MaiStoryBook Library

MaiStoryBook: The Year We Learned to Fly + *My Imagination* Craft

by MaiStoryBook

Introducing a beautiful new release that encourages littles to use their beautiful, brilliant minds to soar ~ featured in the MaiStoryBook Library Collection:

“The Year We Learned to Fly” by Jacqueline Woodson, Illustrate by Rafael Lopez

*~Click here to purchase your own copy of “The Year We Learned to Fly” to start on your own reading adventure! (This is an affiliate link~ a small percentage of your purchase will go to MaiStoryBook to help create Reading Resources for your littles)*

Book Synopsis/ Review

This stunning companion to the beautiful book *The Day You Begin Again,* heralds the power in each and every one of us to face challenges with confidence and resilience. A brother and sister learn from their grandmother about the power of their *minds*~ and their imagination’s ability to lift them up and out of boredom, anger, fear, and hate. The story addresses how this skill was used by the children’s ancestors long ago, when they were chained and beaten, to show the world the strength and resilience by soaring back to their homeland in their brilliant minds.

With dazzling illustrations that lift you up until you too are soaring over fields of flowers and through rays of sun, this simple yet profound book will instill confidence and encourage littles to imagine a way forward and through any challenges. An author’s note included at the back of the book gives more details about the inspiration behing the story and the history of the enslaved people who used stories to *fly* away from the hardest of times.

Vocabulary

  • brilliant (p. 4) very bright, smart, or talented
  • fussing (p. 10) bothering each other
  • autumn (p. 16) another word for fall, the season when the leaves change color- the season before winter and after summer
  • cuffed (p. 19) to have handcuffs on
  • block (p. 22) a street you live on

Themes/ Main Idea

  • Use your imagination and mind to dream of and believe in a better world
  • Words and stories give you the power to *fly* past even the hardest of times

YouTube Video: Guided Shared-Reading Read Aloud Example

Example of a shared-reading, interactive Read Aloud of “The Year We Learned to Fly” – how to subtly introduce the vocabulary list words within the text, ask guided questions, and spark conversation!

Subscribe: MaiStoryBook Youtube Channel for more *interactive* read aloud videos!

*The Year I Learned to Fly* Craft

Are you/ your littles a daydreamer ~ constantly wandering the brilliant worlds of imagination in your mind? I am a daydreamer. Mai mind tends to wander- something may catch mai eye and immediately images swirl around in mai head, chasing a thought and a possible story. Sometimes daydreaming is discouraged due to the perception of a lack of attention. Students are called out for daydreaming during class instead of listening. While there is a time and place for everything, and being an active listener to others is important, it’s also vital to encourage littles to exercise and foster their ability to dream and imagine. Our minds are beautiful and brilliant, and our dreams have the power to inspire change. This week’s craft encourages littles to exercise their imaginations and *learn to fly* with their beautiful minds. Check it out below!

Materials

Directions

  • Next, choose your Bird Body Response Template, available in black-and-white or color versions.
  • Differentiated Response templates are also available: sentence frames and written response, sentence frame and drawing response, heading and drawing space, heading and lines for writing and a drawing space
  • Print out your choice.
  • Fill in the response template with what you imagine by drawing or writing your responses.
  • Personalize your craft: Write in your name in the blank box within the heading on the bottom of the bird body. For example: “The Year __Maya__ Learned to Fly”
  • Color if you chose black and white.
  • To attach the wing flap to the bird body, use a paper fastener/brad.  Line up the small black dots on the wing flap and the bird body template and push the paper fastener through to attach the wing and body template.
  • *You can also use a small piece of pipe cleaner, poke it through the dots, and twist the pipe cleaner to the side so that it is hooked in place.
  • To reveal your response underneath, rotate the wing up so that the writing/drawing is revealed, and the wing is lifted to make it look like the bird is flying and flapping its wing.

Enjoy Your *The Year I Learned to Fly* Bird Craft

  • Share your craft with friends and family and share about how you can use your imagination to believe in a better world
  • Share your craft and ask friends and family to share what they imagine in different scenarios, or what their dream for the world is.
  • Use your craft to inspire you to use your imagination whenever you are feeling bored, angry, lonely, or scared.
  • Display your crafts for an inspiring display about using your brilliant and beautiful minds to *fly*

*~ I hope you are enjoying plenty of *inspiring* reading adventures this year, Mai Friends! Tag me on Instagram @MaiStoryBookLibrary or FaceBook , find me on TikTok, or contact me via email to share your own *My Family Table* Crafts and your own reading adventures! I’d love to hear how you are changing the world!~*

Enjoy More SEL Read Aloud Videos Here!

*~Until next time, Happy Reading