Harold and the purple crayon

After apples I had planned on going right into my fall curriculum.  Problem: our leaves hadn't changed yet - and most days it was still 80 degrees.  So I put it off two weeks and spent those weeks doing some fun activities. 

 

One of which was reading Harold and the Purple Crayon.  I read the whole book once and talked about how he was drawing his own story.  Then I gave each of them their own paper and clip board with a purple crayon to draw their own story.  Then they each came up on front and shared with us their "purple crayon story".  One of my goals for my students is to be able to present in front of a group and also be able to give a good narration.  I intend to accomplish this through activities like this, also through a very intentional show and tell (where the kids ask and answer questions - I also want them to be able to ask purposeful questions, and through "author of the day" - I will share that with you later)

 

The stories and pictures were wonderful and many were very extensive and imaginative, others were simple and sweet - all were great.

 

Then during center time I put a large piece of paper on our white board and I drew a few purple lines on it and invited the class to add to my mural to make a class picture.  At the end of the day we told a giant story about our class picture.  It built a wonderful sense of community.