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CCBC-Net: Wave Goodbye
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From: Kathleen Horning <khorning>
Date: Fri, 02 Aug 1996 13:21:02 -0500
Thanks for mentioning "Wave Goodbye" (Lee & Low) by Rob Reid as a new picture book with a great deal of child appeal. I have also tried it with two groups of preschoolers recently in a public library storytime and it was very enthusiastically received by them.
For those who haven't seen the book, it has a very brief rhyming text that encourages children to wave different parts of their body (their hair, their eyes, etc). When I used it with children, I asked for volunteers to come up and form a sort of chorus line, facing the audience, and try out the different kinds of waving as I read them the book. They really had a good time coming up with different ways to move their bodies creatively -- and so did the audience of grown ups and shy kids who were watching their antics.
In one group ofchildren, there was a little girl with a physical disability and I almost decided not to try the activity with that group because I didn't want to do something that would exclude her. But I decided to risk it and when I asked for volunteer performers -- guess what! she was one who wanted to do it. Everyone waited patiently for her to come up to the front on her own using her walker and she ended up being the star of the show because, while she couldn't do everything, the things she could do, she figured out how to do very quickly. (I figured it must be because she has had so much experience at thinking about how to move different parts of her body so that she doesn't take any movement for granted.) Because she figured out what to do so quickly, all of the other volunteers soon learned to take their lead from her. It was really quite a wonderful sight to behold.
This experience (and others I have had in story hours) reminds me that, no matter how much I think I know about picture books, I can't always predict how children will respond to them. I think it's important to take some risks and try books out with groups of children (who don't always respond in the same way to the same book). Sometimes their responses will show us things in children's books that we adults have missed completely.
KT Horning Cooperative Children's Book Center University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education 4290 Helen C. White Hall 600 North Park St. Madison, WI 53706 USA 608&3930/FAX 608&2I33 email: khorning at facstaff.wisc.edu
Received on Fri 02 Aug 1996 01:21:02 PM CDT
Date: Fri, 02 Aug 1996 13:21:02 -0500
Thanks for mentioning "Wave Goodbye" (Lee & Low) by Rob Reid as a new picture book with a great deal of child appeal. I have also tried it with two groups of preschoolers recently in a public library storytime and it was very enthusiastically received by them.
For those who haven't seen the book, it has a very brief rhyming text that encourages children to wave different parts of their body (their hair, their eyes, etc). When I used it with children, I asked for volunteers to come up and form a sort of chorus line, facing the audience, and try out the different kinds of waving as I read them the book. They really had a good time coming up with different ways to move their bodies creatively -- and so did the audience of grown ups and shy kids who were watching their antics.
In one group ofchildren, there was a little girl with a physical disability and I almost decided not to try the activity with that group because I didn't want to do something that would exclude her. But I decided to risk it and when I asked for volunteer performers -- guess what! she was one who wanted to do it. Everyone waited patiently for her to come up to the front on her own using her walker and she ended up being the star of the show because, while she couldn't do everything, the things she could do, she figured out how to do very quickly. (I figured it must be because she has had so much experience at thinking about how to move different parts of her body so that she doesn't take any movement for granted.) Because she figured out what to do so quickly, all of the other volunteers soon learned to take their lead from her. It was really quite a wonderful sight to behold.
This experience (and others I have had in story hours) reminds me that, no matter how much I think I know about picture books, I can't always predict how children will respond to them. I think it's important to take some risks and try books out with groups of children (who don't always respond in the same way to the same book). Sometimes their responses will show us things in children's books that we adults have missed completely.
KT Horning Cooperative Children's Book Center University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education 4290 Helen C. White Hall 600 North Park St. Madison, WI 53706 USA 608&3930/FAX 608&2I33 email: khorning at facstaff.wisc.edu
Received on Fri 02 Aug 1996 01:21:02 PM CDT
