Lesson 5: You're the Author! You're the Illustrator!

Materials Needed:

• Several sheets of plain paper (4-5 sheets is a good start)
• Crayons, colored pencils, or markers
• A stapler
• One of Mirabelle's favorite picture books

Learning Objectives:

By the end of this lesson, Mirabelle will be able to:

1. Explain the job of an author (writes the words) and an illustrator (draws the pictures).
2. Create a short story with a simple beginning, middle, and end.
3. Design and illustrate her own small book, including a cover with a title and her name as the author/illustrator.

Lesson Activities

Part 1: Warm-Up - Who Makes a Book? (5 minutes)

1. Sit with Mirabelle and open her favorite picture book. Look at the cover together.
2. Ask: "Who do you think wrote all the words in this story?" Find the author's name and point to it. Explain: "The author is the person who writes the story."
3. Ask: "And who do you think drew all these beautiful pictures?" Find the illustrator's name. Explain: "The illustrator is the artist who draws or paints the pictures."
4. Mention that sometimes, the same person is both the author AND the illustrator! Today, that person is going to be YOU.

Part 2: Main Activity - Let's Create a Story! (30 minutes)

Step 1: Brainstorming Our Story Idea (10 minutes)

Let's plan our story before we make the book. We just need a simple idea. Let's ask three questions:

• Beginning: Who is our main character? (A brave squirrel? A magical cat? A girl named Mirabelle?) What does our character want to do?
• Middle: What happens next? (Does the squirrel find a giant acorn? Does the cat learn to fly? Does Mirabelle go on an adventure?)
• End: How does the story finish? (The squirrel shares the acorn with a friend. The cat flies over the town. Mirabelle gets home just in time for a snack.)

Teacher's Tip: Keep it very simple. The goal is a complete story, not a complicated plot. Jot down the one-sentence ideas for the beginning, middle, and end so you can refer to them.

Step 2: Making Our Book (20 minutes)

1. Assemble the Book: Take three sheets of paper and place them on top of one another. Fold them in half to create a small booklet. The parent can help staple the pages together along the folded edge.
2. The Cover (Page 1): This is where we grab the reader's attention! On the front cover, help Mirabelle write a title for her story. Then, underneath, she should write "by Mirabelle." Explain that she is both the author and the illustrator. Then, she can draw the cover picture!
3. The Beginning (Page 2): Open to the first page inside. Mirabelle should draw the picture for the beginning of the story. At the bottom of the page, she can write (or you can help her write) the first sentence. (e.g., "Once there was a purple cat named Luna.")
4. The Middle (Page 3): On the next page, draw the picture for the middle of the story. Write the sentence for what happens next. (e.g., "She found a magic flying broom!")
5. The End (Page 4): On the last page, draw the picture for how the story ends. Write the final sentence. (e.g., "Luna flew all the way to the moon and back.")

Part 3: Wrap-Up - Author's Reading! (5 minutes)

1. Set up a comfy chair and call it the "Author's Chair."
2. Invite Mirabelle to sit in the chair and do a special reading of her brand-new book for you (and any stuffed animals who want to listen!).
3. Give her a huge round of applause at the end. Celebrate her amazing accomplishment as a new author and illustrator.
4. Find a special place of honor on a bookshelf for her book.

Making it a Perfect Fit for Mirabelle

• For Extra Support: If writing is tiring, you be the scribe! Let Mirabelle dictate the sentences to you while she focuses on the illustrations. You can also use "sentence starters" like "Once upon a time..." or "Then, one day...".
• For an Extra Challenge: Encourage Mirabelle to write the sentences all by herself, sounding out the words. She could also add more pages to the middle of her story to include more details or another event. Maybe her character meets a friend along the way!