Often at bedtime Bea and I read a book
Tell Me a Dragon by Jackie Morris
At the end of the book
Bea always tells me in great detail
About her dragon
I have been thinking for ages
It would make a great creative writing and art activity
And today I made that happen
As part of our new Monday morning initiative
Monday Imaginings
This morning I read Esther, William and Bea
In this enchanting book
Jackie Morris conjures a world where everyone has their own dragon
Exploring all their variety
Through lyrical text and beautiful illustrations
It is a magical book
And a joy to read out loud
After reading the book
And looking closely at the pictures
The children drew and coloured their dragons
All the while talking to each other
Thinking about what their dragon would be like
After a while of drawing and talking
We came together to do some shared writing
We thought about what we would say about our dragons
How we might describe them
What features we could include
Size
Colour
Diet
Habitat
Personality
Magical powers
We talked about descriptive writing
Lyrical writing
And thought about the use of simile
Together we composed a description of a rainbow dragon
One of Bea’s many ideas
After the shared composition
The children had a little more thinking and drawing time
Then Esther and William had 30 minutes writing time
To tell me about their dragon
William loved this task
And kept excitedly telling me so
Esther enjoyed it too
But needed more support with the writing
She had a good go at independent writing
But did need input from me
We then worked together to extend and improve her writing
After the timed write was done
This was the first time we have done something like this
All three of the children loved it
They adore being read to
They love drawing and being imaginative together
And today
Esther and William really enjoyed their writing too
I think our Monday Imaginings will become a regular thing
Next I want to use Rebecca Cobb’s The Something
The children have asked to draw and describe more dragons
So tomorrow we are going to read How To Catch A Dragon
To inspire some dragon sketching, painting and poems
I cannot wait!
Our books at breakfast will all be dragon themed tomorrow
And Edie is not missing out either
As I made her a dragon themed book basket
Such a wonderful way to start our week
Monday Imaginings
And soon our Mondays will feature Messy Maths too
Today was a good Home Ed day
Which books do you use to inspire art and writing?