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TeachingBooks.net | Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!

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By resource types (lesson plans, author movies, etc.)

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It's the last few weeks of first grade, which means it's time for little blue pigeons to cover the walls of our classroom! And, in case you haven't seen my last post about Mo--you should know that I love him. He writes the cutest, funniest, and sweetest books for children!

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Reading to Kids Books: Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!

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Reading to Kids is a grassroots organization dedicated to inspiring underserved children with a love of reading, thereby enriching their lives and opportunities for future success. Reading to Kids currently works with Gratts, Magnolia, Esperanza, Los Angeles, Politi, White, Alta Loma, and MacArthur Park Elementary Schools (located in Los Angeles, California) to support monthly, school-sponsored Saturday reading clubs.

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When a bus driver takes a break in this hilarious Caldecott Honor-winning picture book, he gives the reader just one instruction: "Don't let the pigeon drive the bus!" But, boy, that pigeon tries every trick in the book to get in that driving seat: he whines, wheedles, fibs and flatters. Will you let him drive?

Book Author: Mo Willems
See More Books from this author
Teaching Ideas and Resources:

English

Make a new version of this story based on a similar title, e.g. "Don't Let the Pigeon Steer the Ship!" or "Don't Let the Pigeon Control the Steamroller".

Think of a 'backstory' for the pigeon. Where did he come from? Where does he live? Why does he want to drive a bus so badly?

Write an alternative ending for the story, in which the pigeon DOES get to drive the bus. What happens?

Make a list of for and against arguments about letting the pigeon drive the bus.

Discuss why the bus drive doesn't want the pigeon to drive the bus.

Make some instructions to teach the pigeon how to drive the bus.

Use the text in the speech bubbles to turn the story into a playscript.

Retell the story from the pigeon's point of view.

There are a number of books about this pigeon. Could you write your own story in which he is the main character?

Maths

Count how many times the following words are used in the story: Pigeon, bus, drive, I, vroom and just. Use these to create tally charts and other kinds of graphs.

Science

Write a report about pigeons. Include information about their behaviour, habitat and diet.

Computing

Create a game about a pigeon that drives a bus and has to avoid different obstacles.

Create a book trailer for this game using animation / multimedia tools.

Make an animated version of this story. Here are some examples:

Design Technology

Create some puppets and use them to retell this story.

Create a model of a bus.

Art

Create some images that show what might happen if the pigeon did get to drive the bus.

Can you create your own pictures of this pigeon doing unusual tasks?

PSHE

Look at the illustrations and identify how the pigeon is feeling in each picture. How do you know? Can you think of words and phrases to describe his emotions?

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When a bus driver takes a break in this hilarious Caldecott Honor-winning picture book, he gives the reader just one instruction: "Don't let the pigeon drive the bus!" But, boy, that pigeon tries every trick in the book to get in that driving seat: he whines, wheedles, fibs and flatters.

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One of my favorite books (I've got a lot of favorites) is Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus. It's so simple, yet funny. And it's PACKED with literacy learning. It plays on the author's purpose...specifically the purpose of persuasion.

ALuv has always loved this book, too. Just this past week, I included it as one of our read alouds to go with the letter P. As I was reading it aloud to the kids, an idea popped into my head. What if we could persuade that cute, little pigeon NOT to drive the bus?!?

First, we defined persuasion as: You're trying to get another person to think the same way that you do.

ALuv and I got busy thinking of reasons the pigeon should NOT drive the bus. NJoy jumped it, too. We made an entire list, laughing our way through some of our ideas.

Once we had a good list, I challenged ALuv to write a book to the pigeon, including some of our reasons. At first, he was a little hesitant. But once he got going, he put his all into it. His total work time on this project was about 4 hours (not all at one time). And boy, am I proud to show it off!

He started on his "sloppy copy", getting down those thoughts. Then, I edited his sloppy copy, correcting mostly punctuation and spelling.

I drew a line on his paper, like I showed on my FB page and he wrote out his pages (6 in all).

Then, came the fun part...illustrating it! Now, you need to understand something first. This. boy. hates. to. draw. Asking him to draw is like pulling teeth. He pouts. He moans. He whines. He complains. He drives this mama CRAZY!

But this was different. The best part about Mo Willems' illustrations is that they're simple and easy to draw. This made illustrating his book MUCH easier and much more fun! He even included talking bubbles in his pictures. The title of his persuasive writing became Pigeon, Don't Drive the Bus!

His final copy turned out so great! He's been very proud of it, reading it to almost anyone who has stepped into our house. And he loves that his writing is funny, making his audience laugh.

