Pigeon Rules

Sandra Kaplan has a concept in her Depth and Complexity called Rules. This one always stumps people because many see it as actually making rules. I interpret it as organizing information. So on a Kinder level, I do it as "what is always true" about a character, concept, idea. This week I read my students all the Pigeon books by Mo Willems.

I asked them to write about what was ALWAYS true about the pigeon. This activity is much more challenging than it looks. Many of the students will write for example-it is always true the pigeon takes a bath, but that is not true-he only took a bath in one book. There are patterns and characteristics that he shows in all books.