Using this Where the Wild Things Are Worksheet, students describe the title, author, and illustrator of Where the Wild Things Are.
This author and illustrator activity for PreK to 1st Grade has kids sort job cards and play a Book Hunt game with real picture books. Answer key included, so checking is quick and easy.
This 100th Day of School Party Worksheet is a great way to teach your kids about the author and illustrator of a book to celebrate the 100th day of school.
Using Identifying the Author's Reasons in a Text Worksheet, students explain the reasons the author gives for the boy to get Petey from his aunt.
Using Author's Purpose Sorting Activity, students identify the reasons an author gives to support points in a text.
Using Supporting Details in the Text Worksheet, students explain the reasons the author gives for the girl to get Pal from her grandma.
Using this Amelia Bedelia Author and Illustrator Worksheet, students describe the title, author, and illustrator of an Amelia Bedelia book.
Using this Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Authors Worksheet, students describe what authors do to tell their story.
Who made this book, and why?
In preschool, author's purpose starts with a simple idea: real people make books! Little ones learn that the author writes the words and the illustrator draws the pictures. Then we ask the big question: did this person want to make us laugh, or teach us something? A silly story about a monster is for fun. A book with photos of real frogs teaches us facts. The click moment is when a four-year-old holds up a book and says, "This one teaches!"
Keep it short, keep it talky, and keep real books in little hands.
Set out a stack of storybooks and a stack of real-photo nonfiction. Kids look at the cover and sort each book into a "fun" basket or a "learn" basket. Ask "How did you know?" and celebrate every reason, even "Because there's a dragon!"
Why it works: going from real objects to pictures to symbols is a core recommendation of the U.S. Department of Education's elementary math guide.
Try it withAuthors Purpose Sorting ActivityActivitiesOpen it →Before every read-aloud, point to the cover and say "The author wrote the words. The illustrator drew the pictures." Kids repeat it with you and act it out: pretend to write, then pretend to draw. After a week, they'll be telling you.
Why it works: handing over the work step by step, from teacher to student, is one of the most widely used teaching frameworks (Pearson and Gallagher, 1983).
Try it withAuthor and Illustrator ActivityActivitiesOpen it →After reading a favorite book, kids draw their own picture for one page and dictate a sentence to you. Now they're the author and the illustrator! It makes those two words real.
Why it works: children learn more from words and pictures together than from words alone (Mayer, 2009).
Try it withAmelia Bedelia Author and Illustrator WorksheetWorksheetsOpen it →Favorite books make the best launch pads for play.
WorksheetsRead about the wild things, then have a rumpus! Afterward ask, "Did the author want to teach us or make us smile?"
Open Where the Wild Things Are Worksheet →
WorksheetsChant along with the coconut tree book, then talk about the authors who made up such a bouncy rhyme.
Open Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Authors Worksheet →
WorksheetsOn library day, kids hunt for one fun book and one fact book to bring back to the carpet and share.
Open 100th Day of School Party Worksheet →Teacher favorites right now: Where the Wild Things Are Worksheet, Author and Illustrator Activity and 100th Day of School Party Worksheet.
Yes, in a simple way. Preschoolers can learn that authors write books to make us laugh or to teach us facts. The fancy word "purpose" can wait; the idea is what counts.
The author writes the words and the illustrator draws the pictures. Sometimes one person does both! Pointing this out before every read-aloud helps kids remember.
After a bedtime story, ask "Was this book for fun, or did it teach us something?" Let your child explain. Then try it with a nonfiction book about animals or trucks.
To entertain, to inform and to persuade. Preschoolers usually focus on the first two: books that are for fun and books that teach. Persuade comes later in elementary school.
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