Carolyn Creswell

Dr. Harris
Intro
LEO LIONNI AUTHOR STUDY: INTRODUCTION
When I first read Leo Lionnis book An Extraordinary Egg, I absolutely loved it. I
loved the message that it spread. This book made me decide that I wanted to use Leo Lionni for
my Author Study. I love Leo Lionnis work because of his gorgeous collage illustrations, cute
animal characters and the way he spreads messages with his books.
This unit is for first grade.
TEACHER READ-ALOUDS
I will read these books out loud to my students:
*The Greentail Mouse
*Fish is Fish
*Six Crows
*Swimmy
*Matthews Dream
*Frederick
The Greentail Mouse has a reading level of 3.2, which is too high for my students. The story is
about a small town of country mice who are visited by a country mouse, who tells them about
Mardi Gras. The mice decide to have their own Mardi Gras. The mice are very excited about it
and make lots of scary masks. After wearing the masks, however, they start to act mean towards
each other and their whole community becomes full of hate. Finally, a giant mouse (really just
a regular mouse) saves everyone when he gets them to take their masks off.
Fish is Fish has a reading level of 3.3, which is too high. This story is about a minnow and a
tadpole who are best friends. Once the tadpole starts developing legs, the fish is sad because he
used to be just a little fish like him. Once the tadpole becomes a frog, he leaves his friend to
travel the world. He comes back a little bit later and tells his friend all about the world. The fish
becomes jealous that he cannot hop around and see the world like the frog, so he jumps out of the
water, but he cant move or breathe. Luckily, his friend the frog saves the day and the fish finally
learns that fish and frogs are different.
Six Crows has a reading level of 3.9, which is the highest level of all the books I am using. In this
book, there is a wheat farmer and six crows who live near each other. The crows are always
eating the farmers wheat, so he decides to make a scarecrow to scare them away. The crows
react by making a kite out of leaves that looks like a much larger and scarier bird. This scares the
farmer, and he makes his scarecrow even scarier. Then the crows make an even scarier bird kite.
Finally, an owl that also lives nearby talks to the farmer and tells him that he should make peace
with the crows. He isnt sure at first, so she talks to the crows. They are eager for help because
the wheat crop is in danger. She tells them that words can do magic. Finally, the crows and the
farmer talk things through and thank the owl.
Swimmy has a reading level of 3.5. Swimmy is a little black fish with a family of little red fish.
One day, a big fish eats all of his family, and Swimmy is alone. Swimmy continues swimming
and sees many amazing things that make him happy again, and he doesnt feel so lonely anymore.
One day, he sees a lot of red fish that look like his family, but they are hiding. He tells them to

come out to play and see fun things with him but they are scared of the big black fish. So
Swimmy has to come up with a plan. He decides to get everyone to swim together in the image
of a big fish. Finally, they meet the scary, big, black fish and scare him away.
Matthews Dream has a reading level of 3.8. Matthew lives with his parents in an attic.
Matthews corner is filled with strange objects. Matthew wasnt sure of what he wanted to do
when he grew up. One day, his class went to the museum. He saw a lot of beautiful paintings
and really liked them. He met Nicoletta there, another mouse who appreciated art. Matthew then
had a wonderful but strange dream about Nicoletta and him inside a painting. When he awoke
from his dream, he finally knew that he wanted to be a painter. He becomes a famous painter and
marries Nicoletta.
Frederick has a reading level of 3.8. Frederick is not like your average mouse. While the other
mice are collecting things for the winter, Frederick is sitting and collecting light, colors and
words. Once winter comes and the mice have run out of food, they look to Frederick. Frederick
gives them light when they are cold, colors in the monochromatic winter world and words,
because they have run out of things to say. While Frederick is giving them all of these things, he
is speaking about each thing in words, and at the end gives a poem. His friends all tell him that
he is a poet. Then, he says I know it.
SHARED READING
This Leo Lionni book will be used for shared reading:
*An Extraordinary Egg
This book has a reading level of 3.5. This book is about three frogs who live on Pebble Island.
One of the frogs, Jessica, liked to collect pebbles, but her brother and sister were never
impressed. One day, Jessica finds an egg (she thinks it is a very big pebble) and brings it home.
Her sister told her that it was a chicken egg. An alligator hatches from the egg, but all of the
frogs think it is a chicken. One day, Jessica gets tangled in the weeds underwater but the
chicken saves her. From that day on, Jessica and the chicken are best friends. One day,
Jessica and the chicken are walking and they meet a bird who tells the chicken that her
mother is looking for her. When they find her mother they are astonished to see how big she is,
and she calls the chicken my sweet little alligator. She leaves the alligator with her mother
and tells her to come visit someday and bring her mother too.
GUIDED READING
I will use these books in my guided reading groups.
* Its Mine!
* Alexander and the Wind-Up Mouse
Its Mine! has a reading level of 2.9, which is slightly lower than the other books I have used so
far. In this book, three frog siblings argue and argue about who owns things, shouting, Its
Mine! One frog claims the air, another the water, and the last the Earth. They always argue
about everything. Their neighbor the frog is upset and tells them they need to stop. The frogs do
not listen, however and continue to bicker until a storm comes. There is a flood, and the frogs
cling to the last pebbles in the water, but finally must cling to the last rock. They are happy to be
together on the rock, because they were scared to be separated. When the flood subsides, they
realize that the rock was actually the frog! These frogs learn their lesson and begin to get along,
and live much happier lives.
Alexander and the Wind-Up Mouse has a reading level of 3.0. Alexander is a mouse who lives in

