Award Winning Books

First and second graders are learning about books that have won awards.  At their age we are focusing on Caldecotts and Theodore Giesel Award winning books.

First we defined what it takes to win a Caldecott.  Students learned a new word, distinguished. I read "Kitten's First Full Moon" by Kevin Henkes aloud and we watched "Interrupting Chicken" by David Exra Stein on youtube. We took closer looks at the illustrations of "Extra Yarn" illustrated by Jon Klassen, "A Ball For Daisy" by Chris Raschka, and "A Sick Day For Amos McGee" illustratd by Erin L. Stead. (Take a look at the Amazon widget at the bottom for all the books I highlighted)

After the students looked at the illustrations of 40+ Caldecott Award and Caldecott Honor books.  In the second grade students were split into two teams and first had to put 20 of the Caldecott book in proper order based on their call number.  After looking through all the books, they chose their favorite and tried to mimic the illustrators style of drawing.  These came out amazing!

Download the worksheet here

The following week we looked at books that won the Theodore Seuss Geisel Award and Honor.  Unlike the Caldecott, we focused on the words and the pictures.

We read "I Want My Hat Back" by Jon Klassen and "Are You Ready To Play Outside" by Mo Willems.  We took a look at "Bink and Gollie", "Ling and Ting:Not Exactly the Same",  "Mercy Watson, Goes For A Ride", "Hi Fly Guy",  and "Henry and Mudge and the Great Grandpas".  

Students picked a single sentence to type into Tux Paint and draw a matching picture.  While our typing skills are not strong, it was important for students to understand the words are as important as the pictures when it comes to wining to be awarded a Theodor Seuss Geisel Award.