Don't Let the Pigeon Touch the Books!

In kindergarten, we are discussing book care in preparation for the students' first checkout. I decided to have them teach THE PIGEON some rules.

In case you haven't been introduced to the Pigeon yet, he is the star of a series of books by Mo Willems; the first one is Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! We read that and Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late!, and I am happy to report that MOST students resisted his arguments (a few were willing to be bought off by his promise of five bucks).

Then we watched this video:

The students compiled a list of rules that the Pigeon should know. For example:

DO	DON'T
read your books	color in your book
keep them away from drinks	put lava on the books
turn the pages gently	rip the pages
bring your books back to the library	throw your book on the floor

In our next class, we drew our own Pigeons; Mo Willems has step-by-step instructions for drawing the Pigeon on his site. Then each student chose a rule to teach him. Here they are at work:

Common Core standards addressed: R.I.K.10 - Actively engage in group reading activities with purpose and understanding / SL.K.1 - Participate in collaborative conversations / SL.K.5 - Add drawings or other visual displays to descriptions as desired to provide additional detail