Rain!

Rain! by Linda Ashman and illustrated by Christian Robinson is a great story for encouraging different thinking and sharing our thinking with others.  The day begins with two characters waking and noticing the day outside is rainy.  The old gentleman is grumpy and sad about the rain.  The little boy is jumping and happy to see a rainy day.  It's interesting to discover as a reader the left page is the old gentleman talking and the little boy side of the story is found on the right page.  I think this would be a great discussion point for a mini-lesson on text layout.  I also think as your follow the thinking of the old gentleman and little boy the students would love to cite examples of positive and negative thinking.  They key in using this book with a group of students or adults would be to show sharing your ideas can lead to positive changes.  We've had a couple of rainy days as we started our summer vacation and I tended to think like the little boy.  I found goodness in the rain. It helped my newly planted plants get established and it gave me the idea of laying in bed, listening to the rain, and reading.