Mo Willems Excitement

Our Lower School was one of 200 schools and libraries chosen to participate in the recent Mo Willems Simulcast. It was great fun (he and his books are endlessly entertaining.) And it was inspiring for all of our student writers, as he talked about how he began writing as a child and about his writing and drawing process. We got to see his studio and hear him read his two newest releases, one of which, Big Frog Can't Fit In, is a "pop out" book.

Several students in my writing workshop have begun figuring out ways to add pop-ups and pop outs to books they have written. On Friday afternoon we did a project that involved making a pigeon pop-up. Students quickly embraced the project and put their own creative spin on it. Several students are working on a pigeon card game with different pigeons (including the fearsome Dark Pigeon) on the cards, each worth a different amount of points.

For more information on the Mo Willems simulcast see http://mowillemsdoodles.blogspot.com/2009/10/simulcast-success.html

Inspiring Authors

In Writing Workshop we often look at children's authors for inspiration and ideas for our own writing. Last week during Sky Class storytime we watched an interview with Mo Willems, a classroom favorite especially for his Piggie and Elephant books. The students enjoyed watching him talk about things such as his first book, how he gets started on books and develops characters (he draws them first, as we often do,) and how the Pigeon character just has to be in all of his books. The students continue to enjoy reading his books and one is even taking on writing a Piggie and Elephant book, as Mo Willems suggested they do in his interview. You can see the interview at http://www.pigeonpresents.com/grownup.aspx by playing "Mo History."