Matthew Winner, librarian at Ducketts Lane Elementary School in Elkridge, Md., was inspired to create a craft activity for his kindergarten class after reading them a forthcoming picture book. He supplied PW with photos and commentary from the activity.
Our kindergartners couldn’t help but join the fun after reading Rude Cakes, the debut picture book from Rowboat Watkins (Chronicle, June). The story features a family of cakes demonstrating their inherent day-to-day rudeness in not sharing, refusing to take turns, and using hurtful words. The qualities are universal in childhood and adulthood alike (after all, we’re all a little bit rude cakes, aren’t we?). But then along come the giant cyclopses [who are polite, and like to wear the little cakes as hats], and the true colors of the rude cakes are revealed.
After reading aloud Rude Cakes, our kindergartners drew their own versions of rude cakes.
We then took sentence strips to create a cyclops headband.
While intended to be worn like a headband, some students couldn't help but cover their own eyes to really sell the transformation into a cyclops.
Two of the completed hats? Nope! There are two of my adorable KinderCyclopses enjoying a day out with their jaunty rude cake hats.
Remember: it’s okay to be a rude cake some of the time, as long as you’re a Cyclops most of the time.
The book that provided the inspiration.
