Ms. Seitner’s second graders drew some magnificent crows yesterday! I wish I could show you all of them, but I got excited and forgot to screen shot every one. These second graders added lots of interesting detail in the feathers. They had read Crow Made a Friend (@HolidayHouse) the day before, and we talked about how a picture book gets made and how many steps and re-dos one has to go through to get to a finished, printed book. Lots of collaboration!

The second graders are working on “All About” books, a non-fiction unit where they do a deep dive into a subject, like rabbits, trees, Pokemon Go, and others. Two students were doing their All About books on art!

Finally, we discussed how to set up a “spread” in a non-fiction picture book. The kids folded a piece of paper in half and were invited to figure out how to organize one of their All About facts on a two page spread, keeping the “gutter,” or the hinge of the book in mind, and not putting the most important thing in the gutter. I shared with them the beginnings of the All About book I am working on (not surprisingly, it is about crows):

An unsuccessful page (too much information, text that is not so legible):

And a more successful page (clearer text and info, more dynamic spread organization):

To get a copy of Crow Made a Friend for your personal library, go to Amazon, IndieBound, or support my local bookstore in Washington Heights, WordUp Community Bookshop.