Eric Carle Author Study

Eric Carle is one of my all-time favorite authors. His books are simple but they are also deep. In the Very Lonely Firefly we can examine themes of community and trying to find a way to fit in . He says "the headlights flooded the night". So we can talk about literary devices as well.

We read several of his stories: Very Quiet Cricket, Very Hungry Caterpillar, Very Busy Spider, Very Lonely Firefly. Then I ask them to create a story using the same Very___adjective____creature format. Here is what my current Kinders came up with:

Using AI for Anchor Charts

I am older and people generally assume because of that I fear technology. Nothing could be further from the truth. One of my biggest passions in education is discovering new tech tools. I use Pear Deck regularly and we play games like Blooket to up our engagement for assessment.

Today I discovered that you can actually create anchor charts using Chatgpt. You just type in your objective ask for a visual anchor chart and for your grade. I've been playing with it incessantly. :) 

And maybe this is something everyone already knows about but I just discovered it. You have to be super specific and include "visual". If it doesn't come out as you were picturing just give it different parameters.

Let me know if you try it!!!!

Cat in the Hat Over Time

I know there is controversy surrounding using Dr. Seuss books but I feel like there is value in studying him as an author. We read Cat in the Hat and discuss the ethics of it-did he do the right thing? Then we apply the Over Time concept from Depth and Complexity. I ask the students to think about him as a character and imagine what he was like when he was little and what he'll be like in the future. Will he continue to break and enter in to people's houses to make them have fun? Was he a good student in Kindergarten? How has he changed over time?

Vision Boards-Even In Kindergarten

It is very important to me that my students are getting practice navigating the world of technology beyond the reading and math programs we use. Here we wrote digital stories. It was a vision board-what are their hopes and dreams for the future? Very open-ended-"I will live...", "I will drive" (some wrote specific cars others wrote where they would go), "I will.....", "For fun...."

The Value of Wordless Books

I facilitate a book club for students at my school. One year we had a wordless book on our list. A staff parent sent it back with a note saying "this wasn't challenging enough for my child". I was so surprised an educator would not see the value in wordless books. 

So every year I try to do at least a week of reading wordless books to my students. Some of my favorites are:

We use depth and complexity to analyze the books.

* Multiple perspectives-how would it feel to be a wordless book? Would you be jealous of books with words?

* Rules-what is always true about wordless books?

* Big Idea-what is the author trying to teach us? Was that easy or hard for them to convey that message?

And then their favorite part-they get to write their own books. It amazes me how they start implementing the dream bubbles and expressions on their faces. These are Kinder students.