Chalk

You can't do anything with sidewalk chalk without reading and sharing Chalk by Bill Thomson!  I want to thank my friend Karen at Literate Lives for her post this summer.  This wordless picture book was another perfect first day read in kindergarten.  Students have to use picture clues to generate the story.  Students have to infer to create a story.  I was pleasantly surprised how well my brand new friends interacted with this story. 

Three children find a bag of chalk on a playground and begin drawing with it.  As they draw, what they are drawing comes to life.  Chalk drawn butterflies turn into monarch butterflies fluttering in the sky, on the next page.  The imagination and magic of this chalk was intriguing to my students.  When we were outside writing, a student began writing/drawing right away and when he got done I overheard this with a saddened sigh.  "This chalk is not magic, (heavy sigh)."  My own students tried so many things they saw in this book within their own sketching that day.  A great book to read for thinking, inspiration, and creativity.