Wild About Mo Willems

Mo Willems is one of the most popular children's authors today, and easily the most popular in my school library.  So this past fall we spent a month doing a Mo Willems author study.  We also incorporated call number activities in our author study to prepare for Dewey Decimal December.  I've loosely organized the unit activities by book.  I did this unit as activity stations with five to seven different activities set up around the room.

Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! by Mo Willems
- Make simple felt or cardstock pigeon puppets so students can reenact the book.  You can also make bus driver hats.  If you have a puppet theater this is a great time to get it out.
- Students write their own pigeon stories.  Start with "Don't let the pigeon..." or "The pigeon wants..."  At this station also include "How to Draw the Pigeon."
-"Who will drive the bus?" game.  My instructions can be found here at Google Docs.  Under the directions print a large drawing of a school bus with at least six windows.  The windows will be the gameboard spaces.  This game helps children recognize the difference between fiction and non-fiction call numbers.  You can find the game cards here for nonfiction and here for fiction.
-I also purchased Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus Game! from Amazon and the two pigeon puzzles: The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog! Puzzle: 24 pc and Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late! Puzzle: 24 pc.
-If you can find it, there's also a DVD of this story from Weston Woods that includes a video of a school visit with Mo Willems.  If you time it right, you can ask Mo questions and he will answer you and teach your students how to draw the pigeon.  (This is not the Mo Willems collection DVD on Amazon.)


Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed

-This is a great opportunity for talking about dressing for the weather.  You can make a mole rat paper doll and various clothing items.  Stick magnets on the back and use a small magnet board or cookie sheet.  You can also make background pictures of different situations and make appropriate outfits.
-Use clip art of clothing items to make a matching game.  On one of the pieces write an author's name and on the matching piece write the call number.







Elephant and Piggie books by Mo Willems

-Make your own puzzles.  There are plenty of coloring sheets available at pigeonpresents.com and other websites.  Draw lines for where to cut.  I like to cut them in plain vertical strips and put call numbers or words on the bottom that students need to put in order.


Mo's books are just great fun.  Use your imagination to make more stations.  If you have ideas or activities you've done, please add them in the comments.




Author studies are also a great time to encourage students to write.  We have a writing center set up for the duration of the unit, and I schedule it during National Novel Writing Month when we are also all working on our own novels.