Shh! We Have a Plan (for this author/illustrator visit)

Chris Haughton is visiting with our kindergarten, first grade, and second grade students next week!  Chris is the author/illustrator of:

Chris is the Ezra Jack Keats New Illustrator Award Winner and a CYBILS Award winner (along with other many well-deserved accolades) for the book, Shh! We Have a Plan.

We read Shh! We Have a Plan this week.  We started off by watching the book trailer.

https://vimeo.com/88145367

The trailer was successful: enthusiastic thumbs up indicated the students' desire to read the book. The students shared their ideas and predictions about the book.
"It's about trying to catch a bird."
"The bird gets away."
"I think it is going to be funny."

While reading the book, we stopped along the way to talk about what each of the plans entailed. The students loved the book and groaned at all the appropriate places.  After reading the book, the kindergarten students drew their own Shh! - inspired birds.

The second grade students had an opportunity to fill in a thought bubble sharing what they thought the little guy was thinking as his compatriots switched the focus to a squirrel.

Students are careful readers of both words and pictures. My students:

~~noticed that Chris foreshadowed the bird and squirrel in silhouettes in the first pages of the book.

~~noticed the arc of light that further focused the eye's attention on the action.


After reading the book, the students and I explored Chris' blog post about the making of Shh! We Have a Plan.  I paraphrased the text and we explored the images of the work in progress.

The students are looking forward to meeting Chris, hearing about creating books, and asking questions like these: 

"Why did the story take place a night?"

"Why didn't they let the little guy stay with the birds?"

"Are they people or animals?"

"Where are they?"

"How do you use so few colors?"

"Why did they keep saying, "go?" They scared the bird!"