Can't Get Enough of Mo!

   As a school librarian I chose to focus my literacy project around an author study. I work with a small kindergarten class and one of their favorite read alouds is Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late! by Mo Willems. It is an interactive book in that the main character, Pigeon, is talking to the reader throughout the book. Mo Willems, the author, is a three time Caldecott Honor winner and has written several Pigeon books, as well as Knuffle Bunny books. The students never tire of listening to his stories and his books are consistently checked out of the library over and over. I met Mr. Willems at a book convention and got his new book signed. He is a very nice man and I wanted to share that experience with the students as well. He also has a wonderful website for children and teachers with loads of activities, lesson plans, a blog, and videos. Pigeon has his own fun website as well.
   I decided to open the unit with a read aloud of Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! It is Mr. Willems first Pigeon book and follows the format of Pigeon talking to the readers.  The digital tool I used with the students was an app called iDraw, which students used on iPads. After reading the story I directed students to draw Pigeon and write his name. iDraw is a simple to use app and the students had no trouble drawing. Once they were finished they were to pair up and interview each other talking about their pigeon. The directions I gave were to think of questions to ask their partner about their drawing. While they asked the questions, they were filming the interview as well. The kindergarteners had no previous experience using the camera option on the iPads, yet they took to it like water. I was amazed at how little trepidation the students had and how adept they became at filming. I plan on having them film more of themselves. I used MovieMaker to create the author study for students and teachers to use. My hope is that teachers will see how easy it is to use MovieMaker to create their own author studies, and how students can participate using traditional methods as well as technology. They aren't afraid of using digital media so we shouldn't be either.
    The literacy piece in this project for the kindergartners was discussing author's intent, empathizing with the character, reading and writing the word pigeon, as well as listening to many stories by Mo Willems. Here it is, hope you enjoy it.