Thinking Outside the Box: Celebrating Creativity & Imagination 
Also reinforces individuality, self-confidence, days of the week, phonemic awareness, choral reading (Long -- pick and choose)
Opening Music: "Neverland Medley" track 2 on Kenny Loggins' Return to Pooh Corner or Pure Imagination (from the album of the same name) or tracks 1,6&7 from the soundtrack to Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory.)
Book: Perfect Square -- Michael Hall A square is perfectly happy being just a square until he discovers there are many more possibilities! (also nice reinforcement of the days of the week)
Guessing Game Flannel: It Looked Like Spilt Milk – Charles Green Shaw (Lie back in the park, what do you see?)
Book: Bear's Picture -- Daniel Pinkwater (2008 edition, illustrated by D.B. Johnson.) Bear is unperturbed as two very proper gentlemen criticize and try to guess what he is painting. Illustrator D.B. Johnson adds several additional elements to the story – including having the proper gentlemen swallowed into the painting and a surprise "reveal" at the end when you turn the book upside down!
Song: If You're Happy and You Know It! ...sad: shed a tear ...angry: stomp your feet
Discuss whether the above book was fiction or non-fiction (true), then show Elephants Can Paint Too and ask the same question. Surprise…it’s non-fiction! share pages from Non-Fiction Book: Elephants Can Paint Too -- 599.67 Arnold (Katya Arnold explains how she teaches both children and elephants to paint -- fascinating!)
Song/Flannelboard: Look There Daddy, Do You See? (also known as The Horse in Striped Pajamas) from the old TV show "Captain Kangaroo". (Tune and various versions available on the internet by searching: "look there daddy do you see lyrics")
Look There Daddy, Do You See?
Look there Daddy do you see?
There's a horse in striped pajamas.
No that's not what it is at all,
That's an animal people call a zebra.
I see -- but it still looks like a horse in striped pajamas to me.
2. There's a bird in its tuxedo …. penguin
3. There's a bird wearing a rainbow… parrot
4. There's a bird wearing eyeglasses….owl
5. There's a mouse with great big wings on…bat
6. There's a bird with his umbrella… peacock
7. There’s a fish wearing great big whiskers … walrus
8. There’s a teddy with two black eyes … panda
Close with exuberant Singable/Chantable Book: I Ain't Gonna Paint No More – Karen Beaumont & David Catrow (A child paints every part of her body – page turn before each body part name, pause and have children guess -- great for phonemic awareness - rhyming)
Chalk – Bill Thomson (Three children find a bag of magical chalk on a rainy day…and everything they draw comes to life – including a T-Rex!)
Optional Videos:
Preschool: Changes, Changes by Pat Hutchins (Weston Woods)
School Age: Reading Rainbow: Llang and the Magic Paintbrush or Applemando’s Dreams
Close with Song: Just Use Imagination (tune: "Yankee Doodle") – omitted 2014
Reading can be lots of fun
Just use imagination,
I'm jumping with a parachute
I'm king of all creation!
I'm swimming cross the ocean wide
I'm riding on a turtle,
I'm flying high with butterflies
I'm jumping o'er a hurdle.
I'm dancing with a million stars
I'm painting my own rainbow;
I'm playing music on a harp,
A fiddle, and a banjo.
Reading can be lots of fun
Just use imagination,
I'm up in a hot air balloon
I'm king of all creation!
Closing Music/Hand Stamping: "Neverland Medley" track 2 on Kenny Loggins' Return to Pooh Corner.
Craft – Sidewalk painting with chalk & water (brushes/sponges)
Booktalk/Alternates/Display:
Not a Box or Not a Stick -- both by Antoinette Portis (everyday objects imaginatively transformed), any of Saxton Freymann & Joost Elffers personified food books: Food for Thought, How are You Peeling? Dog Food, Fast Food. Other books by Michael Hall.
Book: The Story of Fish & Snail - Deborah Freedman. (A story of friendship and moving beyond your comfort zone. Snail is reluctant to leave the comfort of his familiar book to explore a new story with his friend Fish.)
Book: Changes -- Anthony Browne
(a boy's imagination runs wild as he waits for his parents to return) (2007 booktalked)
Book or Booktalk: Duck! Rabbit! -- Amy Krouse Rosenthal (What do you see? Two unseen narrators argue over which animal they are seeing. With school age classes, can divide the room into two parts and have each side read one of the narrators.) (2007 BWL booktalked)
School Age groups might use Book: The Dot – Peter Reynolds.
