It's Summer Virtual Book Club day when I get to see all of your fabulous Mo Willems projects!
The book we chose was Hooray for Amanda & Her Alligator!
When I first paged through it I was afraid it was going to be too long. The book is actually divided into little chapters (which is a great early introduction to text features.) Both my four year old and two year old loved it and paid attention to the entire book. Amanda and her Alligator are best friends, but there are times that Alligator has to wait for Amanda. When she brings home a new stuffed animal, Alligator doesn't like it at all. But he soon finds out that waiting with someone else is a lot better than waiting alone.
When I was teaching middle school reading, we used post-it notes often, so it was really only a matter of time before I figured out a way to use them with my preschooler.
I wrote "Alligator feels..." on several post-it notes and stuck them throughout the book where I wanted to highlight how alligator was feeling,
Obviously, you could put the post-its anywhere, but here are the pages I chose:
page 11- Alligator is waiting for Amanda.
15-Amanda surprises Alligator.
33- Alligator tickles Amanda.
43-Amanda tells Alligator he was in the sale bucket because no one wanted to buy him.
45-Amanda tells Alligator that no one bought him because they were meant to be best friends.
57-Alligator is waiting while Amanda is at the zoo.
61-Amanda brings home a new panda.
69-Alligator and the panda become friends.
I also prepared some happy and unhappy stickers ahead of time. They are just those circle stickers you get in the office supply section with marker faces drawn on.
While we read the book, we stopped at each post-it note and talked about how alligator was feeling. My four year old did a great job of identifying the emotion and then putting the appropriate sticker on the post-it note.
The thing that I really love about this is you could adapt it for almost any fiction book. You could also adapt it for other age groups by offering a wider variety of emotions or having the kids draw the stickers themselves.
What Mo Willems book did you read? Please share!!! Link up any post related to any Mo Willems book, new or old.
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The play therapist AND the mom in me LOVES this activity! What a great idea to turn ANY book into a feelings book! Great idea!
ReplyDeleteOh, I love this idea! I used sticky notes a lot when teaching elementary school reading, too! The sticky dots are a great touch and fun for the little ones to use! Thanks for sharing. :)
ReplyDeleteBrilliant! I have read this book several times and I feel silly to admit that I never thought of using it as a feelings themed book. It is one of my kids' favorite books. We will definitely do your activity because we are actually focusing on feelings this week in our family. This will be perfect!
ReplyDeletePost it notes and books--I love it! Fantastic adaptation for younger readers. My 6 year old uses a post-it strat when she reads already, this is great for my littler ones!
ReplyDeleteLOVE this. Post-it notes are a great reading tool and I love how you introduced them to the preschool age. :)
ReplyDeleteI love that you found a way to incorporate post it notes into a preschool reading lesson. Post it notes are a reading teacher's best friend, right?
ReplyDeleteLove that idea!! Thanks for linking up at TGIF!
ReplyDeleteBeth
I really like how you tied the book to emotional intelligence - so fun!
ReplyDeleteThanks for this great idea! We just got this book from the library and we will definitely be trying this:)
ReplyDelete