Wordless Books

One unit that I like to do each year with my ELL students, is to work with wordless picture books.  Sometimes we sit in a small group in a read aloud format and talk through the book together, with me doing most of the talking.  At other times we each think of a line to the story as we page through the book.  Some books are available on Kindle, through local library sites, or on YouTube, so that they can be projected and charted or written the board. 

Later, I have students write their own versions of the story, and if they have time they can redraw the illustrations and make a book.

Wordless books are so great for integrating a number of lessons, from using strong adjectives, to story telling, writing stories, increasing vocabulary, etc.

Here are some of our favorites:

David Wiesner has a number of wordless books, most all with fantasy elements. 

Tuesday is a very popular choice among the kids, but Flotsam, and Sector 7 are also fun and beautifully illustrated. 

A children's librarian would have a better idea of what is locally available, but another new book that is lovely is Here I Am.  Which illustrates the arrival of an immigrant child in a large city and his experience as he becomes more familiar with his surroundings.

 A very cool book is Journey, by Aaron Becker.  This dreamy story transports the main character through a fantasy adventure. 

Pancakes for Breakfast, by Tomie DePaola, walks through the process of a grandmotherly type lady making pancakes one winter morning, beginning with collecting eggs at dawn.  It embodies the humor typical of Tomie DePaola, with friendly animals. 

Other titles include:  The Wave by Suzy Lee, Unspoken by Henry Cole (a story of the Underground Railroad), The Flower Book by Mark Ludy, and The Girl and the Bicycle by Mark Prett.

Biography TImelines

A quick and easy way to separate main idea and details, while reading biographies and learning about the genre, is to create a timeline of a person's life.  This also solidifies the idea of chronological order, has children return to text to seek out information, and gives them the opportunity to learn about an influential person. 

Here are a few examples of timelines of Walt Disney's life, based on one particular biography, but we did additional research using other sources also.

Younger children or children with limited English can simply draw big events and perhaps label them, while older children can additionally write about the person's life, highlighting their accomplishments.

The Noisy Paintbox/Abstract Art Activity

Here is a fun activity that I did with third grade students after we read The Noisy Paintbox a biographical picture book of Vasya Kandindsky.  I also supplemented the lesson with images on an iPad showing paintings of his.  The children did a watercolor painting inspired by his work and then wrote a short paragraph about why they chose to do this particular painting.


Here are some examples of their work: