The Following suggestions are for using poetry across the curriculum

Introducing Poetry throughout the School Day For millennia – even before Homer started reciting The Iliad and The Odyssey – we humans have been telling one another poems. Even today, children and adolescents often spontaneously make up poems to tell one another, in jump-rope rhymes, insults and comebacks, riddles, and other verses. What is it about poems that so appeals to us? On the other hand, many adults today feel turned off to poetry, never venturing to scribble a verse and rarely listening to it, except when tuning in to a song’s lyrics. What happened to make us so wary of poems? Why Poems? Poems intrinsically appeal to us because of their rhythm, their rich imagery, and and their ability to extract the pot-liquor from the boiling cauldron of our experiences. Here’s an example: Fog by Carl Sandburg The fog comes on little cat feet. it sits looking over harbor and city on silent haunches and then moves on. How does Sandburg do that – capturing the essential images and impressions of fog in twenty-one small words? To be honest, we can’t tell you exactly how he does it. Perhaps we have to admit that – like electricity – it seems to happen as if by magic. The secret to the magic isn’t in the topic he chose. In the many anthologies containing Sandburg’s poems, you may find a wealth of other poems about almost any classroom topic you and your children can think of. For instance, you may find Sandburg’s poem in • Jack Prelutsky’s (1983) anthology, The Random House book of Poetry for Children (p. 96), New York: Random House. Prelutsky’s anthology also includes poems on ferns, wind, George Washington, smells, boa constrictors, Halloween, being rude, basketball, waking up, cockroaches, the taste of purple, feeling frightened, a hog-calling competition, family members, unicorns, toasters, flying, and so on – even poems on the whole universe. Why have poets written about so many different topics, expressing so may different feelings and points of view? Because poetry can work like a magnifier, to enlarge the very small and bring it into view, or to focus sunlight on something to intensely that it catches fire. Throughout this book I hope to inspire you to incorporate poetry into every aspect of your curriculum, adding its distinctive insights to whatever you teach. Why do so many of us avoid writing poetry and teaching poetry to our students? I don’t know for sure, but I suspect that for too many of us, our early love of poetry was drilled out of us by teachers who felt obliged to teach us poems that we didn’t love – and that they themselves didn’t love, either. The key to teaching poetry is – as you might have guessed – your enthusiasm for an enjoyment of the poems you share with your students. If you relish a particular poem, your enthusiasm will infect your students, and they’ll enjoy it, too. Throughout this book, I make many suggestions for poems, teaching strategies, and ideas for extending poetry concepts across the curriculum. Please feel free to take whichever of these suggestions appeal to you and to modify or to reject altogether any that don’t speak to your heart and soul – or that just seem foreign to your own teaching style. Try to remain open to trying new things, but recognize when your guts are telling you, “This poem doesn’t work for me,” or “My students and I don’t have fun with this activity,” or “What were they thinking? My students and I could never do that!” I have come up with a basic format for introducing poetry to your students, which I believe is effective. Give it a try, and see whether it works for you and your students, then adapt it to suit your needs. First of all, immerse your students in the sounds and the language of the poem or poems you are introducing. Next, encourage your students to explore the poem, considering how it’s put together and how it might be modified. Finally, encourage your students to experiment with the kind of poem you introduced, perhaps creating a class poem or creating individual poems similar to the poem or poems they explored previously. Immersion When immersing your students in the sounds and language of a poem (or set of poems), introduce the poem, invite your students’ responses to the poem, and then extend what they have learned across the curriculum. Before you introduce the poem, however, you may have to do some advance preparation. ADVANCE PREPARATION For whichever poem you introduce, you will need to post the poem in some way. If you like the poem and plan to use it again later, you may wish to prepare a wall chart with the poem written in large manuscript printing. If you aren’t yet sure about how well your students will respond to the poem, you may prefer just to write it on a chalkboard or whiteboard at the front of the room. Throughout this book, I offer suggestions for advance preparation. In addition to the poem, you may need to prepare other materials or to introduce other experiences or activities. INTRODUCE THE POEM Once you have posted the poem for all your students to see it, read the poem aloud to your students. Use your whole body, your voice, your facial expressions, and your gestures to highlight the drama and rhythm of the poem. For instance, if you are reading Sandburg’s “Fog,” crawl (or stoop) as you creep on quiet catlike feet across the floor; sit silently, leaning and looking; then quietly move on. Emphasize the pauses and the silences Sandburg suggests with his line breaks. Read the poem a second time, inviting your students to read the poem with you. For the third reading, invite them to read the poem, using lowered voices, pauses, and silences, as you feel appropriate. Invite small groups of students to act out the poem, as the remainder of the class choral-reads the poem aloud. INVITE RESPONSES TO THE POEM After you have introduced the poem, ask your students to respond to three kinds of questions: a viewpoint or empathy question, a language question, and a poem-structure question. • Viewpoint or empathy question. Ask questions that prompt your students to see the experience as the poet sees it, or to see it from the viewpoint of a person or object in the poem. Example: For Sandburg’s “Fog,” you might ask, “What does the word ‘haunches’ mean?” “What does ‘harbor’ mean?” “Why did Sandburg choose those words? What words could he have chosen instead?” “What other animal moves quietly? How would the feeling and imagery of the poem be different if Sandburg had used a different animal for his poem?” • Poem-structure question. Ask questions that incite your students to think about how the poet structured the poem and about how the poem might be different if it were changed in some way. Example: Ask,” How well would the poem work if Sandburg wrote out the whole poem on one line, and we didn’t take any breaths or pauses in the whole poem?” “What would happen if we dropped the last line of the poem? Would the poem still give us the whole story of what fog does? How would that change the poem?” “How else could we change Sandburg’s poem” (you could try experimenting with the lines on looking, too, such as with “It waits watching” or…) EXTEND YOUR STUDENTS’ KNOWLEDGE ACROSS THE CURRICULUM. Build on the concepts, the language, and the poetry forms introduced in the poem, extending what your students have learned across the curriculum areas of literature, science, mathematics, social studies, art, and music and movement. Literature. Just a couple of the children’s books that you may want to link to Frost’s poem are • Lapp, Eleanor. (1978) In the Morning Mist. Chicago: Albert Whitman. • Shaw, Charles. (1947) It Looked Like Spilt Milk. New York: HarperCollins. Science. Experiment with water and condensation. Put a sponge in the bottom of each of several resealable plastic baggies. Pour some water into each baggie, thoroughly soaking the sponge. Tape the baggies to sunny windows and to other spots around the classroom. Observe what happens to the water in the baggies. (If the temperature is right, you should be able to see a minicloud form in the baggie in the window.) If you’re reading this poem during cold weather, you can invite your students to create “fog” on your classroom windows, by exhaling onto the windows. Another option is to freeze a clean, dry glass, then let it sit out in the classroom, and observe the water condensing on the glass. Math. Invite your students to count the syllables for each line in Sandburg’s poem. Next, have them choose another poem they enjoy (e.g., a familiar song or a verse book). Invite them to count the syllables in the more predictably rhythmic poem. Which poem is more fun to read aloud? Why? Which poem is more mysterious and creepy to read? Why? Social Studies. Set up a TV-news-studio dramatic-play center, with a chalkboard for the weather report, a news desk and papers for reading the “news,” suit jackets or other clothing suitable for news reporters, and an assortment of photos from National Geographic, People, and other newsy magazines. Encourage your students to be camera operators, producers, and other members of the “news team.” Art. Create water-drip and –blow paintings. Add water to tempera paint, and offer students one sheet of highly absorbent paper (e.g., paper towels or art paper) and one sheet of glossy paper (e.g., butcher paper or fingerpaint paper). Give each student a small container of the watery tempera, and offer each an eyedropper and a straw. Have each student use the eyedropper to drip some of the paint solution onto the paper, then use the straw to blow the paint across the paper. Invite the students to compare what happens with the absorbent paper, as compared with the glossy paper. (The straw won’t blow the liquid as easily on the absorbent paper as on the glossy paper.) Music and Movement. Invite your students to sing and act out a “foggy” version of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.” For instance, here’s one possible verse to this familiar tune: On cat’s feet, you move so slow Creeping, creeping, softly go Softly, slowly, on the ground Never ever make a sound Moving slowly, you tiptoe Down along the ground so low Exploration Once your students have been thoroughly immersed in the poem – its language, its form, its concepts – they are ready to explore the poem more deeply. At this point, you can encourage them to take the poem apart, play with it, modify it, and try putting it – or a variation of it – back together. In exploring Sandburg’s poem, you might try thinking about how it would work if it were about a thunderstorm. Would it simply “[come],” or would it “stomp” or “stamp” or “pounce” or move in some other way? Would it enter “on little cat feet?” Probably not. What kind of transportation would it use? Would it be a tyrannosaurus rex, a thunderboat, a locomotive, a polar bear? Would a thunderstorm simply “[sit] looking?” What would it do? Where would it do it? Surely it wouldn’t sit “on silent haunches.” Would it then just “[move] on?” Would it trickle away into a fine mist, would it march on to the next city, or would it go out with a bang of thunder? Work as a class to come up with your own creations, using Sandburg’s poem as a starting point, but not limiting yourself to the words or even the format he used for describing fog. You may even have a different point of view about fog. Perhaps it’s a terrifying invader, who sneaks up on unwary drivers or bicyclists, enshrouding them. The poem you and your students create will be unique to their personal experiences, their interpretations, and their linguistic repertoire. Experimentation Encourage your students to experiment with the kind of poem you introduced. When you are first introducing your students to poetry, you may wish to create class poems during your experimentations. A little later on, you may encourage your students to work alone, in pairs, or in small groups, to create individual poems similar to the poem or poems they explored previously. During experimentation, you will probably also want to emphasize the writing process: brainstorming for ideas, developing and organizing ideas, drafting, revising