In the picture book, The Day the Crayons Quit written by Drew Daywalt and illustrated by Oliver Jeffers, Duncan opens his box of crayons and finds the box empty! In place of the crayons are a bundle of letters from the box’s occupants. Each letter is addressed to Duncan and outlines why the color abandoned the box; beige is tired of being second fiddle to brown, blue needs a break from coloring all of that water, while pink just wants to be used! Poor Duncan just wants to color!
Read, The Day the Crayons Quit to your class. Use the letters written by the crayons to help your students familiarize themselves and learn about the parts of a letter. Introduce the Letter Generator by Read WriteThink. The Letter Generator is a tool designed to help students learn to identify all the essential parts of a business or friendly letter, and then generate letters by typing information into letter templates.
Once students are familiar with the letter formats, prompt them to write their own letters to the color of their choice to persuade them to rejoin Duncan’s box of crayons! The finished letter can be printed, saved and e-mailed! Use the email links to showcase student writing on your blog! Read the example Dear Blue.
Barnes and Noble is also trying to convince the crayons not to quit! Blue, Red, and Gray feel terribly overworked. Beige, Black, Pink, and White feel very under-utilized. And Yellow and Orange just aren’t getting along. Download the Crayon stationary to write a letter, create a list, or draw, or color a picture and bring your message to the library. Ms. Eyer will take them to the nearest Barnes and Noble to place it in the message box. Don’t let the crayons quit!
Read the School Library Journal review of: The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt
Check out this follow-up lesson by Mrs. Hembreeand her 2nd graders – The Fruit Story
Psst psst over here…you can also leave a blog comment to convince the crayons not to QUIT!
