Grades: K-4

There are many ways this bilingual book is being used in the classroom.
Whether you’re a French immersion teacher or a Grade 4 Core French teacher,
this book will help you assess your students’ abilities.  Here are a few ideas:

• · Assess reading fluency and presentation skills as students present their drawings in front of the class.

• · Core French teachers can use One, Deux, Three to strengthen students’ number sense for the numbers one to ten.

• · Practise finding the correct words for the objects students draw in a French/English dictionary.  Have students try using the words in a simple French sentence.

Grades: 1-4

Imagining Me is our best-selling book and is filled with many imagination-sparking pages.
Here are a few ways to use it in your classroom:

• Although hugely popular among moms due to the personal nature of the book, teachers are
  using Imagining Me as a tool to learn more about their students at the beginning of the year.

• This book has also been used as support material in special education classrooms and home schooling programs. The content of the book helps students envision positive outcomes for their future and introduces them to the idea of goal-setting in a fun and creative way.

• Imagining Me is also an excellent tool for English language learners; the sentences are simple, and the book provides an opportunity for teachers to assess their students’ reading comprehension.

• Teachers have used this book as a morning eye opener exercise to get their students’ brains started just after the bell has rung.

CONTENT EXTRAS:

Imagining Me helps children practise the art of visualization.  Try discussing some of the following questions with your class!

• The last line in Imagining Me is, “If you can imagine it, you can make it happen.” Do you think this is true? Why or why not?

• Can you describe a time when you wanted something to happen so badly that you couldn’t stop thinking about it? Did it come true?

• Have you ever used visualization to prepare yourself for a big event (sports, performing in a play, etc.)?

Grades: 1 – 2

Description: Kyle is a clumsy boy who is constantly being laughed at for his fumbles.
He’s terrified to play any sports or have any fun because he knows he will just fall and
hurt himself. Kyle decides that the moon is the perfect place for him – it has no gravity!
When Kyle finally returns to Earth, he discovers that the only thing that was stopping
him from having fun was himself.

Themes for The Moon Story: Courage, Fear, Outer Space

Ontario Ministry of Education Expectations:

Grade 1                                                                                                                                                  

Oral

1.3 identify a few listening comprehension strategies and use them before, during, and after listening in order to understand and clarify the meaning of oral texts (e.g. . . . create mental pictures while listening to a read-aloud and draw or talk about what [students] visualized . . . )

Reading

1.3 identify a few reading comprehension strategies and use them before, during, and after reading to understand texts, initially with support and direction (e.g., . . . describe how [students] visualize character or scene in a text . . .)

Grade 2

Oral

1.3 identify several reading comprehension strategies and use them before, during, and after reading to understand texts (e.g., . . . use visualization to help clarify the sights and sounds referred to in the text . . .)

Big Idea:  Good readers create pictures in their head while they are reading.

Before

We like to start with this question: ”Who has the wildest imagination in the class?”

Discuss

What does visualization mean? (Making a picture in your head. Seeing a movie in your head.)

How do we visualize? (By making connections to what we already know.)

Does everyone visualize the same thing? (All of our pictures will be different because we all have different background knowledge and experience.)

During

• Tell the students that you are going to read them a story but you are not going to show them the pictures.  They will have to make the pictures up in their minds.  Tell students that closing their eyes might help make the pictures more clear.
• Choose an appropriate page to stop the story and have students go back to their desk to draw what they see in their minds.
• Return to the carpet and compare images, emphasizing that we all see things differently in our minds because of our previous knowledge and our past experiences.
• Continue reading.  Remember to stop and ask students to make predictions. Assign one page for each student to illustrate.
• When completed, assemble all of the drawings together as a class book.  Or, if each student has their own book, allow them time throughout the week/month to illustrate each page.

After

Review the meaning of visualization and why it’s an important reading strategy.  Our imaginations bring stories to life.

CONTENT EXTRAS: The variety of themes in The Moon Story make great teaching points in addition to visualization.  Try discussing some of the following questions with your class!

Description: Captain Zane is fishing all of the Goldhead sharks out of the ocean.
When she falls into the ocean the sharks can easily seek revenge, but instead they
try something else . . .

Grades: 1 – 3

Themes for Captain Zane: Friendship, Forgiveness, Environmental Awareness

Ontario Ministry of Education Expectations:

Grade 1                                                                                                                                                              
Oral

1.3 identify a few listening comprehension strategies and use them before, during, and after listening in order to understand and clarify the meaning of oral texts (e.g. . . . create mental pictures while listening to a read-aloud and draw or talk about what [students] visualized . . .)

