A Special Time For Our Kindergarteners As They Get To Know Mercer Mayer In The Library and Classroom

Today is one of my favorite days with the kindergarteners.  

It is the day that we talk about one of our favorite authors and illustrators...and one of my personal favorites.  It is the day we read and share his books, go to his website to learn more, and watch videos of him reading Little Critter books.  

He is one of the first authors and illustrators they study as part of the kindergarten curriculum. 

That's right!  

It's author and illustrator Mercer Mayer who many of us have loved as one of our favorites.  

Last year my cousin Christa McClintock, who teaches kindergarten at Van Meter, asked me if I thought it was possible to Skype with Mercer Mayer.  

I told her we would try to connect.....We decided to create something very special to share with him. So we wrote and illustrated our very own "Just Me and Little Critter" using Little Bird Tales.  

You can read all about this project in the post A Kindergarten Little Bird Tale...."Just Me and Little Critter".  

In January, I heard from Mercer.  What a honor....The kindergarteners Little Bird Tale meant a lot to him and he was very excited to connect with our students and teachers.

In February, Mercer visited Van Meter Elementary and Amana Elementary through Skype.
                    
You can watch what a fun and special day it was to have Mercer in our schools.  You can also read Mercer Mayer and Little Critter Visits Van Meter and Amana Elementary...What a Special Day It Was!

One of my favorite parts of Mercer's visit was when he drew Little Critter for all of us.  It was one of the best moments in the library ever!  He sent Little Critter to me after our Skype and today I brought Little Critter out to show the kindergarteners....

                           

and to let Mercer Mayer influence our students in a very special way as they drew their very own.

      

It was really neat seeing this little friend look at our original Little Critter while she learned how to draw him....

and these too.  

                                       

We also put Little Critter up on the big screen so the entire class could see him as they drew too.  

The title of our eBook will be Just Me and Little Critter so the kindergarteners drew illustrations of them doing something fun with Little Critter.  

I scanned their Little Critter illustrations and saved them as PDF's.  After the other kindergarten class comes on Friday, I will upload all of them into SlideSnack.

This is the digital tool we are going to use to create our Just Me and Little Critter eBook.  I like SlideSnack because we can also record their voices over the illustrations each child created.

I also showed them Mercer Mayer's Little Critter website.  I put this onto the Kindergarten Symbaloo.  

It is very easy for them to find this website and others we are using at school and home.

The Little Critter World-Wide Network has a lot of special places to go.  There are videos of Mercer reading; the sing-a-long; Little Monster Activities; interactive play; apps and more apps; and much more.

 

It was a FUN day with Little Critter and Mercer Mayer.

I can't wait to share our Just Me and Little Critter eBook next week too.  And I hope we can have Mercer Mayer and Little Critter back to our library very soon.