Author Study

As part of our 'Identity' Theme, we will be reading books by the author/illustrator Daniel Pinkwater,. We will  see if we can discover something about his identity by reading his books. Mr. Pinkwater is a prolific writer who has written over a hundred books for people of all ages, but most of his books are for elementary aged children. 

Since school started this year we have read approximately 10 books by Daniel Pinkwater, including picture books and short chapter books. Before reading any of his books we talked about how we would try to discover things about Daniel Pinkwater through his books.  The children have already started forming ideas as to some of his interests and fancies.  They have concluded that Daniel Pinkwater likes animals and muffins.  At the end of our study we will write to Mr. Pinkwater and ask if our hypothesis are correct.  Hopefully, he will answer our inquiries. 

Reading Aloud
Reading aloud to children has benefits, both academic and emotional.  Here are some of the reasons we read aloud to children throughout all their years at Summers Knoll:
-It develops and reinforces listening skills
-It challenges children since they can understand material above their reading level
-It models the pleasure of reading
-It facilitates interesting discussions between the reader and the listener(s)
-It is a way to introduce new authors and genres of writing