for content, and editing. If you are working as a whole class, use a chalkboard or a whiteboard while you are generating ideas. If your students are having trouble getting started with ideas, you might try one or more of the following ideas: • “If you look inside me, you’ll find…” (either about the poet or personifying an inanimate object or an animal, from that point of view; e.g., a crocodile’s viewpoint or the literal or figurative contents of a pencil or a computer) • “If I were…” or “I wish I were…” or “If only I…” • “What if…” (these can be about ordinary or personal hypotheticals, or about historical or scientific possibilities) • “The problem [or trouble] with…” • “What’s terrific about…” • “Gee, I was surprised when…” On another patch of chalkboard or whiteboard, work with your students to develop and organize your ideas. For instance, in coming up with a poem about wind, you and your students might sort your brainstorming into ideas about wind’s properties, what it does to objects (e.g., papers, leaves), what it does to people (tosses hair, makes goose bumps, etc.), and so on. Once you are content with your organization of ideas, transfer them to chart paper (or butcher paper). Write your first draft on a whiteboard (or chalkboard). Play around with the words, the format, the sequence. When you are ready to go to a more permanent form, consider using a pocket chart with sentence strips. That still gives you a lot of flexibility to revise the poem, playing around with the sequence and with individual words or phrases. Once you and your students are satisfied with your revised poem, transfer it to chart paper. Invite them to help you edit the poem, making sure that the line breaks, spelling, punctuation, and so on are the best they can be for your purposes. If your students are working in small groups or as individuals, you may want to introduce them to critics’ circles when they are ready to revise their works. A critic’s circle may include your entire class, small groups of students, or even student pairs or trios. At first, you’ll need to guide the critics circle closely, modeling how to be a constructive critic. The idea is that each poet takes a turn reading her or his poem aloud. After each poet reads, fellow poets take turns telling one thing about the poem that each listener particularly liked. Every listener can come up with at least one thing she or he liked – it may be a luscious word, an ear-pleasing phrase or alliteration or rhyme, a soothing or prickly or eerie tone, a fascinating or appealing topic, a well-structured format, effective line breaks, or almost anything else. For most poets, on most occasions, the positive comments constitute all of the feedback on the poem. If the poet requests help, however, she or he may ask fellow poets for suggestions for improving a particular aspect of the poem. For instance, the poet may ask for help with a particular word, phrase, or line, help in improving a rhyme or rhythm, help in shaping the tone of the poem, help in concluding the poem, and so on. At the poet’s request, the listeners may then offer positive, constructive suggestions for improving the poem. General comments such as, “I just didn’t like it,” or “I hated your phrasing,” aren’t acceptable for two reasons: (1) They’re hurtful and useless to the poet, and (2) they don’t teach the critic how to think critically about poetry. For the critics and the poets to learn the most, the comments must be highly specific suggestions for improvement. Initially, these critics circles may be a little rough, and they may require a lot of energy and guidance on your part. The payoffs for your effort are tremendous, however, as your participants will learn about how to create and revise poems, both as critics and as poets. When revising your poems, you may profit from listening to what a few children’s poets have said, quoted in Bernice Cullinan’s (1996) anthology, A Jar of Tiny Stars: Poems by NCTE Award-Winning Poets (Honesdale, PA: Wordsong, Boyds Mills Press): • On choosing the right word – Eve Merriam (p. 33) said, “I’ve sometimes spent weeks looking for precisely the right word. It’s like having a tiny marble in your pocket, you can just feel it. Sometimes you find a word and say, ‘no, I don’t think this is it…’ Then you discard it, and take another and another until you get it right.” • On choosing one correct recipe for creating a poem – Arnold Adoff (p. 53) said, “I want to do more in my poems than just present facts or feelings or communicate. I want my poems to sing as well as to say.” John Ciardi (p. 39) agrees that with poetry, “maybe you can make language dance a bit.” According to Barbara Esbensen (p. 67), “Poetry should knock your block off.” May your students’ poems make the language dance as they gently, effortlessly knock your block off! Chapter 1 Math Introduction Too often, we view math narrowly as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Most mathematicians, however, view mathematics as the observation of patterns and the use of critical thinking to solve problems. The most encompassing topics of mathematics include the observation of patterns in shapes, sequences, sizes, and numbers. All of these topics interest poets, too. In addition, poets occasionally consider mathematical topics involving time, money, and other measurements and calculations. Geometry and Shapes Both mathematicians and physicists recognize the fundamental role of geometry in their fields. You don’t have to be a mathematician or a physicist to appreciate geometry, however. Students of all ages enjoy noticing the various shapes of the objects in their world, and observing how the shapes of things influence the way those things can move and can function in their environments. Immersion Immerse your students in poetry about shapes. For instance, following is a poem by Rebecca Kai Dotlich, regarding “The Shape of Things”: Here’s the story; story goes – circle wishes for a nose. And square, well she can strictly state, being perfect’s not all great But triangle is full of fun – “three sides are a gas!” then one by one, he sets them straight; (those grumbling kin,) “just learn to like the shape you’re in!” Write the first poem on a wall chart, butcher paper, a poster, a chalkboard, or a whiteboard. (More permanent surfaces are nice for you because you can accumulate a set of poems to use throughout the year; less permanent surfaces allow you to play with the wording, erasing, substituting, or adding words and phrases.) Introduce the First Poem. Read the poem aloud to your students, using your voice and gestures to highlight the drama of the poem. For instance, when using Dotlich’s poem, you can dramatically exaggerate the feelings of “wishes,” “not all great,” “a gas!” “grumbling,” and “like,” with your facial expressions, your mannerisms, and your voice. As you read the poem a second time, invite your students to read the final word in each line. For the third reading, invite them to read the entire poem along with you. If your students are accustomed to reading poetry, you may want to encourage individual students or student duos or trios to read or act out the poem. Invite responses to the first poem. After you have introduced the poem, ask your students to respond to three kinds of questions: a viewpoint or empathy question, a language question, and a poem-structure question. If you are working with children six years old or older, have your students work alone, in pairs, or in small groups, and have them respond in writing to the three kinds of questions. (For these older children, you may want to use the accompanying worksheet, to make things easy on yourself.) If you are working with preschool children, carry out this activity orally. Carefully gauge their interest and attention, and perhaps just ask one or two kinds of questions if their interest appears to flag. In addition, invite your students to draw a picture of the three main shapes, adding facial expressions to show the mood of each shape. Insert worksheet “The Shape of Things” here The examples given here use Dotlich’s “The Shape of Things” poem for each of the three kinds of questions. 4. Viewpoint or empathy question. For a narrative poem, ask a question that stimulates your students to imagine themselves in the situation described in the poem. If the poem doesn’t tell a story (such as a descriptive poem), encourage your students to imagine themselves as an aspect or object in the poem. Example: Ask students, “Have you ever wished you looked different than you do? What would you change about the way you look if you could?” “In what ways do you think that you ‘are a gas!’? What do you like about how you look or about who you are?” 5. Language question. Ask a question that prompts your students to think about the language of the poem. Example: “The word ‘kin’ means people who are related to you, who are in your family. What are some other words that have to do with family?” “How do people sound when they are ‘grumbling’? How do people feel when they are making grumbling sounds? What are some other words that mean something like ‘grumbling’?” 6. Poem-structure question. Ask a question that challenges your students to think about the structure of the poem and about how the poem might be different if it were changed in some way. Example: Ask, “How well would the poem work if the triangle was unhappy with its shape, and the square and the circle were pleased with their shapes? How could we change the poem to work in that way? How else could the poem be changed?” Now that your students have a new angle on shapes, you may want to try sharing the following shape-ly poems, which particularly appeal to students. Poetry for preschoolers and beyond • “I Am Running in a Circle,” by Jack Prelutsky. See p. 18 in Ciardi, John. (1962). You Read to Me, I’ll Read to You. New York: HarperCollins. • “Shapes” by Shel Silverstein. See p. 77 in Silverstein, Shel. (1981). A Light in the Attic: Poems and Drawings of Shel Silverstein. New York: Harper & Row. Poetry for older students • “Geometry” by Rita Dove. See p. 90 in Thompson, Eileen (compiler). (1987). Experiencing Poetry. New York: Globe Book Company, Inc. Introduce the next poem. Choose one of the preceding poems (or another shapes-related poem you enjoy). Display the poem you chose in some manner (e.g., whiteboard, pocket chart). Expressively and dramatically read the poem aloud to your students. (For instance, if using Silverstein’s poem, dramatically exaggerate the fall of kerplunk! With your gestures and your voice.) Read the poem a second time, encouraging your students to read the final word in each line with you as you read. Read the poem a third time, prompting your students to read the entire poem along with you. Invite student solos, duos, or trios to act out the poem while the rest of the class reads it aloud. (When using Silverstein’s poem, you may need to remind students that they must fake – not actually carry out – striking a fellow student in the back.) Invite responses to the poem. Again, invite students to consider three types of questions in responding to the poem (or poems) you choose. The examples given here pertain to Shel Silverstein’s “Shapes” poem, but you can come up with the same types of questions for any shapes poems. 1. Viewpoint or empathy question. What would students think, or how would they feel if they were inside the poem? How would they view the world if they were one of the objects or persons described in the poem? Example: For Shel Silverstein’s “Shapes” poem, you might ask students, “Tell what you think and feel as you read this poem. What would you think or feel if you were the triangle? What if you were the square? What about the circle? 2. Language question. Encourage students to think about the words and the wording of the poem. Example: “Choose some words or phrases you particularly like (or dislike) in the poem, and write them down. Tell why you do (or don’t) like them. How do they make the poem work (or not work)?” 