First, we read the book and discussed its illustrations and content.
After lunch, I broke the news to them that someone had mixed up all of the events from the story, and that I needed their help to get them back into the right places.
I was surprised at what the kids seemed to enjoy the most. I suppose my surprise was based on the fact that I hadn't originally planned on including it in the lesson. It was a "Then What?" creative activity that chronicled the activities of Peter, the main character of Ezra Jack Keat's The Snowy Day, after his friend in the book had to go home. While they were at activity and lunch, I took some photos of Peter all around the school. When they came back, I uploaded them to my teacher's laptop and created a PowerPoint in about 3 minutes while she transitioned the students from lunch. The result was lots of screaming and smiles. During the time I was presenting, kids kept leaping up from the carpet, running towards the door and peeking through the window to catch a glimpse of the approaching hero.
I had no idea that they would react this way. Something that I had considered menial seemed like the icing on the cake to them...except, that is, for th real icing. When I placed a light package of sugar cookies on the Docu-cam, it was as if I'd ripped open an industrial sized package of delight. By the end of our lesson, they'd all gotten to make their very own snowman face cookie, using white icing for snow, candy corns for noses, and mini M&Ms for eyes and mouths. In order to accommodate a love for candy corns, one student expressed, "You can have two noses!" Others followed suit, and one student presented to me a snowman with noses all around the perimeter of his face.
In all, this was a priceless experience. Seeing them enjoy this activity was worth any preparations and time I spent in creating it for them.
