Five-year-olds Diego, Ellis, Kay, and Tessa, talk with their teacher as they work to paint their faces and move like animals. As the children invent many ways to symbolize the essence of an animal, they show us that literacy is both receptive and expressive. To represent the fins of a penguin, Ellis holds her arms straight and stiff against her sides while pointing her hands out slightly to the back. To capture the smaller range of movement permitted by the short legs of a penguin she locks her knee joints in place and moves from her hips. Ellis reads in the real actions of the penguins some actions she can capture with her own body. Kay uses the surface area of her cheeks like a canvas, to colorfully represent the wingspan of a butterfly. Diego paints a series of horizontal black lines on each cheek to represent the tiger’s whiskers. The teacher asks him, “What do you like about tigers?” and Diego replies, “They have very sharp teeth…” Watch how Diego holds and angles his fingers to represent the attributes of the tiger’s eyeteeth.