The first is Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein. In this book, a father and child chicken read stories, which the child interrupts. The illustrations show a different voice in the style when the stories start, and the rhythm of the words does too -- a more formal tone as a fairy tale begins. It is a fantastic look at voice.
Another off-the-wall example of voice is Chloe and the Lion by Mac Barnett and Adam Rex. Once again, the illustrations tell the story. But in this book, in which the author and illustrator are having conversations on the side, the voices of different characters also come through. I love it! It is funny as well as a good example of voice in picture books.
What books would you use to teach your students voice? Link up at Comprehension Connection or right here:Holiday “crackers” are getting more and more popular in the USA, so we had fun with holiday compound words by putting the broken “crackers” together during our hands-on Language Art lesson. Holiday Crackers for Compound Words When our family spent a year in Australia (my oldest was born there), my favorite part of the familiar holiday season
Read MoreThe students in my co-op writing class (who are in first to fourth grade) really struggle with starting a story. For the most part, every story starts with “Once there was….” and goes from there. “Once upon a time…” is a close second. It is a challenge to get them to think outside of the
Read MoreWe created our own mail center in our schoolroom and play room because my kids love getting the mail. They love to send letters to friends, teachers, and grandparents. They love to send and receive mail. I made some monster post cards to help us practice writing, addressing, and sending mail. Of course, these aren’t
Read MoreA few weeks ago, I overheard my kindergartner talking to his baby sister. “Are you an i, u, v, or j?” he was saying in his sweetest voice. “Because if you are, you cannot come at the end of an English word!” This he repeated a few times over the next few minutes as he
Read MoreI’ve been creating units for kindergarten using picture books to introduce the poetic concepts of rhythm, rhyme, and metaphor. Today I thought I’d write about another picture book that would help in teaching older children about metaphors in poetry: Red Sings from Treetops by Joyce Sidman and illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski.
Read MoreI had a lot of fun considering favorite picture books as I considered the variety of ways one could organize a story. So many times in elementary school kids are given a prescription for writing and they must follow that. Writing is more fun when students are free to organize their thoughts or ideas creatively.
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