Towards the end of the story the character's feelings begin to change and together both children notice the color, light, and warmth that can be found in every day. We reflected on the many ways we can fill our days with color; the color we find in the natural world and the color we create.
12-11-19
How can you fill our day with color?
I can help others see the colors in nature - ZM
I can smile - DP
I can be kind - BP
I can paint with friends - AW
I can give a hug when they need one - CB
I can take care of myself - MW
I can share art - NF
I can have an imagination - SW
I can help people feel loved - SP
I can wait and give time - CS
I can welcome people in - CM
I can be nice - BC
I can stay in the green zone - CM
I can smile - LJ
Later in the week we used a sentence from the book to practice reading punctuation and new sight words. We circled the punctuation, counted the words and spaces, and reread the sentence during morning meeting.
The children then cut out the words and punctuation from their own sentence strip, putting the words back in order and building the sentence on their small canvas. We used our pointer power to reread the sentence again, checking to make sure the words were in the correct order. We used the exclamation point to help us read the word Look with excitement!
Using the back cover illustration from the story as our inspiration, the children painted their own (not so) gray winter day on a cardboard canvas. We noticed the colors in the illustration and how the artist used lines to create the winter day; first a yellow line, then an orange line, next a pink line and finally a purple line. Our lines mixed together, like the colors in a sky. Using lines again, we made a white line across the middle of their canvas and the children painted a snowy hill.
Once the paint was dry we took on the role of mathematicians.
How many trees in the illustration from the book? 6.
How do you know? 3 on one side of the hill and 3 on the other; 3 + 3 = 6.
Using their knowledge of shapes and lines the children drew straight lines with a colored pencil from top to bottom on a small brown rectangle. These lines were the detail for the tree bark. Then, using scissors, they cut straight lines from top to bottom. They chose their 6 trees and glued the trees to their colorful canvas. Their last step was using a white paint pen to make tiny dots for the falling snow.
On Friday morning as they transitioned into the classroom they found pictures of their (not so) gray day next to their sentence. They cut around the circle and glued the picture above their built sentences.
Children shared that they felt proud of their work and that all of our (not so) gray days were beautiful!
This one story has provided us with;
social/emotional conversations and book reflections through turn and talks and whole group shares
community connections and reflections on the powerful choices we make every day
opportunities to develop speaking and listening skills- following directions!
meaningful opportunities to use developing reading strategies
practice following print from left to right
the use of fine motor skills; working with straight lines
practice using an artist as a mentor
an opportunity to be persistent with cutting tiny, straight lines
math language; circle, rectangle, top, bottom, how many
1-to-1 matching (words and counting how many trees)
a deep sense of community; we all have an important place in our classroom and in our families, we can share feelings of color, light, and warmth on the grayest of days
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