ReedALOUD: Have You Seen My Monster?

Last week, the kindergarten students and I read, Have You Seen My Monster? by Steve Light. Back in the fall, these students and I had a great time reading Have You Seen My Dragon and subsequently created our own counting book. I thought it would be fun to recreate this lesson with Steve's newest book. It's just as fabulous. The students and I spent time exploring each spread - identifying and counting shapes as well as taking in the fair atmosphere.

In Have You Seen My Monster, a little girl gallivants through a county fair, searching for her furry friend. Readers will surely spot the friendly monster as well as twenty shapes, identified here by their proper names—trapezoids, ellipses, kites, and more—hidden among iconic fair attractions from the fun house to the Ferris wheel. Maybe the monster is judging the pies? Or perhaps he’s at the monster-truck rally? Youngsters will be so mesmerized by Steve Light’s masterful pen-and-ink illustrations, decorated with vivid splashes of color, they won’t even realize they’ve learned how to spot a nonagon while looking for a monster.

The Finished Projects

Each kindergarten class created their own book/slide show.
 

About the Lessons

We began by naming all the shapes we could. I then read, Have You Seen My Monster by Steve Light. We identified the shapes in the book and talked about how there are shapes everywhere. There's not much time left in this school year, so the production part of the project needed to happen in one forty-five minute block. With four parent volunteers for each class, we managed to accomplish our task.

The students worked in pairs to capture a photograph in a designated location of the school. They knew that the photograph should include as many shapes as possible.

The students went to their designated space, decided upon the direction and focus of the photograph, took the photograph, and then returned to the library to work with Skitch to outline and label their shapes. The expectations were that they outline a number of shapes and label at least one.

I modeled the entire process with the students before they set off.

It was reaffirming to look around my library and see such engaged and collaborative learners.