Mo Willems Day!
Hey there Lion Cubs! It's Fun Friday here on Long Distance Library! Today we are going to celebrate one of the most popular children's authors ever. His name is Mo Willems and he is the creator of Knuffle Bunny, Pigeon, Elephant, and Piggie. Those aren't his only characters, but they are some of the most popular. Mo's books are easily the most popular books in our library. Not a day went by that I didn't hear students sitting on the carpet reading aloud a Mo Willems book - and reading them with expression. Kindergarteners checked them out, finding common sight words. First graders checked them out, reading them fluently. And second graders checked them out as if they were old friends. Not many authors have such a broad and long-lasting effect on young readers. He is definitely worth the celebration on this Fun Friday! Click here for my daily video and then let's get this celebration started!
We are going to continue our Mo Willems celebration at Storytime with Ryan and Craig. They have four different Mo Willems books on their read aloud page. You just know they are going to do an amazing job reading aloud books about Knuffle Bunny and The Pigeon. You can click here to go to Ryan and Craig's read aloud page, or you can click each of the links below to go straight to the individual Mo Willems' books. Which character will you choose first?
Now for some fun with Mo himself. In honor of his book I Really Like Slop!, Mo is going to do some cooking in the kitchen for us. He's going to be making Piggie's very favorite, super special, slop! I wonder what ingredients Mo will use to make the slop? Click here to watch "Mo Food with Mo Willems" and find out!
Since we are talking about Piggie's favorite food, how about we learn how to draw Piggie, too? Click here for a drawing lesson from Mo Willems. He is going to teach us how to draw Piggie, one of our favorite characters. Get your paper and pencil ready and try your hand at drawing your own Piggie. Let's get started!
Back in March, around the same time we started learning from home, Mo Willems began hosting daily Lunch Doodles online. Each day he would welcome watchers into his studio where he would do some doodles of his own and also lead watchers through step-by-step directions in how to draw some of his more popular characters. He also shared the makings of many of his books, including some of the very first sketches of each one. Other days he played games with special guests. Each episode was a fun-filled lunch time with Mo Willems. If you would like to go back and watch Mo's Lunch Doodles, click here to go to The Kennedy Center's website, where all fifteen episodes can be found. Watch them all today or watch one today and one tomorrow and one the next day . . . However you watch, you are really going to have a great time hanging out with Mo. I hope you have enjoyed our celebration of Mo Willems on this Fun Friday. Thank you Mo for all the wonderful characters you have shared with us! We look forward to many more!