3. Poem-structure question. Challenge your students to think about how the poet structured the poem. How might the poem be different if its structure were changed in some way? Example: “Tell how the shape of each shape affects what happens in the poem. How well would the poem work if the circle and the triangle switched places in the poem? How else could the poem be changed? What do you think?” If you are working with children six years old or older, have your students respond in writing (alone, in pairs, or in small groups) to the three kinds of questions. If you are working with preschoolers, ask the questions orally, while you closely monitor the students’ attention span and interest level. As needed, limit the questions to just one or two, and then encourage your students to draw a picture to show what happens in the poem. EXTEND YOUR STUDENTS’ KNOWLEDGE ACROSS THE CURRICULUM. As long as your interest and your students’ interest continues, use additional shape-related poems to repeat this process of introducing your students to poems and then inviting them to respond to the poems. In addition, reinforce your students’ awareness of shapes, acquired through exploring the poem, by setting up a shapes-oriented mathematics learning center: • For preschoolers, you may simply offer a wide variety of puzzles for students to use, including a full range of possibilities, from simple inlays to somewhat complex jigsaw puzzles. • For students in the primary grades, you may use more complex jigsaw puzzles, or you may wish to have students create their own puzzles. If so, set up a learning center, using the Learning-Center Task Card, “Puzzling Shapes,” as a guide. Learning-Center Task Card, “Puzzling Shapes” Objective Explore shapes by creating your own jigsaw puzzles. Materials • A variety of old magazines (e.g., National Geographic, People) • Toy or educational catalogues • White glue (in small bottles or in empty yoghurt containers with Q-tip-style cotton swab applicators) • Pieces of cardboard or other stiff paper • Scissors • Crayons (or primary pencils) • Envelopes Directions 1. Choose an interesting picture from a magazine or a catalog. 2. Remove the picture from the magazine, being careful not to tear it. 3. Write your name on the back of a piece of cardboard. 4. Mount your chosen picture onto the front of the cardboard, using the white glue. 5. Set your mounted picture aside for a day, to let the picture dry fully. 6. When you return to this center, cut your mounted pictures into distinctive shapes. 7. Label an envelope with your name and a description of the completed picture. 8. Store your puzzle pieces in your labeled envelope. To extend students’ awareness of shapes across the curriculum, try the following activities in the areas of art, music and movement, science, social studies, and literature. Art. Have students play with the shapes highlighted in the poem through an art activity. For instance, make shape collages using triangles, circles, and squares. Shape collage I Supply (or have students cut out their own) tissue-paper circles, triangles, and squares. Each shape should be about 2-4” wide. Have your students use starch as an adhesive to apply overlapping layers of the shapes into a piece of construction paper or newsprint. Shape collage II Provide (or have students cut out their own) small (~1” wide) construction-paper circles, triangles, and squares. Have your students use paste as an adhesive to cover a piece of paper with shapes, making collages resembling mosaic-tile decorations. Music and Movement. Invite your students to make the shapes with their bodies – alone, with a partner, in small groups, or as a whole class. Sing songs that highlight shapes. For instance, invite students to work with you to create new lyrics for a familiar song. That is, use a familiar tune, but create new lyrics for it, focusing on shapes. (These new lyrics carried aloft on old tunes are often called “piggyback songs.”) For example, modify the lyrics of “The Wheels of the Bus G Round and Round” to be “The circle’s shape is round, round, round… all through the town.” “The triangle’s shape has three big points, three big points, three big points…” “The shape of the square has four equal sides…” Science. Experiment with wheels, square blocks, and triangular blocks, sliding or rolling them down ramps (inclined planes) of various degrees of slope. Ask students, “Which shapes slide down the fastest?” Encourage them to experiment to see how the degree of slope affects the speed of movement. Social Studies. Relate the shapes to aspects of the social-studies unit under study. For instance, if studying American families, have your students categorize furniture and other household objects according to their shapes. If your students are studying people in places that aren’t part of the “carpentered world,” ask them to consider why houses are or are not rectangular in construction. Have your students create models of homes of differing shapes, such as hogans and teepees. Literature. Read books about shapes, such as the following: • Carle, Eric. (1974). My Very First Book of Shapes. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company. • Giesel, Theodor (Dr. Seuss). (1973). The Shape of Me and Other Stuff. New York: Random House. Exploration: Shapely (Concrete) Poems Draw several concrete poems on wall charts or on poster paper. Concrete poems have words and letters that form a distinctive visual shape or pattern, which usually highlight or reflect an aspect of the poem or the subject of the poem. For instance, draw “Squares” by Douglas Florian. See page 62 in Florian’s 1994 book, Bing Bang Boing (New York: Puffin/Penguin). Insert “Squares” here After you’ve whetted their appetite with “Squares,” tantalize your students further with additional concrete poems, reading the poems aloud and then reading the poems with your students. Florian, arguably the master of the concrete poem for young readers, has three more concrete poems in his Bing, Bang, Boing book: “Seashells” (p. 74), “The Incredible Shrinking Poem” (p. 92), and “Ping-Pong Poem” (p. 33). He also has two vividly graphic concrete poems – “The Inchworm” (p. 14) and “The Whirligig Beetles” (p. 22) – in his 1998 book, Insectlopedia (San Diego: Harcourt Brace & Company). Once you wear out Florian’s assortment, you may want to try some of the concrete poems in the delightful poetry book compiled by Michael Rosen (1985/1993), The Kingfisher Book of Children’s Poetry (New York: Kingfisher Books, Grisewood & Dempsey): “[I want a small piece of string],” by Remy Charlip (p. 48); “Mosquito” by Marie Zbierski (p. 217); “The Honey Pot” by Alan Riddell (p. 160); “Playing with Words” by Michael Rosen (p. 161); and three poems by Robert Froman: “[Read up and down]” (p. 84), “Superstink” (p. 84), and “Friendly Warning” (p. 85). If your students just can’t get enough of concrete poems, you might also want to try the following poems: • “Mirror” by Guillaume Apollinaire. See p. 28 in Thompson, Eileen (compiler). (1987). Experiencing Poetry. New York: Globe Book Company, Inc. • “Sometimes Poems” by Judith Viorst. See pp. 36-37 in Viorst, Judith. (1981). If I Were in Charge of the World and other Worries: Poems for Children and Their Parents. New York: Aladdin Books, Macmillan. • “Poem on the Neck of a Running Giraffe” by Shel Silverstein. See p. 107 in Silverstein, Shel. (1974). Where the Sidewalk Ends: Poems and Drawings of Shel Silverstein. New York: Harper & Row. By this time, your students have been thoroughly immersed in concrete poems and are ready to explore these poems as a distinctive form. As a class, using a chalkboard or a whiteboard, create a concrete poem that complements a theme or unit of study in your curriculum. For instance, if animals were a subject of study, you might create a concrete poem highlighting the shapes of the animals being studied. If you were studying plants, you might create grassy poems, bushy poems, tree-shaped poems, or even tulip-, orchid-, or daisy-shaped poems. If you were studying the Revolutionary War era, you might create a horse-shaped poem to commemorate Paul Revere’s ride, or spectacle-shaped poems to memorialize Benjamin Franklin. Given a little prompting, you and your students will come up with ingenious shapes for almost any unit of study. Model with your students the concept of creating a rough draft and a final draft of your poem. After you and they have created your preliminary poem, have your students help you edit it, modifying both your word choices and the shape of your poem. Once there is consensus that the poem is complete, copy it to a wall chart or poster. Using the wall chart, choral read the poem. EXTEND YOUR STUDENTS’ KNOWLEDGE ACROSS THE CURRICULUM. To expand your students’ awareness of shapes across the curriculum, try the following activities in the areas of art, music and movement, science, social studies, and literature. Art. Have your students cut around the edges of art paper (construction paper, manila paper, or newsprint) to create the same outline shape as that of the class poem. Invite students to depict one or more important features of the object being shown. For instance, for the animals unit, have students depict the chosen animal’s habitat and preferred foods on the outlined shape of the animal. For a unit on American history, have students depict particular events associated with a particular historical figure. If you wish to encourage small-group cooperation, distribute butcher paper, and have the students cut an outline, as before. Then encourage the group members to discuss what features or events to depict and to collaborate in depicting each element. Music and Movement. Invite your students to move as the object of study moves. For instance, if animals are being investigated, have students move as various animals would move. If Paul Revere’s ride is being studied, students may gallop in a circle around the edge of the classroom. Play suitable instrumental music to accompany the rhythms of the movements: (For instance, use “The Flight of the Bumblebee” to accompany insect movements; use “William Tell’s Overture” to accompany horses galloping.) Science. Have you ever wondered how to fit as many things as you can into as small a space as possible – such as when you need to pack a tiny suitcase to go on a trip or you have to pack all your belongings into a few boxes? Scientists who study physics (e.g., spacecraft design) and biology (e.g., embryological development) wonder about size, space, and shape problems, too. Set up a learning center that poses the problem of packing a lot into a finite space. Offer a medium-sized cardboard box and a huge number of objects of various shapes and sizes. Invite students to try to arrange the objects in the box in a way that fits the maximum number of objects into the box. Many scientists are also fascinated with observing how bubbles form, the shapes they take, and the ways in which bubbles combine, expand, and burst. At a learning center, or at a table in a corner of the playground, encourage students to explore the shapes they can form with bubble solution. (A little dish soap in a lot of water does the trick!) In addition to the standard plastic wands, try offering a variety of shapes, formed with wire coat hangers, plastic-coated wires, or other objects. Prompt your students to observe how the shapes of things affect their functionality. For preschoolers, sand, dirt, and water are always intriguing materials. Add to these materials a wide assortment of household objects (e.g., forks, spoons, cups, plates, eggbeaters, whisks, sponges). Invite students to study how the shape of each object influences how easily, and how well the object is used. Pose a set of tasks to perform, and have students experiment to see which object shapes perform each task most effectively. (For instance, how do forks, spoons, whisks, and cups compare for mixing ingredients? How do they compare for transferring liquids from one container to another?) For older children, have them compare animal shapes with the animals’ modes of transportation (e.g., snakes vs. eels vs. fish; spiders vs. insects vs. birds; frogs vs. rabbits vs. kangaroos; monkeys vs. apes vs. humans). Have students work together to create a mural on butcher paper, showing creatures that move mostly in water, on the land, or in the air. (Provide encyclopedias for them to use as models for drawing pictures of each creature, or supply old National Geographic magazines or other sources of pictures for them to cut and paste onto the mural.) Social Studies. Relate various shapes to aspects of the social-studies unit you are studying. For instance, if you are studying a historical period (or a geographical region) prior to the widespread development of paved roads, encourage your students to think about how useful (or not) wheeled vehicles would have been. What modes of transportation might be more useful in an environment without paved roads? Have students create a mural, showing various kinds of transportation that can be used in places where there aren’t many paved roads. Literature. Another shapes-oriented book that particularly appeals to young readers is Charles Shaw’s (1947) It Looked Like Spilt Milk (New York: HarperCollins). In addition, offer students a variety of books about your current unit of study. For instance, if your students are studying animals, they may enjoy the following books: • Barton, Byron. (1989) Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs. New York: HarperCollins. • Boynton, Sandra. (1993) Barnyard Dance. New York: Workman Publishing. • Pandell, Karen. (1994). I Love You, Sun; I Love You, Moon. