Dear Kindergarten Families,

Warm wishes for happiness, love and peace on Hanukkah and always.

Love,

Mrs. Lyons

First author study... Jan Brett

Author studies are a wonderful way to engage students in the joy of reading. Introducing kindergarteners to authors opens new doors of understanding that "real" people write and illustrate books. This thought alone inspires students to dream of becoming famous authors and artists. Most early readers have limited schema for specific authors, types of texts, and different text features. Conducting author studies introduces these concepts to students in a fun and meaningful way. Children need to be taught how to activate their prior knowledge when they encounter a book by a favorite author. In addition to learning about authors and illustrators, students hone their comprehension skills as they compare, analyze, and synthesize information about an author's style. These skills are demonstrated as students make relevant text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections.

Jan Brett has an awesome website that you should check out. Have fun! http://www.janbrett.com/