle, and end are important. Also, vocabulary, parts of speech, and other grammar techniques can be incorporated into the activity.

How to Teach It

Wrap the top of kids’ desks with paper. Have the child sitting at the desk start their story. They are only to write the beginning, maybe a few sentences or a paragraph. Then, have children switch desks. The next child picks up where the last left off. They continue on until the story is finished.
This activity can teach beginning, middle, and end and also various parts of a story. You can use a prompt or just let children write whatever they want.
This activity can be used any time, not just for Minn and Jake, but if done after reading the book, you can use aspects from the book as the basis for your activity. For example, write a story about animals, lizards, or being different. I think it might be better to use a prompt with older kids.