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons. • Wildsmith, Brian. (1967). Wild Animals. New York: Oxford University Press. Experimentation: Creating Your Own Poems With and About Shapes By now, your students are ready to create their own concrete poems to accompany specific curriculum content and particular curriculum activities. First, review with your students the characteristics of a concrete poem. (That is, words and letters form a distinctive visual shape or pattern; the poem’s shape highlights or reflects an aspect of the subject of the poem.) Next, brainstorm with them possible topics for their own poems, listing as many as possible on the chalkboard or whiteboard. As an example, suppose that you were studying animals with your students. Use the class poem or another animal-shape concrete poem to review the characteristics of concrete poems. Invite students to compare and contrast the shapes of animals to depict and describe in their concrete poems. For example, what would a concrete poem about a frog look like? How would it differ from a concrete poem about a tadpole? Have students brainstorm possible topics for animal-shaped concrete poems. Remind them of poems such as “Mosquito” and “Whirligig Beetles,” which depict the shapes of the animal’s movements, rather than the animals themselves. If you wish to highlight the relationship between animals’ shapes and their modes of movement, you may wish to encourage students to choose a variety of animals, ensuring that the class’s assortment includes insects, birds, fish and other water dwellers, reptiles, amphibians, and hopping, trotting, and strutting mammals. Instead, you may prefer to let students choose whatever animals they wish to for their first attempt, then have them work in small groups to create category-specific concrete poems as their second attempt. Encourage your students to begin creating their own concrete poems. For students ages six and older, invite your students to work alone, in pairs, or in small groups, to create their own concrete poems. For preschoolers and other students who are not yet writing for themselves, have each student draw the shape of the poem on a large sheet of paper. On a separate sheet of paper, have the student dictate to you (or a parent volunteer or a teacher aide) her or his poem. Once the full poem is written, as dictated by the student, copy the words to trace the outline drawn by the student. If your classroom is short-handed (and whose isn’t?), you may prefer to send home the accompanying worksheet, so that the child can create a concrete poem with her or his parent(s). Insert Worksheet “Shapes” (concrete poem) by Douglas Florian about here After your students have first mastered geometry, they’re ready to tackle their second math topic: sequences. Sequences Sequences are clearly vital to mathematical procedures such as performing long division or figuring out how to solve equations. Before students are ready for such complex sequences, however, they need to have myriad experiences with sequences at a more accessible level. Poetry (and its companion art, song) offers a particularly delightful way in which to investigate sequences. Immersion Children particularly enjoy iterative songs and poems such as the traditional song, “I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly.” It has been illustrated and written out numberous times over the decades. For instance, following is a relatively recent version: G. Brian Karas (III.) (1980/1994) I Know an Old Lady (New York: Scholastic). This particular sequence poem lends itself particularly well to a rebus wall chart. (Such a chart uses pictures or symbols in place of some words or syllables.) The basic versus are as follows: • I know an old lady who swallowed a fly. / I don’t know why she swallowed the fly. / I think [or Perhaps] she’ll die. • I know an old lady who swallowed a spider. / That wiggled and wriggled and tickled inside her. / She swallowed the spider to catch the fly. / I don’t know why she swallowed the fly. / I think she’ll die. • I know an old lady who swallowed a bird. / How absurd! She swallowed a bird. / She swallowed the bird to catch the spider… • I know an old lady who swallowed a cat. / Think of that! She swallowed a cat. / She swallowed the cat to catch the bird… • I know an old lady who swallowed a dog. / What a hog! She swallowed a dog. / She swallowed the dog to catch the cat… • I know an old lady who swallowed a goat. / Right down her throat, she swallowed the goat. / She swallowed the goat to catch the dog… • I know an old lady who swallowed a cow. / I don’t know how she swallowed a cow! / She swallowed the cow to catch the goat… • I know an old lady who swallowed a horse. / She died, of course! Before you introduce the poem, write the verses on a series of wall charts or posters (using rebus versus, as appropriate). If you’re cramped for space at the front of the room, write out the verses on sentence strips, and use a pocket chart to display one or two stanzas at a time. Once you’ve sung or said the first verse of the poem to the class, invite the students to join you in singing or saying the remaining verses. After the old lady and the sundry animals in her belly have been kicking around in your head for a while, you may wish to try out some different iterative sequence poems. It’s no accident that many traditional poems and songs include such sequences, as children of all ages enjoy the rhythms, the predictability, and the rhymes of such poems. Just a few you may enjoy are as follows: • “Combinations” by Mary Ann Hoberman. See p. 275 in Hall, Donald (compiler). (1985). The Oxford Book of Children’s Verse in America. New York: Oxford University Press. • “Fiddle-I-Fee” (Folk Song). See pp. 171-174 in Chase, Richard (compiler). (1956). American Folk Tales and Songs: A Treasury of Lively, Old-Time English-American Lore. New York: New American Library. • “Hush Little Baby” (Traditional). See p. 29 in Strickland, Dorothy S., & Michael R. Strickland (compilers). (1994). Families: Poems That Celebrate the African American Experience. Honesdale, PA: Wordsong, Boyds Mills Press. • “This Is the House That Jack Built” (Traditional) • “12 Days of Christmas” (Traditional) EXTEND YOUR STUDENTS’ KNOWLEDGE ACROSS THE CURRICULUM. To expand your students’ awareness of sequences across the curriculum, set up a mathematics learning center focused on sequences. At this center, offer a variety of sequence activities. For preschoolers, appropriate items include nesting materials (e.g., bowls, pans, cups) and stacking materials (graduated cylinders or cups). For students ages six and older, picture-sequence cards, word-recognition cards (highlighting letter sequences), and simple games (highlighting turn-taking and sequences of instructions) help to reinforce sequences. In addition, try the following activities in areas of art, music and movement, science, social studies, and literature. Art. Have your students make a collage depicting the sequence of animals described in the “I Know an Old Lady” song. This will require a great deal of mathematical thinking: They will need to figure out the proportions to use in order to fit each animals inside the next, yet have the largest animal be small enough to fit on the page. That is, students must draw and then cut out a very tiny fly, which fits inside a pretty small spider, and so on, until they draw and cut out a horse large enough to hold the other animals, yet small enough to fit onto the page. You may want students to work in small groups to achieve this challenging feat. For preschoolers, a more suitable task may be simply to draw one or more of the animals from the song. Music and Movement. Have your students sing the song and make the appropriate animal motions for each animal. Once they have developed evocative actions for each animal, encourage them to dramatically enact the entire song. Science. Have your students carry out some simple, safe scientific experiments or cooking experiences that require them to follow a few different sequences of steps. For instance, try making colored hard-boiled eggs in at least two different ways. Egg-Coloring I. Bring in hard-boiled eggs, and have your students color (dye) the eggs, then draw on them with crayons. Egg-Coloring II. Have your students draw on the hard-boiled eggs first, and then dye the eggs. Egg-Coloring III (for older students only). If you have a hot pot or a hot plate available in your classroom, have your students draw on the uncooked eggs with crayons first, then color (dye) the eggs. Next, you (or an aide or a parent volunteer) hard-boil the eggs in the hot pot or in a pan on a hot plate. Which sequence of steps works best? As a class, or in small groups, have students draw charts showing the different sequences they tried. Egg-Coloring IV. If you’re really feeling adventurous, have students compare the effects of drawing with crayon on still-warm (but not boiling hot) eggs, on room-temperature eggs, and on cold eggs. How does temperature affect the students’ drawings? Egg-Coloring V. If eggshells crack you up, you may want to try some even fancier variations for dying eggs, using natural plant dyes: Boil the eggs in a large pot containing yellow-onion skins, to dye the eggs pale yellow, or try boiling them with beets, to dye them reddish-purple. A more expensive (and messier) experiment is to dye them by boiling them in grape juice. Okay, that’s it! Any more egg-foolery might scramble your brain or fry your mind. Social Studies. Relate the “Hush Little Baby” song to the unit of social studies currently being studied. For instance, if students are studying about families, have students discuss what the daddy in the song is trying to say to his little baby. Do mommies have those same feelings for their babies? What is the same about mommies and daddies, and what is different about them? Do all families have both mommies and daddies? Can some families be just a grandma and a child or just an uncle and three children? What different kinds of families are there? What are some of the similarities about all these different kinds of families? Literature. Read books that highlight sequences, such as the following: • Tolhurst, Marilyn. (1990). Somebody and the Three Blairs. Great Britain: All Books for Children, The All Children’s Company, Ltd.; New York: Orchard Books; Scholastic. (There are also many other delightful variations on the Goldilocks and the Three Bears theme, which you may want to use.) • McCloskey, Robert. (1948/1968). Blueberries for Sal. New York: Viking. Exploration: Adding and Inserting Verses, Varying Sequences As a class or in small groups, take any of the aforementioned sequence poems, and explore