Since my last PK2 update (in case you missed it, click here), we have continued reading books by Grace Lin as well as searching for answers to our questions about the author and illustrator in books and online. There has definitely been much interest for all of her books, with Ling & Ting stories and this week's read-aloud Lizzie's Friends the most popular ones so far. 

Our students were fascinated by Lizzie's origami friends coming to life and enjoyed trying to make their own origami dog or cat after the read-aloud (here is the link to a website that shows you how to make some easy origami animals if you would like to do more origami with your child at home).

From reading Grace Lin's stories and watching the video below, we also got answers to some of our questions. Here is some of our learning:

Grace Lin is a children's book author and illustrator.
She is from the United States.
Her family is originally from Asia.
She makes different kinds of books: picture books, early readers and chapter books.
She uses bright colors in her illustrations.
The children in the illustrations look similar.
​She writes about what is important to her.

Further, our students got some expert advice from Grace Lin for their own book making:

Read as much as possible.
Always write and draw things that are important to you.

It was lovely hearing our students share what is important to them and what they would write and draw about in their books: their family, dogs (and other pets), their friends, school, dinosaurs - just to mention a few.

We will continue our inquiry about Grace Lin until the December break. Maybe you'll get a chance during the break to read some of her books with your child. I am sure they would enjoy that very much.

At the beginning of this year, Grace Lin gave a wonderful TED talk which I have referred to several times already. In case you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend watching it. It is a wonderful reminder of the importance of diverse book collections as well as quite generally of the importance of reading: books are mirrors, helping us discover who we are, and windows into the world out there, helping us to see and understand what life is like for others. 

Last week, with the help of a very entertaining read-aloud by the title Ask Me (Bernard Waber), we talked with our PK2 students about how people ask questions. Our young inquirers did a wonderful job in identifying some of the questions the characters in the book (a young girl and her father who take a walk together) ask each other. Next, our PK2 students practised asking each other questions and had much fun with it - especially since the questions could be about anything, and no one had to give any answers. We got to hear many different questions, students using different kinds of question words/question starters.

This week as we began a new author inquiry, our PK2 students had the opportunity to ask more questions, this time about the author and illustrator Grace Lin. After briefly revisiting what we had found out last week about asking questions and in particular the words that start a question, our students shared a wide variety of questions in no time:

Over the next couple of weeks, we will try to find answers to our questions - and surely ask more questions because usually finding an answer leads to new wonderings. We will read and enjoy Grace Lin's beautiful stories, explore the illustrations and share with each other what we are noticing and finding out.

If you would like to find out more about the author and illustrator already now, I can highly recommend visiting her website.