Kindergarten Visualizing with CHALK

Chalk by Bill Thomson

I love everything about this book. The illustrations are amazing. I have used it in many classrooms at many grade levels. This particular lesson was for kindergarten visualizing, but I would recommend it for any elementary grade you want to engage in an adventure.

I talked to the students about what good readers do. We talked about how important it is to stop and think and try to get a picture in your head as you read. I  introduced my Visualization Wizard and told the children  that when we visualize we conjure up some or all of our senses to help us.

I introduced Adrienne Gear’s poem from her book Reading Power:

“You don’t close your eyes when you visualize,

You don’t close your eyes when you visualize,

You don’t close your eyes when you visualize,

You use your brain! yeah!” (we added in some snapping,clapping dancing…)

 

I said “visualize “ice cream” and think about it quietly.” Then we shared-I asked “what would you see,smell,taste,feel or hear? ” Everyone laughed at “hearing” ice cream. After sharing we talked about how not everybody visualized the same ice cream, because we don’t all see things in the same way.

We continued with visualizing  “pizza” and ” a dog” . It really helps to do this orally, before trying to do it with a book.

I then proceeded to share the book Chalk stopping in key places to think and visualize…”get a picture in your head…” at the end of the book, students drew a picture with coloured chalk to show what they would draw if they had magic chalk.

Finally, we sat in a circle and shared our drawings and talked about what it would be like if the drawings came alive.

My next step will be to go to Adrienne Gear’s book and do the activity about Lollipops in her visualization chapter.

I will do this lesson again!!

 

Other books for visualizing :read more

Wordless Picture Books CHALK

My Teacher Librarian shared this wordless picture book with me-I can’t wait to try it out! Thanks L.H.!!    Chalk    by Bill Thomson

I love wordless picture books. There is so much you can do with them. When my daughter was three years old , she could sit for hours pouring through the pictures making up her own stories. The adventures changed slightly every time but she was loving books and thinking about words . She was enriching the story by noticing new details and drawing new conclusions about the story. She knew stories had a beginning middle and an end. She then started “writing” out her stories in a notebook. And yes- she still loves to read and write!

I was thinking about her the other day when I was encouraging a group of teachers to improve their student writing. They looked at me like I had two heads, they were just not able to see “any purpose” for these books without words.

 

Here are my Top Ten Reasons to use wordless picture books:

1.     allow everyone to feel successful

2.    lead to discussion ,critical thinking and creative writing

3.    improve reading and writing skills

4.    sequence of events and retelling strategies

5.    helping children develop the basic building blocks of language

6.    encourage the introduction of new vocabulary openers, connectors, signal words

7.    develop story telling skills at any age

8.    allows for individual and cultural interpretations

9.    learn about clues in the pictures by paying attention to details

10. great for synthesizing and other comprehension strategies like making connections, determining important inferring and

 

Not mine but important…

Cassady, J.K. (1998). Wordless books: No-risk tools for inclusive middle-grade classrooms. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 41, 428–432.

• David Wiesner (author of Tuesday) identifies one of the most valuable characteristics of wordless books-the endless possibilities for creative interpretations.
• Wordless books enhance creativity, vocabulary, and language development for readers of all ages, at all stages of cognitive development, and in all content areas.
• The creativity stimulated by wordless books encourages older students to look more closely at story details, to carefully consider all story elements, and to more clearly understand how text is organized so that a story develops.

 A great link to take a look at:

http://www.famlit.org/pdf/talking-about-wordless-picture-books.pdf