Students Celebrate Literacy and Award-winning Books
It’s Children’s Book Week, and Lower School students celebrated by taking a close look at an award-winning book by author Matt de la Peña and illustrator Christian Robinson. Inspired by Last Stop on Market Street, Graland teachers designed a morning called "Literacy Alive" with writing and art activities to keep little hands busy and busy minds learning.
It’s Children’s Book Week, and Lower School students celebrated by taking a close look at an award-winning book by author Matt de la Peña and illustrator Christian Robinson. Inspired by Last Stop on Market Street, Graland teachers designed a morning called "Literacy Alive" with writing and art activities to keep little hands busy and busy minds learning.
Following a Lower School assembly where teachers read the book aloud, students could choose from a variety of activities at each grade level. The cross-classroom program allowed them to visit other rooms and mingle with their peers.
The book describes a boy and his grandmother who take a bus trip every Sunday to the run-down part of town. In Kindergarten, some students created graffiti art and learned to draw bubble letters while others listened to the sounds described in the book and drew matching objects.
First graders made collages similar to the illustration style in Last Stop, while second graders created poetry using their favorite words or phrases in the book like "magic" or "trees get thirsty too." Third graders had the option of collage-making or songwriting and joined other grades in offering “gratitude postcards” as an activity so students could create mail for special people in their lives.
Fourth graders analyzed the book’s characters or made bus murals depicting the book’s themes.
The book describes a boy and his grandmother who take a bus trip every Sunday to the run-down part of town. In Kindergarten, some students created graffiti art and learned to draw bubble letters while others listened to the sounds described in the book and drew matching objects.
First graders made collages similar to the illustration style in Last Stop, while second graders created poetry using their favorite words or phrases in the book like "magic" or "trees get thirsty too." Third graders had the option of collage-making or songwriting and joined other grades in offering “gratitude postcards” as an activity so students could create mail for special people in their lives.
Fourth graders analyzed the book’s characters or made bus murals depicting the book’s themes.
De la Peña and Robinson’s book won several prestigious prizes and even broke barriers. In 2016, the author became the first Hispanic male to win the John Newbery Medal for literature, and Last Stop is the first picture book to be honored by Newbery in some time. Most winners are chapter books.
Illustrator Christian Robinson was also awarded the 2016 Randolph Caldecott Honor and Coretta Scott King Honor for illustration. In 2015, the Wall Street Journal named Last Stop the best children’s book of the year.
Visit the Graland library to check out Last Stop on Market Street and other award-winning children’s books! GO read!
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Graland Country Day School
Graland Country Day School is a private school in Denver, Colorado, serving students in preschool, kindergarten, elementary, and middle school. Founded in Denver in 1927, Graland incorporates a rich, experiential learning approach in a traditional classroom setting, emphasizing the development of globally and socially conscious leaders who excel academically.
