This month the Virtual Book Club for Kids is reading books by Leo Lionni. Earlier this month I shared some resources that I found helpful in planning for our Leo Lionni study, and since then we’ve been reading quite of few of Lionni’s wonderful books. One of our favorite books was Pezzettino.
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I chose to share Pezzettino because I love the message of the story. Pezzettino, Italian for “little piece,” is is so small compared to everyone around him. He’s convinced that he must be the missing piece of something else. After looking and looking, he finds out that he isn’t a piece of something else after all. He is himself!
As I read this story with children they always seems so happy for Pezzettino as we reach the end. I think as small children they can understand how Pezzettino feels, and they are as delighted as he is when he reaches the conclusion at the end of the story.
Book Activity
To go along with this book I set up a simple invitation to create. Lovey and I sorted through our construction paper and tried our best to match some of the colors used in the artwork within the book. I placed the paper squares, glue, and a large piece of white paper on the table.
Before the kids got started we talked about what we remembered from the story and looked again at some of the pictures.
We also talked about Pezzettino being all one color while the other images in the book were different colors. I asked the kids if they would make a creature that is all the same color or different colors and why. It was interesting to hear their responses.
Then the kids got to work on their creations. The preschoolers spent quite a while coming up with different pictures, and Lovey also had fun playing along experimenting with glue and paper.
Big Buddy was very proud of his creation.
If I were still in the classroom or working with a larger group of kids, I think this would be a fun project to make into a collaborative mural and writing activity. Kids could make their own creatures and add them to the mural. Then they could write a short story or descriptive piece about their creation.
What activities would you do to go along with Pezzettino?
The widget below includes more great books by Leo Lionni.
Samantha
This is a great idea! I love Leo Lionni! One of my son’s favorite books as a toddler was his first Leo Lionni book, Theodore and the Talking Mushroom. We have several of his books now.
Shaunna Evans
Thanks so much!
Pelin
Here is my Pezzettino Activity http://yazaranne.wordpress.com/2013/11/24/aktiviteye-donusen-cocuk-kitaplari-pezzettino/
It’s Turkish but i can say shortly, we create Lego Pezzettino and others. Than play with them.
And thank you for sharing your creative activity. We’ll try with papers and write our short story book.
Shaunna Evans
What a clever idea. Your Lego Pezzettino looks terrific! Thank you for sharing.
jaime
featuring you tonight on mom’s library, thanks for linking up:-) http://frogsandsnailsandpuppydogtails-jaime.blogspot.com/2013/05/its-all-about-books-over-100-great.html
Shaunna
Thank you!
Mary Catherine
This is such a creative activity for a cool Leo Lionni book! Thanks for sharing it with us. I’m going to pin it and try it out with my preschool class next school year. 🙂
Shaunna
I hope your students enjoy it!
Mary Catherine
Oh, I’m sure they will, Shauna! 🙂 Thanks for linking up with Stress-Free Sunday this week. I’m going to be featuring this post at the next one!
katepickle
I’ve never read that book, I must look and see if our library has it because it sounds lovely!
Love the simple yet beautiful collage activity too
Shaunna
Yes, do look for it! I’m surprised I hadn’t discovered it before now.
Linda McCardle
I love Leo Lionnni! This book will be on back to school must buy list! Thank you for sharing.
Linda
A Teachers Touch
Shaunna
I really like Leo Lionni’s books, too. I hope your students enjoy this one.
JDaniel4's Mom
I would be proud too. It looks like he put a lot of thought into it. We will have to look for this book at the library. I will be sharing this post.
Shaunna
It’s definitely worth checking out if you can find it. Thanks for sharing!