a house of people who hate him. He meets a toy mouse named Willy, and they become friends.
He sees that Willy is loved by the people in the house and wishes that he could become a toy
mouse. Willy tells him that there is a lizard who can change an animal into a different animal, so
Alexander goes to find the lizard. The lizard tells Alexander to bring him a purple pebble. So,
Alexander goes to search for a purple pebble. He runs in to Willy and finds out that many of
Annies (the daughter of the house) old toys (including him) were being thrown out. So now,
instead of thinking of himself, Alexander brings the purple pebble to the lizard, turning Willy into
a real-life mouse.
INDEPENDENT READING
These books are for independent reading:
* Little Blue and Little Yellow
* Inch by Inch
Little Blue and Little Yellow has a reading level of 1.7. Little Blue and Little Yellow are circle
children that are best friends. One day, Little Blues mom goes shopping and leaves Little Blue at
home. Little Blue goes to find Little Yellow. He cannot find him, and becomes sad. When he
does find him, they hug for a long time and become green. They play and run around even
though they are stuck together. When they try to go home, neither one of their parents think they
are their children because they are the wrong color. Little Blue and Little Yellow cry and become
separated again. They go home and their parents hug and also become green, and now they know
what happened. Everyone started hugging everyone after that.
Inch by Inch has a reading level of 1.7. One day a robin sees an inchworm and is going to eat
him, but the inchworm tells the bird that he will measure things for him. He measures the robins
tail, the flamingos neck, the toucans beak, the pheasants tail, and a whole hummingbird. Then
a nightingale told the inchworm to measure his song. So the inchworm pretends to measure it,
but actually runs away.
GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
One objective I really like is teaching the children how to use context clues to help define and
unknown word, because Leo Lionni uses a lot of big and fancy words that might confuse the
children (LAFS.1.L.3.4), Ask and answer questions about the details in the story
(LAFS.1.RI.1.1), Identify the main idea (LAFS.1.RI.1.2), Use illustrations to describe the text
(LAFS.1.RI.3.7), Write a narrative (LAFS.1.W.1.3), Create art to tell a story (VA.1.S.1.3),
Experiment with art to express ideas (VA.1.S.1.1) Show respect and kindness to people and
animals (SS.1.C.2.4)
BIBLIOGRAPHY

Lionni, Leo. Alexander and the Wind-up Mouse. New York: Pantheon, 1969. Print.

Lionni, Leo. The Alphabet Tree. New York: Knopf, 2004. Print.
Lionni, Leo, and Leo Lionni. Fish Is Fish. New York: Pantheon, 1970. Print.
Lionni, Leo, and Leo Lionni. Swimmy. New York: Pantheon, 1963. Print.
Lionni, Leo. An Extraordinary Egg. New York: Knopf, 1994. Print.
Lionni, Leo. Frederick. New York: Pantheon, 1967. Print.
Lionni, Leo. The Greentail Mouse. New York: Pantheon, 1973. Print.
Lionni, Leo. Inch by Inch. New York: I. Obolensky, 1960. Print.
Lionni, Leo. It's Mine! New York: Knopf, 1986. Print.
Lionni, Leo. Little Blue and Little Yellow: A Story for Pippo and Ann and Other Children. New
York: McDowell, Obolensky, 1959. Print.
Lionni, Leo. Matthew's Dream. New York: Knopf, 1991. Print.
Lionni, Leo. Six Crows. New York, NY: Scholastic, 1988. Print.