them, adding, inserting, or varying the poems’ sequences. Once you feel that your students are comfortable with modifying existing poems, give them a poem starter, and have them work with you to create a new sequence poem. For instance, see page 42 of Susan Milord’s (1995) Tales Alive! Ten Multicultural Folktales with Activities (Charlotte, VT: Williamson Publishing). Use this as a model to create a building rhyme (along the lines of “I Know an Old Lady Who” and “This Is the House That Jack Built”): This is the boy who wanted a drum, A drum he could tap with the end of his thumb. This is the wood he found by the road, The wood wasn’t that much of a load For the boy who wanted a drum, A drum he could tap with the end of his thumb. This is the… You may find it easier – or just more interesting and fun – to build a sequence poem using a piggyback song tune as the basis for your poem. For instance, the tune for “Here We Go ‘Round the Mulberry Bush” (also know as the tune for “This Is the Way We Wash Our Clothes”) readily lends itself to a sequence poem. Your students may also enjoy adapting “Hush, Little Baby” to making loud sounds, such as “Shout, giant toddler, scream lots of words; Mama’s gonna buy you some squawking birds.” Experimentation: Creating Sequence Poems Across the Curriculum If you work with preschoolers, have your students continue to work with you to create sequence poems as a group using piggyback songs. If you work with students ages six and older, have your students create their own sequence poems that accompany specific curriculum content and particular curriculum activities. For instance, in math, invite small groups of older students to create a sequence poem about how to do long division. In science, you might encourage students to create a sequence poem about how a caterpillar turns into a butterfly. (For ideas, see Eric Carle’s [1969]. The Very Hungry Caterpillar [New York: Putnam & Grossett].) For literature, write a sequence poem about story events, such as the sequence of events in “The Three Little Pigs” or in “Jack and the Beanstalk.” Sequences are intrinsic aspects of music and drama, so these curriculum areas offer natural opportunities for creating a sequence poem. Patterns: Poetry Forms Why was Lewis Carroll (author of the Alice in Wonderland stores), a mathematics professor at Oxford in England, captivated by poetry? Carroll even created several nonsense poems that say absolutely nothing, yet they still superbly preserve the syntax, rhythm, and rhyme structure of a realistic poem. Nonsense verse describes fantastic topics, illogical events, paradoxes, or bizarre/odd juxtapositions – often written with neologisms, nonwords, or rare words. Carroll’s nonsense poems show this mathematician’s love of poetic patterns, his relishing of the pure joy of creating patterns through poetry. Probably the most famous of these nonsense verses – and an excellent tool for introducing students to the delights of poetry patterns – is Carroll’s “Jabberwocky,” an excerpt of which is presented here. (For the full poem, see p. 50 in Elizabeth Hauge Sword and Victoria Flournoy McCarthy [compilers] [1995] A Child’s Anthology of Poetry [Hopewell, NH: Ecco Press].) Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll ‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe. “Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The Jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Beware the jubjub bird, and shun The frumious Bandersnatch! … “And hast thou slain the Jabberwock? Come to my arms, my beamish boy! O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!” He chortled in his joy. ‘Twas brillig, and the slighy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe. Write at least two stanzas of the poem on a wall chart. On a separate sheet of chart paper, or on a chalkboard or whiteboard directly alongside the wall chart, divide the space into two columns. At the top of one column, write the words, “Rhyme Pattern.” Teach your students the convention of using lowercase letters to show the rhyme schemes for the verses you have illustrated. Have them tell you what the rhyme scheme is. In this case, the pattern you are going for is abab, cdcd,… efef, abab. At the top of the second column, write the words, “Number of syllables.” Next, have your students count the syllables they pronounce in each line. Write down the number of syllables for each line of the poem. (In this case, most lines have eight syllables.) If you want to introduce your students to poetry terminology, you might mention that poetic beats are the poetry’s meter. In your early invitations to poetry, however, most students may not need to learn this term. If you are working with older children, you can further extend this discussion to consider rhythm. On another large sheet of paper (or a new space on the board), write the heading, “Rhythm” or “Stress Patterns.” Use the poetry convention for noting the stress pattern, using / (or ‘) for syllables that are stressed (given extra emphasis) and ~ (or ~) for unstressed syllables. Have the students describe to you the stress patterns for each line. (For your information, the name of the pattern Carroll used is “iambic,” going da-dum, da-dum, da-dum, da-dum, but your students probably don’t yet need to know this term.) The pattern your students suggest should look something like this for each line of the poem: ~ / ~ / ~ / ~ /. Next, have your students find other poems in poetry books you have on hand (or flip through this book to find other poems). Have them dictate each new poem to you as you copy each onto chart paper or onto a white- or blackboard. Make columns next to each poem, and have the students work with you to figure out the rhyme, meter, and rhythm patters of these new poems. If they happen to choose free verse (unpredictable rhymes and rhythms) or blank verse (predictable rhythms and slightly offbeat rhymes), still have them work with you to figure out the pattern of each line. Have them tell you that there is no predictable pattern, and then explore with them why a poet might choose to write a poem in that format. Immersion: Couplets, Quatrains, and So On Perhaps the simplest pattern to learn is the couplet, a two-lined form of verse (metered poetic language, as opposed to prose). Specifically, a couplet is a rhyming pair of verse lines that have the same meter. A couplet may appear solo, but it usually appears as a short stanza within a longer poem, or even more commonly forms part of a poem’s sequence. Commonly, a couplet is a closed couplet, in which the end of each pair of lines is also the end of a sentence or clause (or at least phrase). Introduce the patterns in couplets with Laura E. Richards’s “Eletelephony.” See pp. 165-166 in Donald Hall’s 1985 anthology, The Oxford Book of Children’s Verse in America (new York: Oxford University Press). Use the same method of introduction you have used with earlier poems (i.e., read aloud to your students, then have them join you in reading). Eletelephony by Laura E. Richards Once there was an elephant, Who tried to use the telephant – No! No! I mean an elephone Who tried to use the telephone – (Dear me! I am not certain quite That even now I’ve got it right.) Howe’er it was, he got his trunk Entangled in the telephunk; The more he tried to get it free, The louder buzzed the telephee – (I fear I’d better drop the song of elephop and telephong!) Countless other poems with couplets are available. For instance, your students would probably enjoy any number of Ogden Nash’s humorous couplets about animals (several are noted in the science chapter in this book). In addition, some examples of couplets may be found in the following classic longer poems (also available in Donald Hall’s 1985 book, The Oxford Book of Children’s Verse in America): “The New-England Boy’s Song about Thanksgiving Day” by Lydia Maria Child (p. 38) or “The Bells” by Edgar Allan Poe (p. 71). EXTEND YOUR STUDENTS’ KNOWLEDGE ACROSS THE CURRICULUM. To expand your students’ awareness of how the patterns in poems link to other mathematical patterns, set up a learning center focused on patterns. At this center, offer various pattern materials, such as attribute blocks, pattern blocks, tangrams, beads with strings, and Unifix cubes. For preschoolers, encourage your students to explore their own self-devised patterns. For children ages six and older, offer pattern cards for students to match the patterns they make to the patterns on the cards. (Be sure to allow students of all ages at least a little time to freely create their own patterns, as well.) In addition to these math activities, several other activities may help you to link Laura Richards’s “Eletelephony” poem to other areas of the curriculum, such as art, music and movement, science, social studies, and literature. Art. Have your students illustrate the poem, showing the poor elephant and telephone intertwined. For a craft activity, have your students create paper-bag puppets of elephants, to use for role-play of Richards’s poem. Music and Movement. Have half of the students move around the edge of the classroom as if they were elephants, stamping out the rhythm of the poem while the other half of the class choral reads the poem. Then have your students switch roles. Science. At a learning center, set out an assortment of old, defunct telephones, and encourage your students to take them apart and put them back together. Supply screwdrivers and additional tools, as needed (and appropriate). Alternatively, you might offer students the materials to make string-and-can telephones. (Juice cans and regular cotton string work quite well, and an ice pick does nicely for the teacher to use to poke the needed holes.) Once the telephones are made, your students can use these to explore how sound travels better through solid objects (e.g., string and the ground) than through the air. (Remember those old Western movies where the native scout puts his ear to the ground to hear the villain’s horse coming?) (Note: The string has to be taut if your students are to be taught about sound vibrations.) Social Studies. Invite your students to discuss experiences they have had that are similar to Richards’s elephant: The more they struggled to untangle themselves from difficulties, the more trouble they had. What did they do to finally disentangle themselves from the problem? Have students work together to solve brain teasers or riddles or other puzzles, such as those in Ronnie Shushan’s (Ed.) 1978/1985 book, Games Magazine: The Book of Sense and Nonsense Puzzles (New York: Workman Publishing). See also Richard Lederer’s (1996). Puns and Games: Jokes, Riddles, Tairy Fales, Rhymes, and More Word Play for Kids. Chicago: Chicago Review Press. (“Tairy Fales” are delightfully spoonerized fairy tales.) Literature. Read books about elephants, such as the following: • Miller, patricia K. (1963). Baby Elephant. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. • Quigley, Lillian. (1959). The Blind Men and the Elephant. