This week we looked at one of our favourite stories, No-Bot The Robot With No Bottom, by Sue Hendra. When I opened the cover, the children were surprised to see that the writing had been covered up with strips of paper. Despite this setback, we went ahead with the story, with the children's help. Without any words (letters) we discovered it was much harder to read. We could remember some of the words, and of course the pictures were very helpful (the value of illustrations in picture books must not be underestimated), but the children realised that we were relying on a lot of guesswork to read the story. Later on that day, I removed the paper that was covering the text, and we read the full story, using the words as they were printed, much to the children's enjoyment. The next day I shared a book that is designed to have no text. The pictures, however, were very descriptive. Together we looked at each page and discussed what we could see, what was happening and what the characters might be doing, thinking, or saying. Then each child was given the opportunity to write the story in their own words. As we turned the pages, the children told me what they thought should be written, and I wrote their words down on sticky notes and stuck them to the appropriate page. When we had finished, I was able to re-read the short book back to each child in their own words. The purpose of course was once again to highlight the value and importance of letters (writing). The children were very proud to be the writers of the story.
Later in the day, we looked at another favourite of the children's; The Book With No Pictures, and were able to make an interesting comparison. While we had been focusing on books with only pictures, here was one of the children's absolute favourites which has only writing and no pictures. Despite having no pictures, the book is extremely funny and again emphasizes the power of the written word. You can see the author, B.J. Novak reading an excerpt from the story here on YouTube.
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