Monday, October 13, 2014

David visits the Steward School Library

Most elementary school students are in love with a mischievous, bald-headed boy who eats dog biscuits, cuts his way through the cafeteria line and breaks the cookie jar as he is reaching high to get a forbidden treat.  
 Author and illustrator David Shannon created the book when he was 5 years old. David Shannon went on to make No, David! a bestselling, Caldecott Winner in 1999.  
While children think the book is hilarious, No, David!  can be confusing to a parent or teacher when first reading it. Adults may worry that children will imitate David’s bad behavior, but really, the children love to look at each page, tell David "No!" and use inferencing skills to figure out exactly what happened and what bad choice their little bald-headed friend made.  When we read these books aloud in the library, we turn each bad choice around and come up with better choice David might have made.   
The first graders had some fun with David in the library over the past few weeks.  We read some of these:                  
Then the fun began.  I posed the question, "What if David came to our library at Steward School?"  Hands went flying up and all of the possible trouble that David could find in the library came alive.  We brainstormed No, David, No scenarios and then came up with Yes, David, Yes solutions.  
After, the first graders chose one to write and illustrate.  These will be made into class books that can be checked out from the library.  Keep a look out for these first grade creations and check one out!  

Finally, we invited Mrs. Klipfel to join us and create a movie on her iPad about David in the Steward School library starring my first grade friends.  I will be sharing this video at an all school assembly later this month.