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. Once your students are comfortable with exploring couplets, you may want to introduce them to quatrains. A quatrain is a four-line poem or a four-line stanza within a longer poem, in which a pattern of rhyming and meter are observed. Countless examples of quatrains fill the literature. Robert Frost’s poems elegantly illustrate the quatrain. For instance, see his “Stopping by Woods,” in Frost’s (1916/1971) book (edited by Louis Untermeyer), New Enlarged Anthology of Robert Frost’s Poems (new york: Washington Square Press). Just in case you want to know some of the shorthand terms for describing poetry, here is a little poetry terminology. Don’t worry about memorizing these terms – and you surely don’t need to have your students learn these terms now. The most common quatrain pattern is iambic pentameter (five beats – stressed syllables – per line: ~ / ~ / ~ / ~ / ~ /), with the same number of beats per measure, in the rhyming pattern abab. Other patterns include alternating tetrameter (four beats) and trimeter (three beats) lines, with abcb or abab rhymes; trochaic (stress pattern of / ~, as in apple) meter, with aabb; and iambic tetrameter with abba. Additional superb sources of splendidly patterned poems include the following: • Amery, Heather (compiler). (1988). The Usborne Children’s Songbook. London: Usborne. • Cole, Joanna, & Stephanie Calmenson (compiler). (1990). Miss Mary Mack and Other Children’s Street Rhymes. New York: A Beech Tree Paperback Book. • Fujikawa, Gyo (III). (1968). Mother Goose. New York: Platt & Munk, Grosset & Dunlap. • Goode, Diane (compiler). (1989/1996). The Diane Goode Book of American Folk Tales & Songs. New York: Dutton, Puffin/Penguin. • Hudson, Wade, and Cheryl Hudson (compiler). (1995). How Sweet the Sound: African-American Songs for Children. New York: Scholastic. • Schon, Isabel (compiler). (1983). Dona Blanca and Other Hispanic Nursery Rhymes and Games. Minneapolis, MN: T.S. Denison. Exploration: Finding the Patterns in Poems Fool around with couplets and quatrains as a class or in small groups. Use poster charts and wall charts of various examples of each form. Have students find the patterns, underlining the stressed syllables, counting the syllables in each line, and guessing the rhyming schemes. Encourage students to investigate these poetry forms as a means of expressing what they have learned in other content areas, such as science or social studies. Experimentation: Creating Patterned Poems Across the Curriculum If you work with preschoolers, your best bet may be to help your students create couplets and quatrains through piggyback songs, creating new lyrics for familiar songs. If you work with older students, together you may be able to come up with various patterned poems that accompany specific curriculum content and particular curriculum activities. For instance, in math, how might you create a patterned poem about solving a really tough problem? In science, your students might write a patterned poem about sleek, slithering snakes. For literature, try writing a poem about story characters. For drama, what about acting out a couplet or quatrain? For music, how about creating piggyback songs, such as the frog’s song, “If you’re hoppy and you know it, jump and hop” (to the tune of “If You’re Happy and You Know It”)? Poems for Specific Math Content In addition to applying mathematical skills and observation to poetry, you and your students can study other mathematical content areas through poetry. Following is an assortment of poems suitable for mathematical topics such as time, measurement, arithmetic, and money. Time: Hours and Seasons Several poems about time may be found in Michael Rosen’s (1985/1993) anthology, The Kingfisher Book of Children’s Poetry (new york: Kingfisher Books, Grisewood & Dempsey): “The Clock on the Wall” by Samih Al-Qasim (p. 166); “Ecclesiastes 3:1-8” in the Bible (pp. 36-37); “I Don’t Like My Brother in the Morning” by Keith Ballentine (P. 30); and “My Paper Route” by Troy Vacciano (P. 201). Two other timely poems may be found in Beatrice Schenk de Regniers’s (1969) compilation, Poems Children Will Sit Still For: A Selection for the Primary Grades (New York: Scholastic Book Services): “What They Said” (a German nursery rhyme), translated by Rose Fyleman (pp. 15-16); and “I Met a Crow” by John Ciardi (p. 97). Two others may be found in Eileen Thompson’s (1987) anthology, Experiencing Poetry (New York: Globe Book Company, Inc.): “Daybreak in Alabama” by Langston Hughes (p. 114) and “Knoxville, Tennessee” by Nikki Giovanni (p. 118). The following poems also reinforce concepts of time: • “First” by Douglas Florian – See p. 7 in Florian, Douglas. (1994). Bing Bang Boing. New York: Puffin/Penguin. • “Rhinoceros Stew” by Mildred Luton – See p. 24 in Prelutsky, Jack (compiler). (1991). For Laughing Out Loud: Poems to Tickle Your Funnybone. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. • “Daylight Saving Time” by Phyllis McGinley – See p. 41 in Prelutsky, Jack (compiler). (1983). The Random House Book of Poetry for Children. New York: Random House. • “I Must Remember” by Shel Silverstein – See p. 14 in Silverstein, Shel. (1974). Where the Sidewalk Ends: Poems and Drawings of Shel Silverstein. New York: Harper & Row. Other poems related to time include seasons poems, such as those found in three poetry books compiled by Paul Janeczko: • (1981). Don’t Forget to Fly: A Cycle of Modern Poems. Scarsdale, NY: Bradbury Press. • (1985). Pocket Poems Selected for a Journey. New York: Bradbury Press. • (1983). Poetspeak: In Their Work, About Their Work. New York: Bradbury Press. Speaking of seasonal poems, be sure not to neglect Maurice Sendak’s jubilantly poetic (1962) Chicken Soup with Rice: A Book of Months (new York: Scholastic). For additional poems about time, use some of the holiday-related poems available, such as those in Jack Prelutsky’s books of original poems: • (1977). It’s Halloween. New York: Scholastic and Greenwillow Books, William Morrow. • (1982). It’s Thanksgiving. New York: Scholastic and Greenwillow Books, William Morrow. Measurement Douglas Florian has written a few poems about measurement, including “The Inchworm” (p. 14) from his 1998 Insectlopedia (San Diego: Harcourt Brace & Company). Two other poems about measurement can be found in his 1994 big Bang Boing (New York: Puffin/Penguin): “Tall or Small” (p. 85) and “Inch by Inch” (p. 96). Various other well-known poets have measured their talents for this topic: • “I’m Not” by Judith Viorst – see p. 25 in Viorst, Judith. (1981). If I Were in Charge of the World and Other Worries: Poems for Children and Their Parents. New York: Aladdin Books, Macmillan. • “Measurement” by A.M. Sullivan – see p. 23 in Prelutsky, Jack (compiler). (1983). The Random House Book of Poetry for Children. New York: Random House. • “Ounce and Bounce” by Jack Prelutsky – see p. 47 in Prelutsky, Jack. (1984). The New Kid on the Block. New York: Greenwillow Books, William Morrow. • “One Inch Tall” by Shel Silverstein – see p. 55 in Silverstein, Shel. (1974). Where the Sidewalk Ends: Poems and Drawings of Shel Silverstein. New York: Harper & Row. Arithmetic, Counting, and Numbers A pretty prolific poet who has probably produced the greatest number of number-related poems is Shel Silverstein. Assuming that I have counted correctly, he published four in his 1981 book, A Light in the Attic: Poems and Drawings of Shel Silverstein (New York: Harper & Row): “Eight Balloons” (p. 58); “How Many, How Much” (p. 8); “Homework Machine” (p. 56); and “One Two” (p. 102). There were three in his 1996 book, Falling Up: Poems and Drawings of Shel Silverstein (New York: HarperCollins): “The monkey” (p. 40); “Allison Beals and Her 25 Wheels” (p. 98); and “Keepin’ Count” (p. 131). He included two in his 1974 book, Where the Sidewalk Ends: Poems and Drawings of Shel Silverstein (New York: Harper & Row): “Wild Boar” (p. 68) and “Eighteen Flavors” (p. 116). Another book containing a few number-related poems is Donald Hall’s 1985 compilation, The Oxford Book of Children’s Verse in America (New York: Oxford University Press). The number-related poems herein are “Singular Indeed” by David McCord (p. 242); “Too many Daves” by Dr. Seuss (p. 254); and “Cardinal Ideograms” by May Swenson (pp. 269-270). Other number-related poems may be counted as follows: • “Centipedestrian” by Douglas Florian – see p. 63 in Florian, Douglas. (1994). Bing Bang Boing. New York: Puffin/Penguin. • “About Feet” by Margaret Hillert – see p. 122 in Prelutsky, Jack (compiler). (1983). The Random House Book of Poetry for Children. New York: Random House. • “UR 2 Good” by Michael Rosen – see p. 161 in Rosen, Michael (compiler). (1985/1993). The Kingfisher Book of Children’s Poetry. New York: Kingfisher Books, Grisewood & Dempsey. • “Arithmetic” by Carl Sandburg – see p. 99 in de Regniers, Beatrice Schenk (compiler). (1969). Poems Children Will Sit Still For: A Selection for the Primary Grades. New York: Scholastic Book Services. • “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer” by Walt Whitman – see p. 290 in Sword, Elizabeth Hauge, & Victoria Flournoy McCarthy (compiler). (1995). A Child’s Anthology of Poetry. Hopewell, NJ: Ecco Press. • “Eliza’s Jacket” by Calef Brown (B-PBOS, 13th poem) In addition, you may wish to use one, two, three, or more of the countless counting poems that have been numbered to children through numerous centuries. Money Shel Silverstein also accounts as one of the most valuable poets in writing about money. You can find his “Big Eating Contest” on page 52 of his 1996 book Falling Up: Poems and Drawings of Shel Silverstein. You will find three more money-related poems in his 1974 book, Where the Sidewalk Ends: Poems and Drawings of Shel Silverstein: “Smart (p. 35); “The Gypsies Are Coming” (p. 50); and “For Sale” (p. 52). Three other poems may be found in Jack Prelutsky’s 1991 compilation, For Laughing out Loud: Poems to Tickle Your Funnybone (New York: Alfred A. Knopf). He included two poems by that world-renowned highly prolific poet, “Anonymous”: “I Wish I Had A Nickel” (p. 31) and “Raising Frogs for Profit” (p. 70), as well as “News Story” by William Cole (p. 33). In addition, you may wish to use “Honey Bear” by Elizabeth Yang (p. 29) in Michael Rosen’s 1993 anthology, Poems for the Very Young. New York: Kingfisher Books, Grisewood & Dempsey. Chapter Two Social Studies Introduction For young children, social studies begins with learning about themselves and the people in their immediate environment. Gradually, they broaden their social sphere to include learning about their community, their country, and the wider world. Their appreciation of biography starts with observations of themselves and the people whom they know well; their understanding of history begins with the stories of heir own past behavior, family anecdotes, and vignettes shared on the playground and at the dinner table; their view of geography begins with their home and the places they visit with their families. Similarly, their grasp of culture (anthropology) and society (sociology) begins by observing how other people in other places have similar needs, wants, and activities to their own: Other people eat food, wear clothes, live in homes, love their families, and celebrate special occasions, although they may fulfill these needs and wants and carry out these activities in somewhat different ways. Families Children’s first social interactions occur within their families, and their first social understandings arise within the family context. Hence, a good place to begin their study of social knowledge is with the study of families. Immersion The first people children get to know are the people who love and care for them. A lovely poem to begin exploring children’s ideas about families is Ysaye M. Barnwell’s poem (and song) “No Mirrors in My Nana’s House.” The following excerpt from Barnwell’s Poem captures a young girl’s warm feeling of being loved and of seeing the world through the eyes of those who love her: There were no mirrors in my Nana’s house no mirrors in my Nana’s house So the beauty that I saw in everything the beauty in everything was in her eyes like the rising of the sun … There were no mirrors in my Nana’s house no mirrors in my Nana’s house The world outside was a magical place I only knew love and I never knew hate and the beauty in everything was in her eyes like the rising of the sun … Advance Preparation. If possible, obtain a copy of the children’s picture book with accompanying compact disk (CD) for Barnwell’s poem: • Barnwell, Ysaye M. (1998). No Mirrors in My Nana’s House. New York: Harcourt Brace. The book’s lush, colorful illustrations gaily show how a young girl sees her own beauty reflected in the loving eyes of her grandmother. The accompanying CD includes two versions of the poem: (1) a reading of the book by the author, and (2) the group Sweet Honey in the Rock singing the lyrics and tune written by the author. Whether or not you have the book available, prepare a wall chart (or an overhead transparency) with the foregoing excerpt from Barnwell;s poem. On a second wall chart, write the title, “How It Feels to Be Loved.” Immerse: Introduce the Poem If you have the book and CD available, play each version of the poem (the song and the reading). If the book is not available, begin by reading the poem aloud to the children once. For the second reading, invite the children to join you in reading the poem aloud. Explore the Concept Ask questions to extend your students’ understanding of the poem. • Poem-structure questions. What pattern does Barnwell use for her poem? Where does Barnwell use repetition? Ask the children to opine why the author repeats some words and phrases, but not others. • Language questions. Explore with the children some words that they can use in place of the word “beauty.” Try using the words they suggest in the poem. In addition, invite them to help you think of a different simile, to substitute for “like the rising of the sun.” • Viewpoint or empathy questions. Encourage children to think about the people who love them. Brainstorm with them how being loved affects them and the way they see the world. Write their answers on the chart titled, “How It Feels to Be Loved.” Extend knowledge across the curriculum. Reinforce your students’ awareness of loving relationships, acquired through exploring the poem, by setting up a people-oriented social-studies learning center: Offer a wide assortment of people puppets for children to use to explore family situations. In addition, to extend students’ awareness of social studies across the curriculum, try the following activities in the areas of music and movement, art, science, literature, and math. Music and Movement. One of the many traditional songs reinforcing the theme of familiar love is “Hush Little Baby,” which may be found in either of the following books: • Brandenberg, Aliki. (1969). Hush Little Baby: A Folk Lullaby illustrated by Aliki. