Monday, August 9, 2010

Winnie The Witch


I love this story as a parent and educator. I often used this when I was a literacy consultant to highlight the need for teacher's to focus on curriculum differentiation for children who don't fit the mould (ie. the square peg in the round hole of an inflexible educational system). The message was to change the environment as opposed to the child and I thought that this story illustrated that point most poignantly. Brilliantly wacky illustrations and a very funny story lines make this award-winning book a real pleasure to read aloud night after night in our house! Even better that an author has created a witch that is not wicked and actually has a personality & spirit within her! Students, parents, teachers, and all of us can learn a lesson from this story. It teaches a powerful lesson about good character and respecting those around us. This is also a wonderful text to use when looking at colours with the little ones. With the focus being on Winnie changing her cat and then her house into different colours it is a great opportunity to do some magic wax crayon resist painting. Master 2 is very keen to copy his big brother so is all about learning his letters of the alphabet at the moment! I gave him his name on a piece of paper which I had coloured in with white pastel and drew some stars around his name. Master 2 then used coloured dye paint (pretending it was his magic wand) and painted over his name to see what appeared! He also had great fun painting a witches hat I had picked up from Lincraft the other week. I also took the opportunity to do some colour recognition with him and sorting of coloured stars, all of which was done whilst we had a great time talking about the story. This is just the beginning of Winnie's adventures and we will certainly be on the look out for many of her other titles!

Be sure to check out the official Winnie the Witch site:

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