Do your students love Piggy and Elephant as much as my students do? Every year, the first few weeks of school, my kinders and firsties ask, "Where are the Piggy and Elephant books?" Not only do my students love these books, but I am a huge fan of Mo Willems and his writing. I love the way he uses illustrations to show the characters feelings and emotions. He is a GENIUS when it comes to writing for children.
I decided this year to go ahead and teach a unit over Mo Willems book to my kinder students, so next year they would be more familiar with all of his books, not just sweet, funny Piggy and Elephant.
We started off with DON'T LET THE PIGEON DRIVE THE BUS! It had the kids rolling with laughter! After reading, we discussed all the different emotions that pigeon felt during the story when he couldn't drive the bus.
The next week, we read DON'T LET THE PIGEON STAY UP LATE! The students noticed right away that the bus driver was now in his pajamas! After reading, we compared this story and last week's story. Then we went to the tables and students came up with 4 reasons to give their parents why they should be allowed to stay up late. Their answers were hilarious! One student said he should stay up late because he wanted to eat hot dogs.
The following week we moved on to the Elephant & Piggie series and started with ELEPHANTS CANNOT DANCE! I love Mo Willems's message in this book, that we should never say we can't, but should always try. After reading, we played the Elephant & Piggie Dance Game and the students learned some new dance moves.
The next week I introduced the students to my favorite, KNUFFLE BUNNY! Do you say it nuffle or k-nuffle? Trixie has an argument with another little girl in the KNUFFLE BUNNY, TOO about the pronunciation of the bunny's name. While reading KNUFFLE BUNNY, the students spied the pigeon on a couple of pages, then we discussed times we had lost something that was important to us.
The final week of the unit, I read a Mo Willems biography to the students. They drew a picture of Mo Willems and added a fact or two that they learned about him. Most of them drew him in a tshirt with the pigeon on the front.
Since this unit, the kinder students have all wanted to check out and read the other Mo Willems books. They have stayed checked out since!
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