A beautiful book for inspiring self-confidence: Vashta thinks she has no artistic talent until an art teacher tells her to make a dot on a piece of paper then sign her work. The next week Vashti sees her picture hanging in a beautiful frame, which inspires her to explore all sorts of possibilities…. Guessing Game Book: What is This? -- Antje Damm (share selections & have kids imagine possibilities)...great lead-in to show a few pages from: Leaf Man -- Lois Ehlert (leaf pictures), Here a Face, There a Face -- Arlene Alda (quick book showing photographs of "found faces" in nature and in man-made objects.)
for PreSchools: Flannel (based on the book by Frank Asch): Monkey Face (On the way home from school, all of monkey's friends suggest alterations to his painting of his mother. -- Script below. Email me for patterns.)
Book: how to -- Julie Morstad
(splendid new book whimsically explores creative ways of doing things)
Display:
extra copies of all above (and related titles by the authors) plus:
Imagine a Day / Imagine a Night / Imagine a Place -- all by Rob Gonsalves and Sarah Thomson
Bedm K-2nd 2014:
Andrew Draws -- David McPhail
Margritte's Marvelous Hat -- D.B. Johnson
The Day the Crayons Quit -- Drew Daywalt
If - Sarah Perry
Little Green -- Keith Baker
Palazzo Inverso -- D.B. Johnson
Froodle -- Antoinette Portis
Call Me Gorgeous -- Giles and Alexandra Milton
BWL: 2016
Bear’s Picture – Daniel Pinkwater, illus. by D.B. Johnson
Flannel: Look There Daddy
Little Green – Keith Baker
Flannel: It Looked Like Spilt Milk
Elephants Can Paint Too (599.67 Arnold)
How Are You Peeling? Foods with Moods – Saxton Freymann
Action: Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes
Perfect Square – Michael Hall
I Ain’t Gonna Paint No More – Karen Beaumont
Not a Box – Antonette Portis
Video: Changes, Changes
Flannel/Song: Just Use Imagination
BWL: 2017 (story/craft – outdoor chalk & water painting – brushes & sponges)
Perfect Square – Michael Hall
Flannel: It Looked Like Spilt Milk
Bear’s Picture – Daniel Pinkwater, illus. by D.B. Johnson
Action Song: If You’re Happy & You Know It
Elephants Can Paint Too (599.67 Arnold)
Flannel: Look There Daddy
I Ain’t Gonna Paint No More – Karen Beaumont
Chalk – Bill Thomson
Flannel/Song: Just Use Imagination
Booktalked:
Little Green – Keith Baker
Not a Box – Antonette Portis
Changes – Anthony Browne
Video: Appelmondo’s Dreams – as kid’s arriving
Flannelboard Script: Monkey Face by Frank Asch
(lots of cute versions on the web if you do an image search, I scanned the animals from the original book and have a simple felt face "picture" of Monkey's Mother which I embellish with felt "eyes" "ears" "mouth" etc.)
One day at school, monkey painted a PICTURE
(white felt with simple monkey outline) of his mother.
On his way home, he stopped to show it to his friend, OWL.
“Nice picture,” said Owl, “but you made her EYES too small.”
“How’s that? (
place felt eyes atop felt picture) asked Monkey.
“
Much better,” said Owl.
When Monkey saw RABBIT sunning herself, he held up the picture for her to see.
“Looks just like her,” said Rabbit, “except the EARS are a bit short.”
“How’s that? (
place ears) asked Monkey.
“
Big Improvement,” said Rabbit.
At the river bank, Monkey found ALLIGATOR and showed the picture to her.
“Pretty,” said Alligator, “but she hasn’t got much of a mouth.”
“How’s that? (
place mouth) asked Monkey.
“Beautiful,” said Alligator.
As he walked on, Monkey met ELEPHANT and showed him the picture.
“Good likeness,” said Elephant. “But her nose is almost invisible.”
“How’s that? (
place trunk) asked Monkey.
“Unforgetable,” said Elephant.
Monkey couldn’t wait for LION to see his picture.
“You’re a born artist,” said Lion, “except for one thing – you’ve forgotten her fluffy mane.”
“How’s that? (
place mane) asked Monkey.
“Most becoming,” said Lion.
When he was almost home, Mondey saw GIRAFFE and let him look at the picture.
“Nearly perfect,” said Giraffe, “but her neck needs to be a little longer.”
“How’s that? (
place neck) asked Monkey.
“Truly elevating,” said Giraffe.
Monkey ran the rest of the way.
His lunch was all ready and his MOTHER was waiting for him.
“Look what I made in school today,” said Monkey. “A picture of you.”
“I love it!” said his mother.
“Just the way it is?” asked Monkey.
“Just the way it is,” said his mother. And she hung it on the refrigerator for everyone to see.
(place Monkey/mother hug)
BWL 5/2014, 6/2016
Bedm. 5/2014
