This month in the PLC we’ve reviewed what the Caldecott Award is and read past Caldecott Winners and Honors books. Paying close attention to the illustrations, we noticed some picture books have words, some do not, and that the illustrations play a huge part in actually telling a story. Even if you’re still learning how to read, you can use illustrations to follow along in a story. Sometimes the illustrations will give you more information that the words do.
*Check out the video at the bottom of this post called “Picture Books: What They’re REALLY Trying to Teach”.
They All Saw a Cat
TK-3rd read They All Saw a Cat by Brendan Wenzel, and students noticed that the cat looked different on every page. Why is that? Why did the author and illustrator make that decision? What does it tell us that when the mouse sees the cat, the cat looks like a monster vs when the child sees it, the cat looks cute and cuddly? Which illustration of the cat was your favorite and why? Mine was when the bee saw the cat!
We learned that illustrations give the reader details and can show different perspectives. We can all read the same book, but have a different point of view and opinion about it. Students from TK-3rd grade were asked to simply draw a cat. Everyone read the same story, saw the same illustrations, and I even did a drawing lesson with some of our younger classes. BUT you’ll notice that everyone’s drawings look incredibly different. These illustrations show us the variety of personalities and perspectives our students have, and it’s been really cool to see these pictures together!
Click to see the slideshow!
I really love this video and I hope you will too!
I’ve really enjoyed reading picture books with our younger students, and as we get older and start reading chapter books we often miss the details and color illustration provides.
The Falcon's Fables 
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