The students in Room 106 have spent some very enjoyable time this week listening to a couple of favorite picture books and then working on a craft to accompany the book.
I chose several books by Jan Brett, an author that both my students and I enjoy. Her books are well written and lavishly illustrated. The students always like to look at the small pictures in the border area of each page. These small illustrations often tell what is coming next in the story and the students find it fun to make predictions and then see if they were correct.
For this week’s book and craft time I chose Ms. Brett’s book, The Hat. This story takes place at the beginning of winter in Denmark. When Lisa takes her warm woolen clothes out of the chest and hangs then on the line to air out, the fun begins. A hedgehog finds a stocking that the wind has blown off of the line. His spines become stuck in the stockings which he decides to wear as a hat. The animals he encounters all make fun of his hat but decide to join him and soon the clothesline empties as the animals choose “hats”. After reading the story we went back through the book and more closely examined the beautiful and detailed illustrations including the patterns shown in the stocking and other knitted woolens.
Later that day the students used small wooden sticks dipped into white tempera paint to make their own patterns on hat shaped felt pieces. The projects were finished with the addition of a pompom at the top of each hat. A magnet strip attached to the back of each hat turned their works of art into magnets that some of the students plan to present to their parents as holiday gifts.
The second book that I read to the class was The Gingerbread Baby, Jan Brett’s version of the classic story of a gingerbread boy who runs away from the person who bakes him. After listening to this story, each student had the opportunity to decorate a craft foam shape of a gingerbread person. They used construction paper to create decorations and clothing for the gingerbread people and used markers to add details. A wide variety of gingerbread personalities were created from sports figures to princesses and even Santa Claus.
A great story to listen to and beautiful illustrations to look can lead into creative and fun craft projects!
Submitted by: Rhonda Reynolds- Lower Elementary Teacher at The Montessori Academy at Edison Lakes
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