And, of course, I made sure to tell him that with all his hard work, that cute, little pigeon will never ask to drive the bus again! 🙂

I shared this post at Sun Scholars For the Kids Friday!

~Becky

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Persuade the Pigeon: A Persuasive Writing Exercise - This Reading Mama

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One of my favorite books (I've got a lot of favorites) is Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus. It's so simple, yet funny. And it's PACKED with literacy learning. It plays on the author's purpose...specifically the purpose of persuasion. ALuv has always loved this book, too.

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Last week we started our unit on "We the People." First up was to talk about a few of the important American symbols...I would have loved to talk about more, but we had a short week so we only got to three!

We talked about summarizing, therefore we used this little anchor chart to help us write our summaries. When we talked about the Liberty Bell we read " Officer Buckle and Gloria," because I wanted them to realize that we have some freedoms but it is important to follow laws and rules too!

The other book we read was Red, White, Blue, and Uncle Who? It has a page about each of the different American symbols!

We made these foldables to go along with our summaries and symbols!

Last week we also had conferences....which I had the time to make these great math games that are Pinterest inspired!

The kids "toss" a dice or marker then add the two numbers together. These green ones are easy! I also made a harder set and then I figured I could also mix the two!

Today we worked on writing opinion pieces. We reread the story "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!" The kids then had to decide if the pigeon should or shouldn't drive the bus!! Everyone of my kids said that he shouldn't be allowed! We used this paper to help us before we wrote our piece!

Here is the crafty we made with their writing!!!

This week we also have our 2nd grade get together again! Of course I am getting everything all ready to go! I will show you picture later this week or next week. Happy Monday!

[Glitterfy.com - *Glitter Words*]

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Last week we started our unit on "We the People." First up was to talk about a few of the important American symbols...I would have loved to talk about more, but we had a short week so we only got to three!

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Book & Author Literature Study Guide

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When the bus driver has to leave for a bit, he makes one request, "Don't let the Pigeon drive the bus." The Pigeon tries every tactic familiar to preschoolers and parents. The request is honored, the driver returns, and the Pigeon is dejected. But wait - is that a semi coming down the street?

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When I thought about a persuasive mentor text, my first thought was to go with The Pigeon, Mo Willems' crabby bird who demands things. I almost dismissed this writing idea because I thought my kids will probably think it is childish, but went I with it anyway. I'm so glad I did! It was so silly that they completely enjoyed it. Mo Willems' pigeon was was the perfect character for a persuasive writing lesson. You'd think there was a young audience for the book. Revisiting Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! with older kids allowed them to practice writing on a subject that was very humorous!

About The Pigeon's Persuasive Argument

The mentor text I'll use is Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! by Mo Willems.

In this popular book, we are a part of it. The bus driver approaches the readers to ask us to say no to the pigeon. Of course, the rest of the book is the pigeon asking to drive the bus and being denied (supposedly).

When my son was two, we would read this book, and he could not say no to the pigeon. Every time we would read this book, he'd say "YES!" I could not get him to understand that we supposed to say no.

Pigeon Persuasive Writing Brainstorming

The purpose of this writing assignment was to decide: Did the pigeon's arguments persuade you? What evidence do you see that he would be a good bus driver? Should the bus driver let him drive the bus?

I want like the kids to explain to the bus driver why he should or should not let the pigeon drive the bus.

Although I am strongly on the "don't let the pigeon drive!" side of the argument, I think it is important for kids to think of reasons for themselves. The pigeon makes a lot of arguments. The question is, Do we trust him?

I am hoping that this simple template below will help them put reasons to their argument. It's important that students brainstorm. Can they put themselves on both sides of the argument? When they can do that, they can argue better against those things as a good reason. It will make their overall persuasion stronger.

Did you like this post? Pin it for later!

P.S. The next lesson we did for persuasive writing was making cereal boxes. We read cereal boxes. I then asked the kids to work on their own cereal boxes or advertisements. What do marketers say to get people to want to buy the cereal? My favorite creation was Creeper Cereal...hehehe. Make everything into Minecraft, and you get the excitement you were looking for!

P.P.S. Can you kids convince a bully to not step on an ant?

See more picture book inspired writing ideas!

Want more ideas for teaching persuasive writing? Visit The Reading Tutor/OG's blog to see others on the link up.

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Persuasive Writing with The Pigeon - Line upon Line Learning

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When I thought about a persuasive mentor text, my first thought was to go with The Pigeon, Mo Willems' crabby bird who demands things. I almost dismissed this writing idea because I thought my kids will probably think it is childish, but went I with it anyway. I'm so glad I did!