The Girl with the Brown Crayon Vivian Gussin Paley The Girl with the Brown Crayon In this book Paley uses a Leo Leonni author study to entice her kindergarten class to “explore, question and debate”. It is amazing how much insight the kindergarten children have on certain topics brought out from reading such books as Swimmy, Fish Is Fish, Frederick, and more.

Learning with Leo Leonni

Any grade can read and explore these books using Bloom’s taxonomy;higher level thinking through synthesis, analysis and evaluation.

Leo Leonni Bio (http://www.randomhouse.com/teachers/rc/rc_ab_lli.html) A short biography of Leo Lionni from the Teacher Resource Center @ Random House Books.

Author studies can be utilized in grades kindergarten through 5th grade. Leo Lionni Author Study (http://coe.west.asu.edu/students/dcorley/authors/Lionni.htm) Includes a student-written report about Leo Lionni with links to bibliographies.

Book Reviews from Children (ages 7 to 10) Lionni, Leo Alexander and the Wind-Up Mouse Lionni, Leo The Biggest House in the World Lionni, Leo A Color of His Own Lionni, Leo Extraordinary Egg Lionni, Leo Fish is Fish Lionni, Leo A Flea Story Lionni, Leo Frederick Lionni, Leo The Green Tailed Mouse Lionni, Leo Little Blue and Little Yellow Lionni, Leo Six Crows Lionni, Leo Swimmy

Lessons Plans: Little Blue and Little Yellow (http://www. carolhurst Lessons Plans: Little Blue and Little Yellow (http://www.carolhurst.com/titles/littleblue.html) Describes how the author came up with the idea for this popular children's book. Finds links to other books with the theme of color.    

Swimmy Extension Activities (http://www. kiddyhouse Swimmy Extension Activities (http://www.kiddyhouse.com/Teachers/Literature/LeoL.html) Includes links to lesson plans for using Swimmy in the classroom.

An Author Study Different grade levels Differentiated instruction Web searches Performance Based