Tom Lichtenheld author study

Q and R and I have been enjoying some of Tom Lichtenheld's books for a while now, and last week it occurred to me that he would be a great author to "study." I borrow the term loosely from my (long-past) tenure as a first-grade teacher to say, "We are going to check out a bunch of this guy's books from the library, and really get to know him."

The choice of Tom Lichtenheld was entirely organic -

The "kids" gave me Cloudette for Mother's Day because we had had it checked out from the library for at least 9 weeks running....

And Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site was a natural favorite for Q, who has been able to name all the working trucks since he was two....

-- but as it turns out, he makes a terrific introductory author to study for a few other reasons:

• Sometimes he's the author & illustrator, sometimes just the illustrator
• He has a distinct illustration style
• His books are funny, and the kids love 'em
• They appeal to both genders
• He talks a lot about his work on his website: tomlichtenheld.com, which links to his blog and to pages of downloadable, book-specific resources

I'm going to be posting about some of our activities here, so that, hopefully, some of you with kiddos of similar ages (mine are 5 and 3 right now....we're leaving P-man out of this) can join in. So, feel free to play along, discuss books through the comments, vote on your favorites, etc.  It's going to be fun!

To get things started, we made a trip to the library and checked out as many books as we could.  I put some others on hold (so we could make sure to get the ones we really want), but I also wanted the kids to have the hunter-gatherer opportunity.

I've decided that the author study will formally last 3 weeks. Each week we will have a focus book (or two) that we will use to anchor our major activities (like art projects, mini-books, etc.), while still enjoying our remaining "inventory" more spontaneously.

My proposed schedule is:
Week 1 - Duck!Rabbit!, and probably Cloudette as well



Week 2 - Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site

Week 3 - Shark vs. Train

Just so you're tracking with me, I'm not necessarily trying to do a multi-disciplinary unit with each major book (which you might think from perusing the available activity guides).  I am planning to do an art or writing project with each book, because I think that will help my kids appreciate the perspective of the author.  On the other hand, if we don't make a little cloud in a bottle when we read Cloudette, that's not gonna kill me.

Last piece of business for today - mark your calendars for Friday night, September 7.  We'll do a Tom Lichtenheld party for those of you who are local. It'll probably involve a lot of Shark vs. Train, as that will be our book for the week, but it will incorporate elements from lots of the books.