Then she sees a beautiful purple bird getting captured by some samurai-type soldiers. She wants to save the bird. She frees the bird, but ends up imprisoned in a cage herself. The bird frees her by bringing her the red chalk. She draws a red magic carpet and flies away. The purple bird leads her to a purple door. When she goes through it, she discovers the bird's creator - a boy with a purple piece of chalk. Now she is friends with the boy and they will go on many adventures together. Why not record the stories that emerge and make a collection of books to accompany them? These can be shared with another class or added to your own reading corner. Or you can record descriptions of single spreads and ask children to listen before matching each description to its picture. For traditional oral storytellers the structure of a story is a framework that must be kept intact, rather like a set of bones. Individual retellings are marked out by added details and embellishments.

Wordless picture books can be a good way to develop oral storytelling skills and Journey is ideal for this. Using the images as prompts, tell the story in your own words. Start with simple retellings of the bare bones before working in smaller groups to develop your stories by adding details. In this way, each group will create a different version of the story. Mime drawing that item, if it’s really big. Pretend you have a crayon and draw some big things to help you get from place to place. Introduction to the story glistening rivers, dramatic moats and dizzying waterfalls with a few artful strokes of her crayon, she is soon soaring above the clouds in a bright red hot-air balloon, I'd never heard of Journey. My mom heard about it somewhere, though, and she borrowed it from the library. I borrowed it from her. And I was completely enchanted by it.

Here are some beautiful kids yoga cards with lots of diverse students. The main set of poses is here, called a Yoga Flow. Here is a Journey Yoga Lesson Plan with … You can grab the whole trio of books here. They also lend themselves nicely to yoga lesson plans and sequences . Look at the picture showing the girl in her bedroom. Can you see things that make an appearance later in the book? Sometimes ideas for stories come easily, other times they need a bit of help.

Use the title as the starting point for your own story. What might your own story about a ‘Journey’ include? Why do people sometimes go on special journeys as part of their religion? Can you find out more about these? This book isn't an entirely original idea, but it is very well executed. The scenes are vibrant. The full spread, and sometimes double spread illustrations are highly detailed. And yet, the funny thing is, much of this is in drab colors. A vivid red is used to indicate the magic items the girl has drawn. Otherwise nothing more than a touch of gold here or a highlighted gleam of light there are used to transform the dull landscape into something living and vaguely mysterious. magical door from her bedroom wall, she finds herself transported into enthralling new lands – vividly colourful and alive with adventure. Navigating her way throughWhat emotions do you think the girl is feeling? How can we tell? (This gives an opportunity to talk about body language. Younger children might want to show you physically by copying the girl’s body language and showing the expression they imagine on her face) After reading you might ask them to jot down their initial responses: what did they like or dislike about the book? Did it remind them of any other books that they have read, or perhaps films that they have seen? Was there anything that they found puzzling, strange, confusing? Did they have any questions when they had finished the book? In class, ask the children to use their notes to help them share their ideas in small groups.

Start this activity with some guided visualisation. Give each child a coloured crayon or pencil. Use a variety of colours – one colour per child. To begin, have them hold the coloured pencil and think about the things that colour reminds them of. Now invite them to imagine in their ‘mind’s-eye’ (like television pictures running in their head) that they are at home in their room. It’s a dull day. Everyone else is busy doing their own thing. Imagine that you look down at your crayon. You have an idea! You go over to the wall and draw a door with your crayon. You open the door and step through into another world. Tell each other what you can see in each others pictures (rather than describing your own) and discuss what kind of a world you think theirs is. Can you draw your own imaginary World? I have listed some books with super imaginary worlds in them, if you haven't read any of them I can strongly recommend all of them (with the exception of Wizard of Oz which I have't actually read, but seen the film many times!) The girl and the bird devise a plan, and the girl slowly crafts a large rectangle that turns into a… magic carpet! She soars out of the cage and is free to fly across the countryside with the bird at her side. Stars (sanding star pose)The girl meets the owner of the bird, another young child with a crayon of his own as well. Together they decide to create something new, something with one circle, then two… (Draw to big circles with your arms) Bicycle (reclining bicycle legs) A girl is bored with her grey house full of grey people doing grey things. Even her grey cat is sleeping and doesn't want to play. Bring a red rug into school (the sort you can roll up and carry under one arm) and use it for story sharing in small groups with an adult helper (perhaps in secret locations around the school). Invite children to sit on the rug and talk about the special places they would like to go.

This ‘visual literacy’ approach to a picture’s content, narrative and composition is an effective way to boost children’s speaking and listening skills and develop their critical abilities, as well as increase their enjoyment of the book.

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For example: what would happen if this object…grew to be enormous? …had magic powers? …wanted a friend? …came to life? …belonged to somebody else (the queen, a lion, a visitor from outer space)? Ask an open question, ‘what’s happening in this picture?’ After the children have shared their responses, you may want to prompt them to think more deeply about the picture: Ideally, if children have their own copy of the book, allow them to read the book independently at their own pace. How many forms of transport are used during this story? Look closely at the marvellous flying machines, especially the cogs and pipes and gears. Stop reading when the girl first arrives at the city. Should she go in? Why (not)? Share your thoughts with others and vote on what you think should happen next.