This past week was "Creepy Week" in the library. I decided to start a bit of a tradition during Halloween week and read all three of Aaron Reynolds' and Peter Brown's books in the "Creepy" series.
I read Creepy Carrots with 1st grade, Creepy Pair of Underwear with 2nd grade, and Creepy Crayon with grades 3-5. This is the order of publication and I kept them in order, even though they can stand alone, because the last 2 books have an "Easter egg" from the previous books. Jasper Rabbit is an endearing character and the "creepy" characters have a silliness to them that draw students in without scaring them.
Although some of the students had read the books, or some of them, they still enjoyed the stories. I used the soundscapes from Novel Effect which added just the right amount of effect of music, sounds and brief dialogue without overpowering the story.
We are currently working on tracking fiction stories, story elements, and orally summarizing. These stories lend themselves perfectly to this work as the problems are obvious and Jasper tries several things to get rid of the creepy characters without success until he finally gets rid of them or solves them problem in some way.
After checkout I like to have choices for the students. This week they could design their own carrots, underwear and a crayon bookmark from templates included in the Novel Effect resources.
The most popular choice was the STEM challenge to build a trap to capture the creepy characters. The students were provided different building supplies and they were able to design and build their prototypes. I do not have a makerspace, but I do have a small collection of building supplies and consumables and I am trying to be more intentional about using them.
A successful read aloud, in my opinion, leaves students wanting to read more from the author or stories similar to the read aloud. These books were checked out right away on Friday and I am fairly certain that they will not be on the shelves for a while. It was a fun week for sure.
