As sometimes happens, I was absent from my classroom two weeks ago for a morning and there were no subs available, so my students were divided up and sent to work in various classrooms. I was stunned by some of the art work some of my boys brought back to class! The teacher they worked with, Valérie, who always does such a good job of integrating literature into her classroom, shared this story with me.
“The Day the Crayons Quit” is a story about crayons who, frustrated, write a letter to their owner in the hopes of having him change the way he uses them.
Lesson plan ideas include using the story to start a conversation in Character Circle about the importance of teamwork. Valérie then had the kids create their own drawings. There were only two rules: all of the colours had to cooperate to create one picture and there could be no white space left on the pages.
With older kids, I would also use this book to teach about letter writing and voice.
Any other ideas are welcome!