Primary GATE with Caldecott -- "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!" Mo Willems

Let’s have some fun along with the Pigeon and expand DOK along the way! This lesson will lead your primary GATE students through four challenging activities, culminating in an artistic response showing why they “never get to do anything!” either.

Gifted and talented learners carry similar characteristics throughout their lives—even as kindergarten and first graders. One common characteristic of gifted learners is a strong sense of justice. Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus gives us a good opportunity to help develop GATE social-emotional skills in an age-appropriate way.

Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus also can help foster literacy skills in both audio-sequential and visual-spatial learners. One survey asserts that 2/3rds of our 21st Century Learners prefer or rely upon a visual-spatial style of learning. This is a challenge for teaching literacy. Why do we find a dip in literacy about the time kids are expected to make the leap from picture books to chapter books? Perhaps we need to work harder at fostering a visual-language connection for students.