Picture Book Linky! I {heart} the Pigeon!!

Jeannie over at Kindergarten Lifestyle is hosting a linky party to showcase our favorite picture books! While there are a lot of great books out there, I knew exactly which one I needed to do!


Back in undergrad, I had an amazing college reading professor. She would read books to us as if we were the age students she used to teach. It may have seemed a little childish at times, but I LOVED IT!


The first time she read us this book, I absolutely fell in love!

It almost felt wrong to get to yell at a book! Seriously, I was a little lost for the first couple pages. I really got to talk back to a book, and I could even yell?!


Now I read this book to my students every year. I don't care how old they are, it's just plain good ol' fashioned fun! I make sure to front load them by saying this is a book they have to interact with. They can do/say whatever they would like, as long as they are respectful and we don't get so loud that we bother the classes next door.


This is a great book to read when you have a couple extra minutes to spare (my Kinders would beg me to read one of the many pigeon books at least once a day!). It's also a great energy release on those days when you maybe don't get specials or recess like you normally would. Finally, it's just plain fun to read as a teacher! I am naturally loud, so this books fits with my style perfectly!


Last year I did a big activity with my Kinders where we made our own book that we called Don't Let the Pigeon Be the Principal! The students absolutely loved creating it, and our principal loved receiving it toward the end of the year.


Here's how we created the book. (Sorry I don't have any pictures! I wasn't a blogger at the time, so taking pictures of our little book never even crossed my mind!)


First, we sat down as a class and brainstormed different things that our principal does each day (bus duty, meetings, lunch duty, walking through classrooms, talking on the phone, etc). Then I went into our principal and asked her to pose for two pictures - one of her standing in her office and another of her sitting at her desk. Each student picked which of our brainstormed list ideas they wanted to draw out.


I typed up little cartoon talking bubbles, and each student drew their own pigeon on their page. The first page had the principal sitting at her desk saying, "I have to go to a meeting for a little while. Can you watch things while I'm gone? Oh, and don't let the Pigeon be the principal!" The last page had our principal standing in her office saying, "Thanks! You didn't let the Pigeon be the principal, did you?" And, if you are familiar with the books, you know what all happened in between!


Finally, we presented our book to the teacher. I started by reading her the original book Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus because I didn't think she was familiar with it. Then I read the students' book Don't Let the Pigeon Be the Principal. It was the first time the students had seen the whole book together, so it was a blast! The kids had a great time yelling at the book, and our principal was a little teary eyed before it was all done. She said it was the nicest gift she's received in her entire teaching career.


Alright, I've rambled on long enough! Is this an activity you could see yourself doing with your class? What other Mo Willems things have you done in your classroom?
~HoJo~