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Pantheon. • Strickland, Dorothy S. & Michael R. Strickland (Eds.). (1994). Families: Poems That Celebrate the African American Experience (p. 29). Honesdale, PA: Wordsong, Boyds Mills Press. In addition, you may wish to encourage students to come up with piggyback songs that fit this theme. For instance, the song “The Wheels of the Bus” readily lends itself to verses on family members (e.g., “the baby on the bus goes waah, waah, wahh”; “the grandpa on the bus goes ‘there, there, dear’”). Art. Invite students to create pictures showing themselves with a special loved one. Encourage them to depict themselves as seen through the eyes of this person who loves them. Watercolors lend themselves well to impressionistic images of people in loving relationships. You can have students work in pairs, with each student having her or his own paintbrush and large piece of paper but sharing a set of watercolors and a jar of water. Science. In Barnwell’s poem, the author says her nana’s house has no mirrors, so she sees herself reflected in her loving nana’s eyes. To stimulate students’ interest in reflected light and in mirrors, set up a learning center to investigate reflections and mirrors. Provide an assortment of reflective surfaces, such as mirrors, aluminum foil, and chrome or stainless-steel kitchen tools (spoons and spatulas are particularly interesting). If possible, locate the center near an outlet so that you can include a small lamp, as well. If not, a small flashlight or two might be helpful (although they can be distracting if too bright). If students show great interest, add prisms, transparent and translucent plastic objects, and other objects that refract, reflect, distort, shade, and otherwise manipulate light. Literature. Read one or more books about parental love, such as the following: • Greenfield, Eloise. (1991). My Daddy and I… Village Station, NY: Black Butterfly Children’s Books, Writers and Readers Publishing. (Illustrates a warm father-son relationship.) • Joosse, Barbara M. (1991). Mama, Do You Love Me? San Francisco: Chronicle Books. (Shows a loving mother-daughter relationship in the Aleutians.) • Munsch, Robert. (1986). Love You Forever. Willowdale, Ontario, Canada: Firefly Books. (Spanish version: [1992]. Siempre Te Querre. Describes a warm mother-son relationship across the life span.) Another way in which to extend students’ understanding of themselves and others is to read one or more books about children’s emotions. These days, there are many excellent books about children’s emotions, including books about emotions in general and books about specific emotions. Two with universal appeal are: • Modesitt, Jeanne. (1992). Sometimes I Feel Like a Mouse: A book aobut Feelings. New York: Scholastic. (Describes a range of feelings a young child experiences.) • Viorst, Judith. (1972). Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. New York: Aladdin/Macmillan, Scholastic. (Spanish version: Alexander y el Dia Terrible, Horrible, Espantoso, Horroroso. Humorously shows how Alexander’s day goes from bad to worse.) Finally, you may want to read a book affirming each child as a unique individual, such as: • Simon, Norma. (1976). Why Am I Different? Morton Grove, IL: Albert Whitman & Company. Math. As a math activity, explore the patterns in a song about parental love. In choosing a song for this activity, you may use “Hush Little Baby” or other songs described in the preceding music and movement activity. Alternatively, you may want to use the following book: • McMullan, Kate. (1996). If You Were My Bunny. New York: Scholastic. (Describes how various whimsical animal parents lovingly help their children to sleep at night.) In that book, the author creates new lyrics for five traditional lullabies (“Hush Little Baby”; “Rock-a-Bye, Baby”; “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”; and two others). For whichever song (or songs) you choose, invite your students to help you map out the rhyming patterns in the song. You may extend their understanding of patterns by posing a problem for them to solve as a class: What would be an additional verse or two that would follow the same pattern? Exploration Advance Preparation Prepare three wall charts: On one chart, write Lisa Bahlinger’s poem “Night Song” (see below); on the second wall chart, write the poem “Families, Families” (see below); which I wrote with my mother, Dorothy Strickland, and which appears on page 5 of • Strickland, Dorothy S., & Michael R. Strickland (Eds.). (1994). Families: Poems That Celebrate the African American Experience. Honesdale, PA: Wordsong, Boyds Mills Press. On the third wall chart, write the question, “Who belongs in a family?” Night Song by Lisa Bahlinger Daddy’s in the kitchen with music turned low dancing cheek to cheek with Momma, he twirls her slow to a warm night song I hum along – we belong. Momma’s golden hair spills down Daddy’s coffee skin. Together, dark and light like the moon in the big-armed night to this laughing song sing it loud and long – we belong. We don’t have to look the same we’re just glad to be a caramel, coffee, cream together forever family and the warm night song runs deep and strong – we belong. Families, Families by Dorothy S. and Michael R. Strickland FAMILIES, FAMILIES All kinds of families. Mommies and daddies, Sisters and brothers, Aunties and uncles, And cousins, too. FAMILIES, FAMILIES All kinds of families. People who live with us, People who care for us, Grandmas and grandpas, And babies, brand new. FAMILIES, FAMILIES All kinds of families. Coming and going, Laughing and singing, Caring and sharing, And loving you. In addition, if a whiteboard or chalkboard is unavailable, post blank chart paper on which to write. Gather language experience paper and appropriate art materials for depicting family members of various realistic skin colors, including an assortment of colorful implements, such as crayons, felt pens, chalk, or pastels. Immerse: Introduce the Poem Read the Bahlinger poem aloud to the children. Using a chalkboard, whiteboard, or chart paper, have children help you find and write down all the color words that Bahlinger used in her poem. Invite students to add to the list other color words to describe skin color. When they get stumped on color words, invite them to think of things that have skin-tone colors, such as cinnamon and chocolate, graham crackers and milk, and to list those words. Read the poem a second time as a choral reading, with the children. Explore the Concept Point out Bahlinger’s concluding line, “We belong.” Using a blank wall chart (or whiteboard or chalkboard), write down students’ suggestions for an alternative closing line to describe their own families. Jot down each student’s “family motto.” Distribute language-experience paper and the art material. Invite the children to depict their own extended families, blending colors, as needed, to truly show the skin colors of their diverse families. Beneath the illustration, have students briefly identify the members of their families and write a brief motto for their own families. You may wish to conclude the activity period at this point, introducing the next poem in a subsequent class period. Immerse: Introduce the Next Poem Using the wall chart of the “Families, Families” poem as a guide, read the poem aloud to the children, then invite them to choral read the poem with you. Explore and Extend the Concept Using the wall chart titled, “Who belongs in a family?” encourage the children to identify the kinds of people who make a family (aunts, cousins, stepbrothers, half-sisters, etc.) and to brainstorm the kinds of actions (eating, playing, doing chores, etc.) or characteristics (big, little, happy, sad, angry, forgiving, etc.) that make a family. Encourage children to think of various family forms (e.g., a grandmother and grandson; a three-generation household with cousins, aunts, and uncles under one roof; a two-mother family; and so on). Experiment with Writing Poems As a whole class, create an original poem that follows the pattern of the “Families, Families” poem. If their ideas start slowing down, refer to the students’ ideas about what characterizes a family. Experimentation To further investigate familial love, have your students explore three poems about the ways in which parents show their children their love. Advance Preparation For each of these poems, you may wish to create a wall chart, so that the children can look at the poem while you read it, they can choral read the poem with you, and they can look at the poem while discussing with you particular features of the poem. First is an excerpt from “Those Winter Days” by Robert Hayden, on page 113 of: • Sword, Elizabeth Hauge, & Victoria Flournoy McCarthy (Eds.). (1995). A Child’s Anthology of Poetry. Hopewell, NJ: Ecco Press. The second poem is “Warmth” by Richard Furst (Grade 10) from page 37 of • Lyne, Sandford (Ed.). (1996). Ten-Second Rain Showers: Poems by Young People. New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. Third is an excerpt from “Our Mom’s a Real Nice Mom But She Can’t Cook” by Judith Viorst, which may be found on pages 58-59 of: • Viorst, Judith. (1995). Sad Underwear and Other Complications: More Poems for Children and Their Parents. New York: Altheneum Books for Young Readers. Those Winter Days by Robert Hayden Sundays too my father got up early and put his clothes on in the blueback cold, then with cracked hands that ached from labor in the weekday weather made banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him. I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking. When the rooms were warm, he’d call, and slowly I would rise and dress, … Warmth by Richard Furst (Grade 10) I walked through the empty kitchen to the door, to leave the warmth of home for the bitter-cold anxiety of a Monday at school. Ducking the old dogwood outside, I heard a familiar call, and turned to see my mother waving me off to school, sending me a small fire to keep my heart a little warmer. Our Mom’s A Real Nice Mom But She Can’t Cook By Judith Viorst Mom’s mashed potatoes taste like dirty socks. Her instant oatmeal tastes like instant box. And if she made a pound cake, And she dropped it on your foot, You’d think that it was half a ton of bricks. … Mom’s macaroni’s mush, and though she tries, She wrecks all