Teaching Tools
Here are some sources and ideas for teachers and classrooms. Don was very active in interesting youngsters to read and often toured classrooms throughout the country, inspiring children to read and create their own stories and books. The following material is available for downloading for free use in classrooms:
1. Frequently Asked Questions about Don (a PDF document, about 12 pages).
Click on Dons FAQs.pdf (92 hits).
2. A transcript of Don’s lecture to an audience of adults interested in writing and illustration children’s books (A PDF document, about 6 pages).
Click on Don’s lecture.pdf (77 hits).
3. A slightly editied version of the article on Don Freeman in “Something About the Author” (volume 17, edited by Anne Commire, Gale Research Inc., 1976). This article is mostly a collection of biographical quotes from Don’s “Come One, Come All!” Click here to download (180 kB) (28 hits) this document as a pdf file!
4. A high resolution image of Don’s draft illustration for the last page of “A Pocket for Corduroy”. With this image, you can ask your class to compare Don’s draft with the final version. The children can discuss which version they prefer and why. You can also animate them to come up with other ideas of their own. Click here to download (7.5 MB) (71 hits) the image as a pdf file!
5. A set of black-and-white illustrations for an early version of “Penguins of all People”. In this version, the young penguin has different relationship with the father and mother. Children can see how an idea developed and talk about creating stories of their own. Coming soon…
6. The documentary film “Storymaker” about how Don created a children’s book as a DVD. I am working out copyright details on this.
7. Don also created a very humorous short film “Lollipop Opera” based on Rossini’s “Barber of Seville” to the subject of his book “Mop Top”. For educational purposes I can send you a DVD for cost of burning the DVD and postage. Please contact me if you are interested.
Please contact me if you have questions or idea and/or if would like more information.
