Purple, Green, and Yellow

Author:  Robert Munch
Illustrator:  Hèléne Despueaux

Reading Level:  Ages 3 and up

Genre:  Fiction
Themes:  Humor, Repitition

Summary:  In this super funny story, Bridgid really loves to draw and she would love for her mother to but her some colouring markers.  The only problem is that her mother doesn't trust her with them.  Bridgid says she is going to prove that she can so her mom buys her washable markers.  Bridgid does a great job with those, which leads her to having her mom get her smelling markers, which leads her to getting super-indelible-never-come-off-till-your-dead-or-maybe-even-later-colouring-markers.  This is when Bridgid gets into some trouble.  You have to read this book to find out just how much trouble she gets into.

Pre-Reading Activity:  Show the children the cover of the book.  Have them talk with their elbow partner what they think this story could be about.  Then pose the question, "What kind of trouble could you get into with markers?"  Have them discuss that with their elbow partners and have some students share their responses.

Post-Reading Activity:  This would be a good book to use with the issue of trust.  I would have my students write about a time when someone trusted them and they lost their trust. This would be a very deep issue and might be hard for some students.  

Reflection:  I really like this book and read it often to my preschool children.  The only hard issue is that it has the word dead in it so that might be a tough issue.  I would use this with older children to teach about trust.  I love Robert Munch books, although they sometimes have words you have to exchange when reading to younger children, I love the craziness of them.  So out of the box

Author Robert Munch

Robert Munsch, born 11th June 1945, is an American born Canadian author of children’s books. He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After graduating from Fordham University with a degree in Bachelors of Art, he pursued his post graduate studies in Boston University gaining a Master of Arts degree in Anthropology in 1971. Munsch education did not stop there. He also gained a Master of Education in Child Studies from Tufts University.

A Picture of Robert Munch with a bunch of characters from his books

Amazing website of author Robert Munch that you have to check out:
http://robertmunsch.com

The True Story of the Three Little Pigs

The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs

Author: Jon Scieszka

Illustrated By:  Lane Smith

Genre: Fiction

Grade Level: Kindergarten - 2nd Grade

Theme:  Humor, Perspective

Summary: In this hilarious book, we follow Mr. A Wolf in his voyage to find a cup of sugar.  Along the way he sneezes his way through pigs houses.  This is the viewpoint of the wolf from the famous book, The Three Little Pigs.  Although everyone knows the pigs story, it is time to find out the wolf's story.

Pre-Reading Activity: Read or do a flannel board of the The Three Little Pigs.  If you have a smart board in your classroom there is an excellent visual of this as well.  After talking about the book or visual a bit, ask what about the wolf?  What do you think the wolf was thinking when he went to these pigs houses?

Post-Reading Activity: Compare and contrast the two stories, that of the wolf and that of the pigs.  Which one do you think really happened?  Talk to the students about how there are different perspectives to a story.  How everything you hear is not always true.  Talk about how there are were two different retellings of the same event.  Is there really three sides to a story: one persons version, the other persons version, and what really happened.  If you have enough time you could even have the students write a the story of what they think really happened and entitle it:  What Actually Happened When Three Little Rude Pigs Met One Big Bad Wolf.

Reflection: I really enjoyed this book and even laughed to myself reading it.  This book can be used in so many ways in early elementary years.  But I was also thinking that it could be used in older classrooms as well if you are having trouble in the classroom with the children getting along or always making up things about one another.   You can discuss with them how there can be two different sides to a story.  You cannot always believe what you hear unless you were actually there.

About the Author

From the author: "I write books because I love to make kids laugh. I knew Lane Smith (illustrator of The True Story of the Three Little Pigs!, The Stinky Cheese Man and Squids Will Be Squids) would do a great job because we like a lot of the same cartoons and books and ideas. And we laugh at each other's bad jokes all of the time. Our audience is hardcore silly kids, and there are a lot of 'em out there! My motto in writing is: “Never underestimate the intelligence of your audience.” Kids can be silly and smart!" (www.scholastic.com)

Things I Found That Were Interesting...

Here is the video I would use in my classroom for The Three Little Pigs

Here is a fun narrative of The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs

Great literature guide to go along with this story:  http://www.nancypolette.com/LitGuidesText/truestorypigs.htm