Are you Missing a Crayon?

"The Day the Crayons Quit" by Drew Daywalt
Accelerated Reading Level:  3.8
Guided Reading Level:  M

Last winter, one of the most memorable learning activities that I did with my students was to participate in the the MN Star of the North Picture Book Award contest.  With the help of the public library, I reserved small reading group sets of each nominated award book.  Then I allowed each reading group to choose one that they wanted to read and present to their classmates.

For the next couple of weeks, I built small group reading lessons around these books with a focus on vocabulary and fluency.  After each reading group became experts at their book, they read it aloud to their classmates,  I filmed each group's presentation and put the videos up on our class blog for their parents to enjoy.  The class then voted in March for their favorite nominated book during media.  The 2016 winner in my class and statewide, was "The Day the Crayons Quit" by Drew Daywalt.

        This hysterical story told in first person voice from the perspective of the crayons through letters instantly lent itself to every one of my students becoming the most dramatic reader ever!  Because it was the class' favorite book, it led to letter writing lessons and discussions on perspective and first person vs. third person voice in books that we read.  This book is definitely one that I plan on using again and again in the coming years.


        However, joy upon joy --- there is a sequel:

"The Day the Crayons Came Home" by Drew Daywalt
Accelerated Reading Level:  3.3

        Again, this story is told in first person voice from the crayon's perspective, but instead of letters, the crayon's owner, Duncan, receives a stack of postcards.  In this story, we learn that Duncan, like all children, has lost some of his crayons.  As a result, those crayons have had some eventful adventures, but they all want to come home (back to Duncan's crayon box).  Unfortunately, when Duncan retrieves the lost crayons, are not all are in their original shape and thus, cannot fit in Duncan's crayon box.  But Duncan creatively solves that problem and saves the day!

         It is a rare day, in most classrooms, that crayons are not lost and/or found.  Children are constantly saying "I can't find my ____ crayon" or "I lost my ____ crayon."  At the end of the day when the children have gone home, it is not uncommon for the teacher or the building engineer to find a fist full of crayons abandoned in strange places.  And of course, the next day, nobody wants to claim them!  This book may be the secret to solving these problems!

        During the first week, teachers spend a great deal of time teaching procedures, as well as developing children's awareness that they need to be responsible for their school tools.  This book will now become a must read aloud for me during those first few days of school.   Undoubtedly, the humor and message from this book will captivate my future students and I am confident it will help save more than one crayon from the building engineer's hungry vacuum!