Reading

1.3 identify a few reading comprehension strategies and use them before, during, and after reading to understand texts, initially with support and direction (e.g., . . . describe how [students] visualize character or scene in a text . . .)

Grade 2

Oral

1.3 identify several reading comprehension strategies and use them before, during, and after reading to understand texts (e.g., . . . use visualization to help clarify the sights and sounds referred to in the text. . .)

Grade 3

Oral

1.3 identify a variety of listening comprehension strategies and use them appropriately before, during, and after listening in order to understand and clarify the meaning of oral texts (e.g., . . . visualize and sketch to clarify understanding of an oral text.)

Reading

1.3 identify a variety of reading comprehension Grade 3 reading strategies and use them appropriately before, during, and after reading to understand texts (e.g., . . . use visualization to clarify details about such things as homes and clothing of early settlers . . .)

Big Idea:  Good readers create pictures in their head while they are reading.

Before

We like to start with this question: ”Who has the wildest imagination in the class?”

Discuss

· What does visualization mean? (Making a picture in your head. Seeing a movie in your head.)

· How do we visualize? (By making connections to what we already know.)

· Does everyone visualize the same thing? (All of our pictures will be different because  we all have different background knowledge and experience.)

During

• Tell the students that you are going to read them a story but you are not going to show them the pictures.  They will have to make the pictures up in their minds.  Tell students that closing their eyes might help make the pictures more clear.

• Choose an appropriate page to stop the story and have students go back to their desk to draw what they see in their minds.

• Return to the carpet and compare images, emphasizing that we all see things differently in our minds because of our previous knowledge and our past experiences.

• Continue reading.  Remember to stop and ask students to make predictions. Assign one page for each student to illustrate.

• When completed, assemble all of the drawings together as a class book.  Or, if each student has their own book, allow them time throughout the week/month to illustrate each page.

After

Review the meaning of visualization and why it’s an important reading strategy.  Our imaginations bring stories to life. 

CONTENT EXTRAS:

The variety of themes in the story Captain Zane make great teaching points in addition to visualization.  Try discussing some of the following questions with your class!

• Who is responsible for making the ocean dirty?

• How can we keep our waters clean?

• Why do you think the sharks didn’t hurt Captain Zane?

• What makes someone so greedy and mean?

• If you met Captain Zane while she was fishing all of the sharks from the ocean, what would you say to her?

Grades: Junior and Senior Kindergarten

Description: Katie’s never had a dream, and she’s already six years old!
She embarks on  a mission to find out how to dream, asking various people
and things for advice.  At the end of the book, Katie finally gets her wish
and has her very first dream, but only after she learns how to let go.

Themes for Goodnight Dreams:

Inquiry, Visualization, Letting Go

Ontario Ministry of Education Expectations:        

Oral:

10.  [Being able to] orally re-tell simple events and simple familiar stories in proper sequence.

Reading:

14. [Being able to] respond to a variety of materials read aloud.

15. [Being able to] use illustrations to support comprehension of texts that are read by and with teachers.

There are many creative ways to use Goodnight Dreams in you classroom.  Here are a few ideas:

• Kindergarten students love orally contributing their thoughts and ideas while the teacher reads to them aloud. Allow young minds to go wild as they think up what each character in the story dreams of.

• Have the special helper of the day draw one picture and share with the class.

• Allow students to bring the book home and complete one drawing after their family has read them the story.

• Read the story to the children and then create your own book of dreams. Each child can draw what they dream of.  Then compile all of the drawings into a class book, and make it available for children in your classroom library.

CONTENT EXTRAS:

Goodnight Dreams has some great teaching points in addition to visualization.  Try discussing some of the following questions with your class!

Have you ever had trouble doing something that everyone else says is easy?  How did this make you feel?

Do you think Katie asked the right people and things for advice?  Why or why not?

Who/what would you ask for help if you were Katie?  Why?

Grades: Junior and Senior Kindergarten

There are many creative ways to use My Alphabet in your classroom.
Here are a few ideas:

• Consider teaming up with learning buddies from an older grade to help your students. Ms. Belvedere, one of the creators of Picture It Picture Books, did this with her kids, and they LOVED when their reading buddies came down to help draw and write in their alphabet books. When they were finished, they’d enjoy a fiction book together and point out the same letters they focused on in their alphabet book that day.

• Keep My Alphabet books in your writing or literacy centre. Have students work on them once a week.

• Ms. Belvedere’s kids were really proud of their books and looked forward to sharing with the rest of the class. Consider doing a sharing circle after completing each page.