Giving It Their Own Twist

I love to challenge my the creativity of my kiddos! We often take a story and change an aspect of it-Too Many Tamales: what would change if the story took place at Easter instead of Christmas? We do a Jan Brett author study and read The Mitten, The Hat and The Umbrella-all stories about a certain category of animals-farm/rainforest and their trials and tribulations with an accessory. After we read them I challenge the kids to write their own version of the story using a different piece of clothing and a different setting (my favorite was The Underpants which took place in the desert with lizards, snakes and camels :).

We've been reading Eric Carle stories this past week. This is their version of Brown Bear, Brown Bear-they could use any kind of category they wanted for their lists-one did things in space, one did things that begin with the letter "A" and my favorite was things having to do with a volcano.