Abby Sunshine

 Abby and I were guests at a Spanish Immersion School yesterday. While we walked down the halls to get to the library, we admired some beautiful tilework . These animal designs were particularly interesting to Abby Sunshine. Oh, I nearly forgot, she’s a dog, so I don’t actually  know what she was thinking, but I really liked them. 

We visited 4th grade English classes. The students had just been taking standardized tests, so a creative session with a dog seemed to be OK with them! We did writing and shared many clever ideas.

The students worked on two different writing exercises. One had the students thinking about an animal they knew; next they brainstormed five activities that their animal would do during a typical day. These story starters could be the start of some great books! They were full of ideas. 

 

The second sheet involved students coming up with new tricks to teach Abby. They could choose “fictional” or “non-fictional” ideas. These were really exciting to read! All sheets were rough draft/brainstorms. We wanted the creativity to flow, not to be concerned with perfection.

Cute dog!

Wouldn’t Abby love to be able to climb trees to chase those squirrels! And then learning to use an iPod! What could be better??

Ah, yes, to fly. Wouldn’t that be lovely. I love the action sketch.

Even a frog made the list of chosen animals to write about. . . There was pleasing variety in the writing.

Here we have some agility exercises for Abby to learn–and the beginnings of a story about an amazing rabbit!

 

I like how this student lined up the Abby Sunshine sticker with the image of Abby on the paper! It looks like modern art. He had a clever idea based on a trick that he has seen before- making Abby sit, leaving a treat on her nose, making her stay, then letting her eat it! Maybe we’ll try that one.

It was a great day!