What is full of vibrant colors, lovely pictures, and fabulous stories?  A book of shapes carefully crafted by a Pre-Kindergarten student here at Mater Christi School! 

Choose a shape, glue it in! Choose another shape, not the same color, glue it in!  Keep choosing  shapes to glue in, but be careful!  Always a new shape!  Never the same color twice!  No two books are the same.  By the time the hexagons, octagons, and pentagons were glued in place some really careful thinking had to happen in order to choose colors that weren’t already used.  That was really fun!

Now the books took on a personality of their very own!  Each child designed pictures with shapes, and only shapes, on the last four pages of the book.  These creations are absolutely beautiful!  Such careful choosing of shapes and colors.  Such careful placement of small and large shapes.  After viewing the pictures he/she made, and being satisfied with them, each child dictated stories about the pictures.  Some were elaborate imaginative stories and some were factual succinct stories.  Then each child read his/her book with a teacher and formulated a title.  Each book became a work of heart and mind!  

We placed the books in a place of honor on our bookshelf.  For two weeks children reverently read each other’s books.  We heard comments such as:  “I really like your book.”  “Cool! You made a tornado!”  “I made a boat and lake and you made a lake with fish!”  “Your book is beautiful.” “Your windows are great!”  “Can you read your book with me?”  Children sat with their heads bent over a book turning the pages carefully and reading them together.  When they got to the pictures and the dictated stories, they made up stories that matched the pictures and told those stories to each other.  Their faces glowed as they shared their books with each other.  

Mrs. Patty LaMothe

PreKindergarten Teacher