Our first graders love Mo Willem’s books Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! and The Pigeon Wants a Puppy. In both books, the pigeon asks repeatedly for something he’s too young to handle. Of course little kids like this book – it’s the story of their lives!

After reading the stories, we brainstormed all the things the pigeon should NOT do. Every idea was hilarious – the pigeon shouldn’t do karate, use the oven, use the iPad, feed the beta fish or drive Santa’s sleigh.

First graders did a directed draw of the pigeon, focusing on simple shapes. On a separate piece of copy paper, then drew a picture of the pigeon acting out those bad choices.

Materials:

• 9″x12″ gray construction paper
• yellow and white Construction Paper Crayons
• Sharpie
• 12″x18″ construction paper for background
• scissors
• glue sticks
• copy paper, 8.5″x11″
• crayons or markers

Day 1: Read books. Discuss the pigeon. Pass out copy paper. Use your crayons or markers to draw something the pigeon should not be doing.

Day 2: Draw pigeon on gray construction paper using Sharpie and construction paper crayons.

Now cut out the pigeon. Glue the pigeon and drawing to a large piece of colored construction paper. Use Sharpie to draw legs on the paper.

First grade results:

Don’t let the pigeon use the pizza app on the iPad.

Don’t let the pigeon go to halloween (‘Aaa! a ghost!’).

Don’t let the pigeon be your mom or she will make you do silly things.

Don’t let the pigeon take care of a beta fish or it will die.

This project was a hit with my students last year – click here to see more examples.

Enjoy!