The Grouchy Ladybug

We have continued our Author Study of Eric Carle by working through retellings of many of his books. Before a child can write a retelling, he has to be able to orally retell the story! Characters, setting, sequence, repetition all become important. Today Mrs. Alvarado's class retold Eric Carle's The Grouchy Ladybug through pictures as their mini-lesson for Readers' Workshop. They loved their parts!

During the independent work period of Readers' Workshop each child was given an Eric Carle book to retell. Some of the children can actually read most of the words by this time of year but others just enjoy looking at the pictures as they orally retell the story. At the Closing of Readers' Workshop several children were invited to read parts of their book under the document camera and the teacher commented on children that were using a pointing finger or how a child figured out a word by looking at the picture or any of the other strategies that the children have been learning.

As the children transition into Writers' Workshop the same story is reinforced once again. The children fill in a planning sheet of the animals for each time frame and then write the name of the animal below the picture. They will use this planning sheet tomorrow as they begin to write the full retelling of the story to help them remember the sequence and characters in the story.

I really love this author study in kindergarten this time of year. The children love the animals and the art work and Eric Carle's simple repetitive story lines. Every day I go into my classroom with a skip in my step, excited for what the day will bring. It's the perfect antidote to high stakes testing!!