Kindergarten Author Studies?

[Kerra]

I am looking to do an author study with my Kindergarteners soon. I have already done Beatrix Potter and their teachers have done a lot with Mo Willems. Does anyone have any suggestions? I am looking to read some engaging stories and utilize technology. It will be for an observation.

I would greatly appreciate any ideas!

[Dana Tunick]

Mercer Mayer.  He does the Little Critter stories!  They are adorable and each story has a hidden (or not so hidden) spider on each page that you can have the students look for.  There is also plenty of information and lesson plans for his books on the web. 

Another author is Eric Carle.  I have seen teachers do The Hungry Caterpillar on the Smartboard and each student has to move what food the caterpillar ate into the correct day. 

Good luck!

[Kerra]

Love those ideas, thank you so much!

[Mr Gavin Jones]

I don't know about utilizing technology with these stories but the two authors that spring to mind are Mem Fox and Martin Waddell - they both have a variety of topics and themes and both use a range of illustrators. The best books (in my opinion) for Mem Fox are: Ten little fingers and ten little toes, Where is the green sheep, Sleepy bears, Shoes from Grandpa and Night noises. Great books by Martin Waddell are Pig in the pond, Farmer duck, The big, big sea, Owl babies.

Another interesting exercise is to focus on the illustrator rather than the author, so the pictures all have the same style, but are different based on the needs of the prose. Helen Oxenbury would be the stand out illustrator for me - based on how many great books she has worked on: Farmer Duck, So much!, Ten little fingers and ten little toes, We're going on a bear hunt (all by different authors).

I hope this helps

Cheers

Gavin

[Kerra]

I'm more familiar with Mem Fox, but I never thought of Martin Waddell - thank you! I also really like your idea of focusing more on the illustrator than the author. I could even do an illustrator study, which I never thought of. Awesome! Thanks again.

[Mr Gavin Jones]

No worries - if I think of any more authors/illustrators I will let you know.

Cheers

Gavin

[Julie Hembree]

I always do an author/illustrator unit on Lois Ehlert. She has a lot of kindy appropriate books, but she has interesting illustrations. The kids also like to see how she has "cut-outs" in many of her book illustrations.

Julie

[Jody Stone]

We do a Kinder author study using Ezra Jack Keats. Do you have BrainPop Jr? They have a movie on Keats as well as activities, including a make your own online collage using PictureMaker that you could use individually or with a SmartBoard. YouTube has movies of Whistle for Willie and Peter's Chair read alouds. Here's a list of Keats author study ideas: http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/collection/ezra-jack-keats-autho... and a nice guide from Penguin: http://us.penguingroup.com/static/pages/youngreaders/minisites/snow...

There are also other SmartBoard activities for Keats books on the SmartExchange site.

Good luck & have fun!

[Kerra]

I truly appreciate all of the responses I have been getting! I will make note of these great ideas :)

[Kerrie Burch]

I'm not sure if others have mentioned this yet, but I just did one with Dr. Seuss.  The kids had a blast with it and seeing as I use a centers based approach, I was able to include many activities to keep the kids busy and out of trouble.  Seussville.com has a lot of activities and there are SmartBoard lessons available on the SMART Exchange.  Good luck!

[Heather Klein]

I love books by Audrey and Don Wood!  The illustrations are so beautiful in their books! 

[Holly Matthews]

Eric Carle would be a great one.  Also check out the Pete the Cat books by Eric Litwin.  He uses music to go along with his stories.  My kindergarteners love Pete the Cat so much. 

[Allison Williams]

Jan Brett is a great choice. Lots of wonderfully illustrated books and a great website with short movies of her working, baking, reading and other activities that would interest kindergartners.
Kevin Henkes is also good. Kindergartners can really identify with his characters.
Another good one is Rosemary Wells. So many fun characters and subjects from economics to cultural diversity.