Who is your favorite children’s author?
Hands down, my favorite children's author is Mo Willems. I love his Pigeon books. They are favorite read alouds in my class, the illustrations are so simple and yet my kinders bust out laughing each time. The kids really identify with the Pigeon, but they also love turning the tables and getting to be in charge! The books are so interactive that all of my kinders get involved, when I read these books I am guaranteed to have every one's attention!
Then there's also the Elephant & Piggie series! I'm telling you, there's no way to run out of material if you're doing a Mo Willem's author study. Elephant & Piggie books are high interest, contain a lot of high-frequency words and have engaging, almost comic-book-style illustrations.
As if that wasn't enough, Mo Willems has also written the Knuffle Bunny series which is just too precious. The illustrations are amazing - he takes black and white photos and then layers his cartoons over top. It is also fun to talk to my kinders about how this relates to real life since the main character "Trixie" is based on the author's daughter. They also love seeing how Trixie grows from book to book. The final story, Knuffle Bunny Free, brings me to tears every time!
Mo also has a website with some fun stuff - the kids just loved playing the Hot Dog dress up game on my SmartBoard. There are also plush animals to go along with his stories - great for having the kids do some retelling!
And how about these window clings!
Check out this video of Mo talking about his books too:
In short, Mo Willems writes high interest books that my kinders can relate to, with simple yet compelling graphics. There's enough stuff out there to flesh out an author study easily, so I always plan for 2 weeks!
Hope you enjoyed this post, I can't wait to see what tomorrow's prompt will bring! Make sure you check the other responses at the linky party too!
2 comments:
Thanks for linking up. Your blog title cracked me up!! It's so true. The pigeon books are a favorite to read to my own children and I use them as a mentor text in 3rd grade to show how something so simple can still be a great book.
❤Jodi from...
★★The Clutter-Free Classroom★★
Helping Teachers Get Organized
What a great video! I'm sorry to say I haven't read any Willems books to kids, but I can't wait to try! Thanks for sharing :)
Nicole :)
The Kinder Kid
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