Visualizing

I was searching for a great book to use for visualizing when I came across this fabulous book by Pat Hutchins. In it, the wind blows several objects away as the owners chase after them!  The students really loved this book and I barely heard a peep out of them as I was reading!  To teach the lesson, we began by doing a visualizing exercise with white boards.  I described a scene with a tree, a flower, the sun, a bird, and a house.  Students were to draw the scene as it looked in their minds.  We stood in a circle and showed our pictures to the class and discussed why they were similar but not the same!  It was because we all had different schema, of course!
Then, I introduced the book, The Wind Blew (I had the cover hidden).  I told the students I was going to read it and they would draw the pictures they saw in their minds, reminding them that good readers visualize as they read.  After each page, they would draw and share their pictures with an elbow partner.  Then, we would look at what the illustrator drew and talk about the words in the text that helped us to visualize.  The students were so engaged and were having fun visualizing!  At the end, they made a prediction about what they thought would happen, but there was a surprise ending...the wind blew out to sea and left all of the objects behind.  They were all mixed up (the students laughed so hard at the mixed up objects and people). 
After the reading and discussing, we talked about how much fun it was to visualize.  We made a promise to visualize and make mental pictures every time we read.  We talked about how we make mental pictures even when the illustrator has made them for us because our schema helps us to see the book differently! 
I highly recommend this for your first graders!  You will love the lesson as much as they do! :0)  Happy Teaching!
Warm Hugs and Loving Smiles,