DSCN2095

Yesterday in our Creative Writing for Beginning Readers class, we explored the characters of Beatrix Potter and the concept of personification. We talked about what personification is and came up with some examples:

DSCN2106

personification

Beatrix Potter was a scientist who kept a lot of animals and drew inspiration for her stories from the animals she observed around her. We tried to think about the behaviors of animals we have seen, and used those behaviors as inspiration to come up with interesting animal characters:

animal behavior

animal personality

Here, we discussed a few animals the kids had seen before and what kinds of personalities might fit those behaviors:

DSCN2105

Then we were ready to make our books! I found a great instruction sheet for making a Victorian house book out of 11×17 paper on the website http://www.bookmakingwithkids.com. I was inspired to make this after seeing this image of a Strega Nona house book:

I made a sample (didn’t have time for coloring though):

DSCN2093

DSCN2094

The kids wrote stories about their animals using the sheet where they had worked out the animal’s character traits and story problem. Then they got to draw their animal inside its house and color.

DSCN2096

DSCN2097

DSCN2098

DSCN2099

DSCN2100

DSCN2103

DSCN2104

DSCN2109

DSCN2111

Here are some of their finished book houses!

DSCN2101

DSCN2102

DSCN2112

DSCN2113

DSCN2114

The library will have a special Beatrix Potter program led by a member of the Beatrix Potter Society, on Saturday, April 16 at 10:30 am. Bring the whole family to celebrate her 150th birthday!

beatrix poster

Our next Creative Writing for Beginning Readers class will be Tuesday, April 12 at 4:30 pm. It’s for kids ages 5-8. You can sign up by calling 626-744-4066 option 4 for children’s, or you can email anhurtado [at] cityofpasadena [dot] net. Hope to see you then!