When summer ends and a new school year has begun, one activity that helps kids recognize the ways in which each student brings something unique to the classroom is a reading of THE IMPORTANT BOOK by Margaret Wise Brown with illustrations by Leonard Weisgard.
The story opens, “The important thing about a spoon is that…” and goes on to list a few descriptors: you eat with it, it’s like a shovel, you hold it in your hand, etc. As students listen to the story, they’re asked not only to think about the important things in their own lives, but to predict the most important aspects of various commonplace things – rain, snow, an apple, and more.
Students use the cloze frame to complete their own “important page.” Once their drafts have been checked for content and mechanics, they finish a final draft and illustrate their page with images in silhouette.
The important thing about ………………. (your name) is that ………………… (list the most important thing about you.
It’s true that s/he likes to …………………….. and ……………………………… .
It is also true that s/he…………………………………. .
But the important thing about ……………… (your name) is that ………………………………….. (repeat the most important thing about you).
Click here to download the writing prompt: The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown, writing prompt
Because you are important to us … provided below is a downloadable worksheet mirroring the cloze frame activity described above.
