Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert Writing Activity

Here is the post to my original one about the Lois Ehlert book, Leaf Man.

http://www.togethertime4families.com/2010/10/leafman-by-lois-ehlert.html

 I came across a post- pdf - by Tracy Theriault that outlines a writing activity for second grade students using Leaf Man as the focus piece. She connects this book to an author study of Lois Ehlert books.

"The students will analyze her themes, style of writing, voice, characters and media for illustrations. And use her picture books as a model for their own writing."

The students will also practice the writing process of  editing, revising and creating a final draft. (Writing Workshop)

Before the children begin writing and after a read aloud of Leaf Man, Tracy suggests a group discussion about the story - strategies used for Reading Workshop. She encourages students to think about Lois Ehlert writing style in relation to these questions and reviews the book again with students

• What makes up a good story?
• How do we use our voice to ensure that the reader understands the point we are trying to make?
• How can we use describing words to "show" the reader, rather than simply "telling"?
• How does the author use leaves to create the illustrations?

Tracy's decision to use this book was based on the premise that this book would be "very appealing and motivating for students because it gives them a model to work from. She believes that modeling writers is the best way for children to enhance their writing abilities for future grades."

http://efolio.umeedu.maine.edu/~ttheriault/tracy_website/LeafMan.pdf

Read the pdf and perhaps you can use some of her plans and ideas for your students.

Here is a fall word search to use as a follow up or additional activity for students.
The second pdf is the answer sheet for the word search.

http://kids.creativity-portal.com/images/projects/puzzles/autumn-wordsearch-color.pdf

http://kids.creativity-portal.com/images/projects/puzzles/autumn-wordsearch-answers.pdf

Enjoy
SUSAN