WE LOVE MO WILLEMS!

“What are you drawing Si-Yoon?” –Shayne

“Elephant and Piggie! I’m going to make a story for them.” –Si-Yoon

“Can I too?  I will sit here with you.” –Shayne

Liam comes over to the table to investigate the start of the conversation he overheard from another table.

“I’m going to draw a big Gerald.  Maybe I should draw all of the characters I like…Elephant, Piggie, Pigeon.  I have to look in the books to remember them.  Maybe snake too because he is so funny.” –Liam

“Here! I have a lot of the books we were reading. Let’s make our own stories and pictures. I love these books..they make me laugh all the time. And we can read them by ourselves, right?” –Ella

The conversation continues as the students get to work, occasionally studying the books in front of them, and concentrating on the details of their drawings, and trying to match the colors of the characters to the ones they know and love.

“I just can’t get this pigeon right! I keep trying it but it is not working!” –Shayne  (Some time passes while Shayne practices a bunch of different pigeons.) “There, you see guys!? I got it!  I finally made one I love!  I kept trying and trying and I got it! I’m going to paint this one I finally got.”

After a couple of days of this group working and showing the class their work, many other students in the class wanted to give it a go as well.

Our class loves to read books by Mo Willems. Pigeon, Elephant and Piggy, Knuffle Bunny, Naked Mole Rat…these characters get talked about during snack and lunch times, during our explorations, and the students are constantly begging me to read these books (not that they have to-Mo Willems is my favorite author of all time! J)  They love to look at the pages together, read the words they know, copy the pattern of the books we have read together so many times, laugh at the silliness of what is happening, and practice the intonation and volume that these books require and encourage.  Since the love of books by Mo Willems is such a big part of our classroom, it did not surprise me when our amazing students started drawing pictures and making their own stories. What was amazing though, was the level of engagement and concentration while they were working, and the details and amazing drawings and stories that were produced!