We Are Growing!

I wanted to share this book I just got at our book fair!  It's called We Are Growing, by Laurie Keller, and...  I cannot wait to use it.  I am sharing it with you before I even do anything with it, in case you want to get your own and have fun with it.  Maybe you already know about it, and I've been missing out.  Anyway- here it is!

I was so sad when the Piggie and Elephant series ended.  So sad... but I knew something else wonderful would be coming along, and it has!

In this story, Walt and his blades of grass friends are all excited to be growing.  As they grow, they each have their own personality and brag about why they are the most special.  "I am the CURLIEST!" I am the SILLIEST!"  Every blade is the something-est... except Walt.  He isn't the tallest, the curliest, or the silliest.  Along comes a BIG surprise that knocks everybody down (in more ways than one) and Walt discovers something special-est about himself that is all his own.

Here is a video reading of the story so you can see what it's all about:
              
Every year I have the children grow their grass hair people.  We haven't started ours yet because we just finished growing our beanstalks, but these are coming soon...

This was one from a few years ago.  I buy tiny ponytail holders and little plastic barrettes.  The kids love putting them in the hair- and... giving haircuts!

How perfect will this new book be to introduce this activity?

It's a great character education story, too. Everyone has special qualities.  We can talk about how everyone has LOTS of special gifts, and just because one person is good at something, that doesn't mean someone else can't be good at that, too!  We don't have the be the -est of anything!  We can have fun learning and doing lots of different things.

Once their Hairy Person grows, I'm going to have the children think of something they think they do the BEST.   Maybe they are the fastEST or the bravEST of the happiEST or the cleanEST or the friendliEST or the nicEST or the neatEST or the funniEST.  I am going to have them write a story all about them as the Hairy Person, and what they are the best at and WHY.   "I am the neatEST, because  I always help clean up my room before I go to bed."  "I am the funniEST, because  I can always make my baby sister laugh when I spin around and fall down."  This is another way to use that special word 'because,' too!

That's my plan for writing.

THEN-  for a quick math break, we'll go outside and collect dandelions.  The  children love to pick dandelions, so we turn it into class contest to see how many we can pick, working together.  When each child gets a group of ten, they put it down on the ground in one group.  We keep picking and making groups of ten.  At the end of a set time (I usually say 5 minutes because it's amazing how many we get in a short time!) we count by tens to see  how many we pick.

Here is one tip to consider... One year, I did this on Spring Picture Day.  One of my boys was wearing a white shirt, that turned out to be more of a "dandelion yellow" in his picture... oops.  Don't do this on picture day.

I hope you have fun with this new book!  I can't wait...

Thank you for stopping by!