Thursday, February 3, 2011

Word of the Day: February 3 (Art & Max)

Today we start our new Word of the Day feature here at LitLad. Here's how it works: The boys and I choose a different book every day and they pick a word from it for which they don't know the meaning. They each write the word at night and the next day we act like Pee-wee Herman every time someone says the word (until one of us gets annoyed and we just say the word and shout out the definition).

So today's word is preposterous, an adjective meaning "ridiculous, absurd, foolish."











And we're reading Art & Max, in which Art says, "This is preposterous!" after Max splatters paint all over him.

 















 

Art & Max
Author/illustrator: David Wiesner
Publisher: Clarion Books (October 2010)
Source: Public library

From the publisher: Arthur knows how to paint. He's ready to share his wisdom with Max, who has a lot to learn but can't wait to dive right in.

A couple of books to go along with Art & Max:













A couple of activities to go along with Art & Max (and not quite as messy as Max's style): marble painting and a Jackson Pollock site.

Disclosure: We are an Amazon affiliate, which means that if you click on any links to Amazon  in this post and purchase anything, we will earn a small commission through our relationship with Amazon.

6 comments:

Storied Cities said...

What a fun way to reinforce new words.

Melissa Taylor said...

love this - great idea!

Parent and Child Reading Assistance said...

Okay, I'm thinking you deserve some kind of great mom award! I love that your boys choose a word they don't know and it becomes something fun all day. These are sure to be memories that stick. I'm sure your boys will always be the type of readers who think about the words they don't know while reading instead of skipping over them.
I don't have a great mom award for you, but the difference you are making in your children's lives is reward enough.
Thanks for sharing this in the We Teach Children to Read Community.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/We-Teach-Children-to-Read/103519196359196

Anne said...

As Michelle said above - learning to identify challenging words is a great skill! Learning new words, becoming careful readers, and better understanding the story all at once - how awesome!

Unknown said...

I love the word reaction activity. The books look lovely!

Thanks for linking to Read.Explore.Learn.

Brimful Curiosities said...

Wonderful idea. Every day I've been challenging my daughter to spell a random word, but this sounds like more fun! Art and Max is a great artistic book.