A common interest early in the school year has been the students' curiosity for the book "Cloudland" by John Burningham. Maybe it is the playful language or the whimsical fantasy of the picture book that has had the young readers so engaged. It could quite possibly be the realistic photographic illustration enhanced with hand drawn pictures. Motivated by the illustrations and the story, students were equipped with cameras to take pictures of their realistic setting. Sorting out the pictures, they chose one to create a mini story. Students superimposed their hand drawings onto the photo backdrop.


For our unit of Who We Are, students are inquiring into groups under the central idea of:

We belong to groups, some chosen, some inherent, in order to meet certain needs.

In the story, the main character, Albert, gets separated from his parents while hiking above the clouds. He is adopted by the 'cloud children', and they help tend to his needs, especially the need to have fun. Albert eventually realizes that he misses his family, and he eventually finds a way to get home.

The book served as a great conversation piece with our inquiry into groups. The students made connections with Albert, noting that they can belong to groups outside of the home. Students noted the physical needs that Albert was able to meet, such as to eat and to sleep, away from home, and they are starting to scrape the surface of the deeper social needs using words like 'belong'.

We will continue to find out what these needs are and think of ways to describe them.