The Day The Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt is a funny, charming story about a box of crayons with a box of issues that they're ready to address with their user--who is simply trying to write a letter with them.
The genre of this book is a picture book, and the illustrations are whimsical impressionistic cartoonish pictures, attributing personified expressions to the crayons.
Activities
1. Which crayon are you? Have each student pick a crayon from the book, and write a letter--in the same color crayon--as if they are that crayon, but after the end of the book. How do you feel now, as a crayon? How do you feel about the other crayons? What about the person using you?
2. Add a new crayon. Using the ideas and struggles represented by the crayons in the book, pick a crayon that wasn't included, and add pages to the book. Make an illustration and write a letter to go with it. What should be done to help your crayon?
3. How does respect develop between the crayons, as well as their owner over the course of the story? Use 2-3 crayons as an example. Is there more respect after? With whom? How? What can make respect grow, and what can cause it to go down?
4. What's your favorite color? What is your least favorite color? Give these two crayons personalities and write about how they feel about each other, and how they feel about you!
5. Make a comic of the box of crayons after the end of the book. What are they talking about? How do they interact? What do you think they have to say about the human in the book?
Overall, I greatly enjoyed this book! The crayons cracked me up at first, with their various issues and demands. However, it didn't take long to see that the crayons are wonderful representations of conflicts encountered in real life. The interactions present different possibilities for children to consider, and provide templates for ways to respond to amend things. Similar books include The Day The Crayons Came Home, also by Drew Dewalt (reprising the beloved crayon characters here), Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle (another wonderful picture book playing on emotional interactions), and The Pout-Pout Fish by Deborah Diesen (another way of addressing conflict, though this time internal).
Bibliography:
Daywalt, Drew. The Day The Crayons Quit. (2013) Philomel Books
Sarah, Create a Debate is a wonderful activity to use with the book The Day The Crayons Quit. I love this book. I have done a debate within the classroom and it is so fun and entertaining for the students. This is how I have done it in the past. There are a lot of different discussions that you and your students can have. You can choose different questions but here are a few I have used in the past. Which color has the strongest argument? Which color should paint the sun? Why? Are any of the arguments based on facts? Remember, this is a day of FUN, so don’t keep score. Enjoy the process of building an argument with a group and expressing it! The other activity I have done is Free the Crayons. I have the students create a classroom mural. The crayons seem to be upset because they are being used for the same purpose. Give them a chance to express themselves. Provide students with a large piece of craft paper let everyone color a different part of the classroom mural. Use the colors in non-traditional ways. Make the clouds purple and the sun blue. Let black do something other than an outline. When the mural is complete hang it up in the classroom with the headline WE SUPPORT THE CRAYONS! Both of these activities are loved by the students. Good luck and thanks for the great blog!
ReplyDelete