Chalk by Bill Thompson
READ!
A rainy day. Three kids in a park. A dinosaur spring rider. A bag of chalk. The kids begin to draw. . . and then . . . magic! The children draw the sun, butterflies, and a dinosaur that amazingly come to life. Children will never feel the same about the playground after they experience this astounding wordless picture book and the power of the imagination.
EXPLORE!
LEt’s make an Obstacle Course!
Create an obstacle course using objects in your home that your child can move over, under, around and through.
The prompts used in the course are examples of prepositions, or words that show a relationship between things. These kinds of words can be tricky since you need to understand what the other words in the sentence mean to understand what those words mean together.
Giving children a chance to do what each word means helps them connect its meaning to an experience! Your children will be excited to help plan the course, so ask for their input. Thinking of what they can use to build the obstacle course helps them make a connection to what the word means! For example, ask “This word says ‘over’. We just jumped over the broomstick. What else can we jump over?”
Help your child get into T-Rex character by decorating the dinosaur feet in your Let’s Read backpack!
The Big Five ideas for this book:
Talk: Imagine what the children are saying to one another as they find the chalk at the beginning of the story, and as they leave the playground at the end. Talk together about what you would have done if you had been on the playground with the T-Rex came to life! Finally, talk about what you and your child would draw using the magical chalk from the story. What would it be like if those drawings came to life!
Play: Recognizing different emotions is an important part of social-emotional growth for children. It gives them tools to explain how they are feeling and empathize with the emotions of others. Look through the book at the different expressions that the characters make and have fun recreating those expressions in the bathroom mirror with your child. Then take turns mimicking expressions of one another. For example, make a sad face and see if your child can match your expression. Continue taking turns with other emotions, such as surprise, anger, happiness, etc.
Sing: Hear songs about Tyrannosaurus Rex and other dinosaurs here!
Write: If you have sidewalk chalk at home, head outside and see in your own drawings come to life! Invite your children to draw key images from the story, such as a playground, bag, rain, and T-Rex. Use pages from the book if you need a guide! Encourage your child to retell the story using their drawings.
real world connection
Family Photos: Storytelling is an important way we preserve our family and cultural histories too! Show your child photos of family members displayed in your home or on your phone. Share a memory you have of that person. What was different about when or where they grew up? Using only spoken words when we tell stories helps children build strong mental images!
LEARN MORE!
Chalk is a wordless story. Wordless books help children practice storytelling by interpreting the illustrations in the book and imagining what characters might be saying, thinking and feeling. There is no right or wrong way to read wordless books, and children will appreciate that each person has their own style!
The best part about wordless stories is that you’ll never hear the same story twice AND you can tell them in any language!