Tuesday
A Nearly Wordless Book

Tuesday

Are you ready to embark on a magical adventure with your students? "Tuesday" by David Wiesner is the perfect wordless picture book to ignite their imaginations and take them on a whimsical ride through fantastical lands. Whether you're a primary school teacher or a home educator, this gem offers endless opportunities for creative storytelling and critical thinking.

First, let's dive into the beauty of "Tuesday." The book's illustrations are rich with detail and color, inviting young readers to explore every corner of the page. Without a single word, David Wiesner masterfully tells the tale of a young girl who discovers a red crayon that allows her to draw a door into another world. Each turn of the page reveals new landscapes and challenges, from enchanted forests to majestic castles. This visual narrative encourages children to create their own stories and interpretations, making it a fantastic tool for developing language and comprehension skills.

Now, onto some fun, hands-on activities! Start by encouraging your students to "write" their own stories based on the illustrations. They can work individually or in groups to come up with different adventures for the girl. You could also have them create their own magical items and draw the worlds they would explore. For a more interactive experience, set up a "Tuesday" themed scavenger hunt in your classroom or at home. Hide objects related to the story, like a toy boat or a paper lantern, and have the children use clues to find them. This not only reinforces the narrative but also helps develop problem-solving skills.

Incorporating "Tuesday" into your curriculum or lesson plans can be as simple or elaborate as you like. The key is to let the children's creativity lead the way. So grab your red crayon and join your students on this incredible tuesday—you never know where it might take you!

Author: David Wiesner

David Wiesner is a highly regarded picture book creator, with works translated into over a dozen languages and numerous awards. He has won the Caldecott Medal three times for his books: Tuesday (1992), The Three Pigs (2002), and Flotsam (2007), making him only the second person to achieve this honour.

Book Details:

  • Publisher: Andersen Press
  • Format: Paperback
  • Print length: 32 pages
  • Dimensions: 23 x 0.5 x 27.7 cm
  • Reading age: 3-7 years old
  • Publication date: 1 Nov. 2012
  • ISBN: 978-1849394475

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Using "Tuesday" by David Wiesner for a Year 2 English "Tell Me A Story" Lesson

Author: David Wiesner

"Tuesday" by David Wiesner is a fantastic wordless picture book that can be used to inspire creative storytelling in a Year 2 "Tell Me A Story" topic lesson. Here are some ideas for using this book:

Generating Story Ideas

  • Have students examine the illustrations in the book and make observations about what they see happening. Prompt them with questions like "What do you think is happening in this picture?" or "What might happen next?"
  • Encourage students to use their imagination to speculate about the frogs' motivations and what they might be thinking or saying. Provide sentence starters like "I think the frogs are..." or "The frogs might be saying..."
  • Brainstorm a list of "What if..." questions to get students thinking about alternative scenarios, like "What if the frogs visited your house on Tuesday night?" or "What if the pigs started flying on Monday instead of Tuesday?"

Structuring the Story

  • Use the book's structure as a model. The story follows a sequence of events over the course of a Tuesday evening. Have students plan their own stories with a clear beginning, middle, and end.
  • Provide a story mountain graphic organizer to help students map out the rising action, climax, and resolution of their tale. Encourage them to include an unexpected or surprising event, like the pigs flying at the end of "Tuesday".

Descriptive Writing

  • Challenge students to describe a scene from their story using vivid sensory details. What would the characters see, hear, smell, taste or feel?
  • Have them zoom in on a specific moment and describe it in slow motion, like a camera focusing in on the frogs lifting off on their lily pads.

Dialogue

  • Ask students to imagine what the characters in their story might say to each other. Have them write out the dialogue using quotation marks and attributions like "said" or "asked".
  • Provide a template for writing a conversation between two characters, with sentence starters like "What do you think we should do?" or "I'm scared!"

By using "Tuesday" as inspiration, students will be able to tap into their creativity and imagination to craft their own engaging stories. The book's unique format and surprising events provide a great jumping-off point for Year 2 writers.

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