The Day the Crayons Quit
Picture Book Read Aloud
book summary
When Duncan goes to use his crayons, he discovers a pile of letters written by the different colors. Each of his crayons has written a letter expressing their grievances and why they have quit…red is overworked, blue is stumpy and needs a break from coloring all of those bodies of water, black wants to be used for more than just outlining, and yellow and orange are arguing over who is the true color of the sun. Duncan is tasked with appeasing all of the crayons and getting them back to doing what they do best….willingly, of course!
Duncan ends up coming up with a solution that allows him to be able to use his crayons while they were in agreeable moods by providing them with what they each needed to be happy. This book is the perfect choice for teaching perspective, letter writing, and word choice, and many more skills!
suggested teaching point
On page 15, point out the author’s word choice to young readers.
The green crayon says that the problem between the orange and yellow crayon is “driving the rest of us crazy”. This phrase is an idiom. An idiom is a word or phrase that means something different from its literal meaning. Most phrases and sentences have literal meanings, but idioms have figurative meanings. A literal meaning is when each word in the phrase or sentence stays true to its actual meaning. A figurative meaning is when the combinations of words mean something different than the individual words do.
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