Slice of Life Challenge: Day two! My students and I have been studying Mo Willems during the month of February. We have really enjoyed reading about our new friends: Elephant and Piggy, Pigeon, Knuffle Bunny and Trixie, Amanda and her Alligator, Leonardo, Edwina, the whole gang! Each day as I finish reading a new story or an old favorite I ask my students, "What did you notice today?" And each day I am blown away by the insightful answers that I hear. Now that we have read all the Mo Willems books that our school library owns (time to make a trip to the local city library now!), we are looking at his books as writers. Again, when I ask the kids what they notice, they amaze me! With all the great ideas and wonderful things they are noticing...it was time for a chart. Last week we took all the great things we had learned from Mo and turned it into a chart for our wall. My students have not only begun to point out the things we learned from Mo in other books, but they have also started trying to include them in their own writing! I have been a fan of author studies for a while now, but the power of the author study this year has reached new levels! I can't wait to see what happens next!
