Fiction Friday - Fortunately

 

         One of my very favorite picture books is Fortunately by Reme Charlip. This is a book that my Mom read to me when I was a child, it was a favorite of my own children and it is always a hit in my classroom.

         The simple book follows the ups and downs of Ned as he tries to get to a surprise party.

Fortunately, Ned was invited to a surprise party.

Unfortunately, the party was in Florida and Ned lived in New York.

Fortunately, a friend loaned Ned an airplane.

Unfortunately, the motor exploded.

Fortunately, there was a parachute in the airplane.

Unfortunately, there was a hole in the parachute. 

The text continues this way with twists that my Pre-kers think are hysterical. The illustrations go between color for the fortunate events and black and white for the unfortunate events.            

            I love this book because my kids and I always find ourselves making our own versions, either just for fun or in response to real life situations.  In Kindergarten, I used the book as a springboard for a silly class book.  Even after our book was completed, the kids kept telling their own fortunately/unfortunately stories. When I was getting my masters I wrote a lesson plan that I loved for a unit on the gold rush.  As a culminating activity for the unit I read the book and then the class worked in small groups to write their own Fortunately books describing the hardships of getting to California and then finding gold. The results were a great review, fun to do, and often resulted in the happy ending of selling jeans or shovels and fortunately making lots of money. I  also used the book when I was a substitute teacher as a fun extra activity (with upper elementary kids).  After reading the book, we would play a cooperative game where we go around the circle and keep adding the next line to the story.  I'd start with something simple such as "fortunately it was time for recess... or fortunately there was no school today...." One final way the book can be used is to focus on something good when something bad happens.  "Unfortunately I broke my arm, fortunately it was my left arm."  My own kids still talk this way sometimes because it can be rather habit forming (and fun).              

            I found several interesting youtube videos relating to the book. There is a youtube video of someone reading the whole book here.  This is a youtube video explaining using Fortunately/Unfortunately in improvisation.  These are my favorite pages because some days are just like this...

Fortunately he missed the pitchfork.

Unfortunately he missed the haystack.

I'm linking up with The Teaching Thief's Fiction Friday.

Fiction Friday - Press Here

       There are so many children's books that I love.  I like the idea of writing about a favorite book each Friday, so I am joining The Teaching Thief's Linky Party.  One of my new favorite books is Press Here by Herve Tullet. It is so simple and yet young children are fascinated by it.  

         On each page the child is directed to follow a simple direction. The first page has one yellow dot and says "Press here and turn the page." The second page  has 2 yellow dots and says "Great! Now press the yellow dot again."  The pages continue like this with different directions to press, rub, shake, tilt, or blow on the page. Each time, the readers are rewarded with some kind of action on the subsequent page. Rubbing the yellow dot may make it change color. Shaking it moves all of the dots around. And blowing on the page just might send all of the dots flying. I guess that in some ways it is like an ipad game, except its made with nice thick paper and relies on children's imagination rather than batteries.

                                                   

         This is my "go to" big sister or brother gift that I give when I am giving a baby gift.  I know the siblings will love the book and that they will get a few minutes of special mommy or daddy (or grandparent) time when they ask to have the book read over and over - and that the adults won't mind rereading it because it's fun for them too :)

        I wasn't sure how the book would work as a class read aloud and whether my 5 year olds (who do play on ipads at home) would be too sophisticated for it and find it too simplistic. I didn't need to worry. They LOVED it!  I read the directions and then followed the directions myself.  By the end of the book they were jumping up and down and cheering because they were so excited. I can't say enough good things about this simple book. I'm thinking I might try to have the kids make their own Press Here books this year.