Rocket Inspired Stories

The first graders are moving along in the Tad Hills' author/illustrator study.  

This project has gained quite a bit of energy and momentum.  The classroom teachers and I are developing additional storytelling and writing activities to tie into the next ELA unit because we've been having so much fun with this first part.  

I think this has been such a great collaboration because the books have messages and ideas that tie right into their reading and writing strands and align nicely to the common core.  I cringe a little bit saying this, but this is the reality: if I want teacher to collaborate and it is going to take time from their instructional day, then there needs to be real value, not always just a curriculum connection.  The Rocket books have real value. 

Here's what we have done so far:

We have read the books in library and the classroom:

The students brainstormed ideas - just as the Little Yellow Bird helps Rocket to do:
~think about things you have seen
~think about things you have done
~think about things you are interested in
~think about places you have beenOne of the first grade teachers created this Word Tree for collecting words for their stories:

They collected their words:

Some created a draft story picture:

The rocket and the bird

They came to the library and we introduced KidPix and game them time to explore the tools - including text boxes. We talked about using the appropriate tools for creating their pictures (no backgrounds, very few stamps, readable fonts).

They came back for a second visit and created their pictures.





Coming up next - the students as storytellers!