In fall of 2024, students in the younger grades met once a week and focused on the theme and author’s purpose of a story. A book by Leo Lionni was read and connections and predictions were made, while discussions were had about the topic of the story. After each story, we worked on creating a collective list of the author’s purpose and making connections between the similarities and differences of each story.  Students came up with the common themes of: friendship, teamwork, humor and sharing. Students also noticed that Leo Lionni always used animals in his stories.