The Life of Bud Lessons

I was going through some of my past workshop / book event folders and found some GREAT work from past Kindergarten students capturing many lessons that I'd like to share with you. 

The Life of BUD

If you are unfamiliar with my book, it teaches children about the life cycles and seasons as we follow BUD (who is the bud of an oak tree) through his life. He sees many amazing things, has wonderful memories, but in the end, is afraid to let go ...

I have done hundreds of workshops using The Life of BUD and here are some great ideas to use children's literature for teaching colors, print awareness, sequencing, seasons, writing and illustrating.

This lesson teaches children the colors of Autumn and print awareness (Upper and Lowercase letters)

 

After reading BUD, the children folded their paper to have four boxes.

Learning targets:  location words left / right / top / bottom

Sequencing - Spring - Summer - Fall/Autumn - Winter

Also reinforces Seasons of the Year

Children then illustrate from memory what trees look like during those seasons

A great quick assessment to know if children understand location words & seasons

 

My favorite lesson is a culminating lesson.

Children write their own story about BUD.

They may use ideas from the original story.

I want the children to write a "REAL" story -- non-fiction

Children use phonetic spelling and their sequencing diagram to help spell words.

Learning targets - non-fiction texts, sequencing, sentence structure, publishing a book.

I love how the SUN is so much bigger in the Summer picture.

Summer and Fall also only show the branch from the tree ... not the entire tree as in Spring.

I enjoy seeing what children come up with for their illustrations!

 

Differentiation -- if a child is having difficulty with sentence writing you can have some pre-made story sentence starters -- In the Spring, Bud ... ; In the Summer, Bud

These sentence starters can help spark some ideas for success!

 

If you have any questions, please feel free to leave comments here.

If you've used The Life of BUD for your own lessons and would like to share pictures of children's work or lesson ideas, you can also email me at thelifeofbud@aol.com

I would love to see what others have done with this book!

 

 

MY CHRISTMAS IN JULY -- LIFE OF BUD SALE!

I learned many years ago, that if I wait until the last minute for Christmas gifts, I panic, don't know what to buy, can't find what I want to buy and realize that there are people I forgot! That is when I started slowly shopping during the Summer to find the perfect items for people. I've put BUD on sale to help you start off your shopping ...

The Life of Bud on Sale thru August 1, 2014 -- $4.00 for paperback / $1.00 for an eBook gift card!!

and FREE SHIPPING!

email me for more information - thelifeofbud@aol.com

all eBook gift cards on sale for $1.00 (great stocking stuffers or back to school teacher gifts!)