Take Back Bedtime

http://www.amazon.com/Lesky-Monster-Monsters-Matt-Bergin/dp/1512355313/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1443626529&sr=8-1&keywords=lesky+lee

Blank Slater Emotions Chart and Activity Worksheets

Blank Slater, The Boy With The Dry-Erase Face includes activity pages in the print-on-demand version, and when the book was first launched via Kickstarter, we included dry-erase poster mats that allowed readers to explore their own emotions long after they finished the story. Now you can download the entire set of activity pages, including the emotion chart, here or here. If you can get your hands on a laminating machine, you can even turn all of the pages dry-erase for your own continued environmentally friendly use!

Included in the Blank Slater activity bundle are:

• 6 "blank face" pages on which to draw in the appropriate expressions on Blank Slater
• Magic Marker Maze -- help Blank reach Nada
• Matched Emotions -- match Blanks face with the correct word describing his emotion
• Blank Emotions Chart (pictured below) -- fill in the face that goes with the emotion

The lovely and talented Zach Wideman illustrated all of the activity pages, including the blank emotions chart shown above.

Lesky Lee Classroom Activity -- Visual Storytelling: Make Your Own Picture Book Page

Print or download a PDF of this activity!

Classroom reading coming up seemed like the perfect opportunity to craft this activity worksheet to complement Lesky Lee, Monster of Monsters and teach the kids a little something about visual storytelling.

Lessons Unlearned -- a back-to-school short by Matt Bergin

Here's an unpublished freebie for the back-to-school crowd. Wouldn't it be neat if some of my parent and teacher friends and readers had their kids take a crack at illustrating this one? If you do, please show your work at d18matt @ gmail dot com!

Lessons Unlearned

by Matt Bergin

"So, what did you learn in school today?"

I learned NOTHING in school,
and that isn’t all…
I Unlearned every lesson I’ve learned since the Fall!

I unlearned the letters A, B, C, and D,
so now my alphabet starts with E!

I unlearned the 3 numbers that come after 7,
so now I have no way to get to 11!

I unlearned that fish live under the sea.
I unlearned that monkeys swing through the trees.
I unlearned that owls fly high in the sky, sleep all through the day, and stay up all night.

I went over that lesson on owls two times,
to better unlearn that owls are wise.

Another thing I unlearned: how to tie my shoes,
all that stuff about criss-crossing laces and hoops.

I unlearned how to clean up after myself,
how to put all my stuff back on the shelf.

I unlearned that I have to eat all of my dinner.
I unlearned that not eating will make me get thinner.
I unlearned where I live.

I unlearned dad and mom.

I unlearned all my favorite stories and songs.

I unlearned that it's bedtime,
that today's at an end.

I unlearned that I miss my teachers and friends.

I unlearned that I’ll see them at school in the morning…
…right after I finish this lesson in snoring.

(Goodnight.)

Speaking of lessons--learned, in this case--it is highly desirable for an effective picture book script to function well as a bedtime story, because a tucked-in audience is a captive audience, and bedtime is the best time for moms and dads to get in some guaranteed reading. Or so I've been told. --Matt B