Saturday, May 14, 2011

It's All About the Pigeon. {I Love Mo. 2nd Edition}

It's the last few weeks of first grade, which means it's time for little blue pigeons to cover the walls of our classroom!  And, in case you haven't seen my last post about Mo--you should know that I love him.  He writes the cutest, funniest, and sweetest books for children!  Mo {Willems} is author of the Pigeon books, Knuffle Bunny series, and Elephant and Piggie series!  If it is possible, I think my students love Mo even more than I do!  For the past week, they have been busy reading every Mo book on the shelf, performing reader's theater plays based on the books, writing and illustrating their very own pigeon books, designing new characters, laughing with friends as they buddy read a favorite story, and making connections between the books to themselves and to real life!   It is AWESOME.  

Here is our "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive..." class wall story!  
The kids read the wall story with a buddy using a fun pointer!



Below is our GIANT pigeon.  After this picture was taken, we decided to add descriptive word cards all around him.  One student described the pigeon as "extraordinary."  Great use of our first grade vocabulary!  :)


Okay, I know I said it was "All About the Pigeon", but I have to share this fun art and writing project we did after reading the Knuffle Bunny series!  In the Knuffle Bunny books, Mo uses real black and white photographs as the background setting for his pictures, and his characters are drawn as bright little cartoons that seem to pop off the page.  They are the neatest books!  I printed out some black and white photos and had the kids draw Trixie, her Daddy, and Knuffle Bunny and add them to the photos.  Some even added the pigeon, because Mo hides the pigeon at least once in all of his books.  In the one below, the pigeon is washing off in the fountain...

The author and illustrator below even used some of Mo's language that he uses in all of the Knuffle Bunny books--"Then...Trixie REALIZED...SOMETHING..."  So cute!



29 comments:

Leslie Ann said...

Love this! I did an author study on Mo a couple of months ago and my kids fell in love with the pigeon. I also got a ton of the Elephant and Piggie series and put them at our buddy reading center. They are great for buddy reading! My kids think they are so funny, so they are always on task. Love, love love this! :)

Mrs. Saoud said...

I love the creativity with the pictures and characters to develop a story. Great Idea. The bridge in your "About Me" looks like the one in Jacksonville. Would love to know if you are in the same city as me?!?

Ashley's Cooking Adventures said...

Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus is by FAR my favorite children's book. I love that you are filling the last few weeks of school with exciting activities based on the book. What a terrific idea!

Amanda K. said...

I am OBSSESSED with the Knuffle Bunny idea! I am definetly doing that next year! AWESOME! Thanks so much for sharing!

Amanda
Third Grade Experience

The Lesson Plan Diva- Teacher Resources said...

OMG! This so cute. I love the knuffle bunny writing project! Great ideas!

Mrs. Watermelon said...

So cute! My kiddos are obsessed with the pigeon books. This would be a great activity to do during the end of the year. Thanks!

kar said...

Hello there! i just wanted to say that I love your ideas and materials and that i use some of them in my esl classroom in the north of Spain.
So thank you thank your thank you for sharing your amazing work :)

Rachelle said...

OK GIRL!!! SERIOUSLY! I was just telling one of my teacher friends how I love Mo and the Pigeon series. She said she hated it! I almost smacked her! I LOVE this!!!! I'm obsessed with the printable that you made....don't let the pigeon drive the ______________. Is it on Tpt?

Rachelle
whattheteacherwants.blogspot.com

Gina said...

Great ideas! My kids love his books as well!
I'd love to see your classroom! :)

~Gina
beaniesdailyblog.blogspot.com

Amanda said...

Love it! :)

Ms.M said...

I just spent the week with Mo too! I had my first grader go through the Knuffle Bunny series and my kinder kids go through the pigeon series. They love it and so do I. There is so much to learn from Mo Willems. However, my students did nothing as cute as your activities. I will have to file them away for next year.

Ms. M
Ms.M's Blog
A Teacher's Plan

Jaime said...

I just posted about the pigeon today too! I met Mo a couple summers ago & fell in love with his work. I have a pigeon unit for you to check out. Come on over to http://whatsthebuzzinfirst.blogspot.com --jaime

Jill said...

I also love Mo!! These ideas are so extremely cute! Thanks. :)

Magnificent Multiagers!

Jenn Bates said...

OMG...this is adorable!!!! I MUST do it. Any chance you will be posting the printables?
Jenn
http://finallyinfirst.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

This is by far one of the best teacher blogs that I have seen in a very long time. Thanks for sharing all of your amazing work with the public. I aspire to have a web page like this in the near future.

Anonymous said...

Agree..I loveeee the class wall story. I agree with Jenn, hoping that you could post the printables.:)

Ms. Lopez said...

OMG!!! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE your class book! It is just too cute! Thanks for sharing it. I just read the Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog to my class and they LOVED it!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the cute idea!! I love the Pigeon books!! They are so much fun to read and the kids think they are hilarious!!!

SavvySecondGraders.blogspot.com

Lory said...

Yeah! I love Mo! Thanks for sharing these great ideas!!
Lory
Lory's Page

Anonymous said...

This was great. My boys loved this activity. Bree

Rachel said...

LOVE LOVE LOVE this! Like others said - I could use a printable. For my summer school class I really want to integrate writing with read alouds and this has got my creative juices flowin'! Thanks!
-Rachel
edlink123.blogspot.com

Brittany said...

This is such a cute idea! I love all of your adorable ideas :)

-Brittany

frenzyinfirst.blogspot.com

Lesson Plan SOS said...

So cute!! Love the pigeon!!

MrsKinne said...

Love this! Mo is totally my favorite-- and my kiddos favorite, too!

Mrs. Larremore said...

Sarah- You know I love Mo too!! Seeing him read one of his books in person is the best!! Thanks for sharing your fun ideas!!

Anonymous said...

I love your ideas. Could you please share them with me. I love the pigeon books

Unknown said...

As Mrs. Larremore said-seeing him in person is the best. He actually did a drawing lesson with the audience. I do this with my Kinders at the end of the year...they love that they can draw him and make "speech bubbles". We make 3 page books, that often get longer. Thanks for sharing your ideas!

Unknown said...

s a previous poster commented-it's even better to meet him in person. He even showed the audience (and we drew with him) how to draw the pigeon. I teach this to my kinders at the end of the year. They LOVE that they can draw the pigeon, and make 3 page books using his writing style. Thanks for sharing!

k said...

I'm doing an author study over the next couple of weeks and love Mo as well! I was searching some ideas when I came across this posting (I follow you on TPT and LOOOOVE your stuff!) I've been trying to find photos to use as the black and white background for the kids to create their own knuffle bunny story but I can't find any that work... would you happen to still have the photos you used? and are you willing to share??

Thanks!
Kristin
kristinbrehm@gmail.com

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