roasts, incinerates French fries. And when they give out ribbons For Worst Meat loaf in the World, We guarantee that she will win first prize. Mom looks up recipes in every book. She took some lessons once. They never took. She’s kind to kids and animals. She smiles more than she scolds. She reads us books at bedtime. Plays Go Fish when we have colds. She’s good at fixing leaks And changing tires on our Olds, But all her casseroles turn into gook. Our mom’s a real nice mom but she can’t cook. Immerse: Introduce the Poems Invite your students to explore each poem with you, following more or less this procedure: • Read the poem aloud to the students. • Choral read the poem with the students. • Discuss with the students how each parent showed love. Write the students’ answers on a wall chart (or whiteboard or chalkboard). Keep this chart posted, so that you may add to it later, and students may refer to it later, as well. Explore the Concept After you have introduced all the poems, ask questions to extend students’ understanding of the poems. • Viewpoint or empathy questions. Invite the students to add to the list of how parents show their love, suggesting ways in which their own parents (or grandparents, stepparents, foster parents, etc.) how their love. • Language questions. Using Viorst’s poem as a model, invite the students to play with similes, suggesting what various kinds of foods taste like. As needed, prompt them with openers such as “Her brownies are hard as a…” “Her gravy is as runny as…” “Her eggs are as…as…” Texture and smell adjectives yield particularly revolting results. Once you get your students started on this exploration, they’ll have great fun coming up with truly disgusting similes. Be sure to make notes on these similes, which your students can use later on. • Poem-structure questions. With your students, figure out the rhythm pattern (counting syllables or stresses for each line) and the rhyming scheme (using matching lowercase letters to signal the lines that rhyme) in the first two verses of Viorst’s poem. If you and they are up to the challenge, tell them that the Viorst excerpt is missing two middle verses, and invite them to join you in creating another verse to two for the middle of the poem. Refer back to their list of disgusting similes, completed earlier, as an aid to creating these verses. Extend Knowledge Across the Curriculum If your classroom can accommodate it, reinforce your students’ awareness of family relationships by setting up a dramatic-play social-studies learning center: offer as many props and costumes as you have room to provide for children to use to explore family situations. As appropriate, invite your students’ parents to contribute items for use in the center (e.g., outgrown clothing, duplicate kitchen items). In addition, to extend students’ awareness of social studies across the curriculum, try the following activities in the areas of math, science, music and movement, art, and literature. Math. For one thing, you can invite your students to figure out the pattern in the last verse in Viorst’s poem. (Count syllables, figure out the rhyming pattern, etc.) Another idea is to make “mom-proof” fruit or vegetable salad that even Viorst’s “Mom” couldn’t ruin. Use a graph to highlight the counting and measuring involved in this activity. Science. Study the families of other animals, such as fish, chicks, or small mammals. If possible, observe these families directly. (It is often possible to borrow animals from the Humane Society, local museum of science or natural history, or other animal-friendly organizations.) If not, observe videos, recorded television shows (e.g., from Discovery Channel, public television, or Animal Plant, if available), or at least picture books showing how baby animals are helped to survive. In addition, you may want to include any of a number of books with poetry on animals and animal families. Two of the most delightful such poetry books focus, respectively, on insects and on penguins: • Florian, Douglas. (1998). Insectlopedia. San Diego: Harcourt Brace & Company. • Sierra, Judy. (1998). Antarctic Antics: A Book of Penguin Poems. San Diego: Harcourt Brace & Company. (Both “Regurgitate” and “My Father’s Feet” show some of the ways in which animal parents care for their young. “Regurgitate” seems to have particular appeal for young boys!) Music and Movement. Invite your students to join you in pantomiming and singing the words to “Miss Mary Mack,” in which the title character asks her mother for fifteen cents to see the elephants jump the fence. After playing out the verses they know, invite them to add verses, asking their father, uncle, grandma, and other family members to see other sights or to do other things. Ella Jenkins performed two versions of the Mary Mack song on her You’ll Sing a Song and I’ll Sing a Song album (also available on cassette tape or CD, available from Smithsonian/Folkways Records or from Educational Activities). In addition, this verse (and “Poor Mom!” another verse that lends itself to family fun) may be found in: • Cole, Joanna, & Stephanie Calmenson (Eds.). (1990). Miss Mary Mack and Other Children’s Street Rhymes. New York: A Beech Tree Paperback Book. Art. Set up a learning center at which students can create their own family portraits, using either collages (for older children) or stamping (for younger children). Collages may be made by cutting out family-member silhouettes from various skin-colored construction papers, supplemented with crayons (for adding facial features, clothing, and contexts). Stamping may be done with purchased stamps (from educational-supply, art-supply, or toy stores), used with washable-ink stamp pads, or with handmade stamps (cut from flat sponges, foam rubber, or even lengthwise halves of potatoes), used with skin-tone tempera paints in shallow containers (e.g., Styrofoam meat trays or frozen side-dish trays). Literature. Read books about the many ways in which people live in families. The following books are just a few of the many excellent children’s picture books on different kinds of families and family situations: • Barron Books on “The Family” (four book set) (1985; Eng. Trans. 1987), Woodbury, NY, Barron’s (Spanish versions available): Rius, Maria & J.M. Parramon, Children (Spanish: Los Ninos) and Grandparents (Spanish: Los Abuelos); Vendrell, Carme Sole, & J.M. Parramon, Teenagers (Spanish: Los Jovenes). • Curtis, Jamie Lee. (1996). Tell Me Again About the Night I Was Born. New York: Joanna Cotler Books, HarperCollins. (Describes evry step of how the parents of a young child went to adopt her the night she was born.) • DePaola, Tomie. (1981). Now One Foot, Now the Other. New york: Scholastic. (Describes the changes in how families love and care for one another across the life span.) • Gilman, Phoebe. (1992). Something from Nothing. New York: North Winds Press; Scholastic. (Describes how a Jewish boy’s grandfather shows his love for his grandson through making and modifying a baby blanket through the years.) • Schuchman, Joan. (1979). Two Places to Sleep. Minneapolis, MN: Carolrhoda Books. (Describes a child’s adjustment to having his parents divorce and live in separate houses.) In addition, many poetry books include poems about families. Following are just a few of the many poetry books with family-related poems: • Hall, Donald (Ed.). (1985). The Oxford Book of Children’s verse in America. New York: Oxford University Press. Two poems of particular interest are “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes (p. 247) and “A Lesson for Mamma” by Sydney Dayre Cochran (pp. 158-159). • Strickland, Dorothy S., & Michael R. Strickland (Eds.). (1994). Families: Poems That Celebrate the African American Experience. Honesdale, PA: Wordsong, Boyds Mills Press. • Thompson, Eileen (Ed.). (1987). Experiencing Poetry. New York: Globe Book Company, Inc. Three family-oriented poems are “First Lesson” by Philip Booth (p. 59), “Everybody Says” by Dorothy Aldis (P. 25), and “Legacies” by Nikki Giovanni (p. 61). In addition, you may find several other family-oriented poems in the following books: • “Kidnap Poem” by Nikki Giovanni, on page 23 of Strickland, Michael R (Ed.). (1997). Poems That Sing to you. Honesdale, PA: Wordsong, Boyds Mills Press. • “Into Mother’s Slide Trombone” by X.J. Kennedy on page 57 of Strickland, Michael R. (Ed.). (1997). My Own Song and Other Poems to Groove To. Honesdale, PA: Wordsong, Boyds Mills Press. • “What Dads Do” by Judith Viorst on page 62 of Viorst, Judith. (1995). Sad Underwear and Other Complications: More Poems for Children and Their Parents. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers. One more book bears mention here because it incorporates both poems and stories suitable for young listeners (and is edited by an important member of my family): • Strickland, Dorothy S. (Ed). (1982/1999). Listen Children: An Anthology of Black Literature. New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell, Random House. (For instance, see these poems: Dudley Randall’s “Ancestors,” Lucille Clifton’s “Listen Children,” Harriet Wheatley’s “My Pa Was Never Slave,” and Margaret Walker’s “Lineage”; see also stories by Virginia Hamilton, Kristin Hunter, and Maya Angelou.) Experiment with Writing Poetry. If you work with prereaders, have your students work with you to create a list poem. Start by inviting them to list things they know about families. What distinguishes a list poem from a mere listing is the use of concise, powerful language and effective line breaks. (A highly stylized list poem is “Families, Families,” shown earlier in this chapter.) As you write the items your students suggest, model using concise language and effective line breaks. If you work with older students who read and write, invite your students to create their own poems bout their own families. For most students, the list-poem format may still be the best choice for writing their own poems. In guiding your students to write their own list poems, encourage them to use concise language, stripping away extraneous articles, adjectives, and other words. You may also need to guide them regarding how to use line breaks well, to make the poem easier to read aloud. Instead of the list poem, some older students may be eager and ready to write poems continuing the theme and format of the Viorst poem. A few other students may wish to write free-verse poems similar to the Hayden or the Furst poem. If they are highly motivated to follow these more challenging formats, great! If not, however, list poems offer a very accessible format for beginning to write poetry. As your students complete their poems, invite them to form critics circles for sharing their poems. Critics circles may involve pairs, trios, or slightly larger groups of students, who take turns reading their poems aloud to one another. After each poet reads, each member of the circle tells the poet one thing he or she especially liked about the poem (a juicy word, a pleasing phrase, an interesting topic, and appealing tone, etc.). If your students already have experiences with critics circles (or similar feedback groups), they may, as appropriate, also make one suggestion for improving each poem. It takes a lot of work to foster helpful critics circles, ensuring that all comments are positive and constructive, but if you decide to use them, they yield great benefits, both for the poets and for the critics. Friends and School Increasingly, even very young children are expanding their social world beyond the family, to include friends, neighbors, schoolmates, and teachers and other people in their preschool and school environments. Advance Preparation Prepare two wall charts (or overhead transparencies): On one, write Risa Jordan’ poem “Friendship”; on the other, write the heading, “What Friends Do.” Jordan’s “Friendship” poem may be found on page 11 of: • Moore, Helen H. (1997). A Poem a Day: 180 Thematic Poems and Activities That Teach and Delight All Year Long. New York: Scholastic Professional Services. Moore is an accomplished poet in her own right, and many of her own poems on friendship (e.g., “To a Friend,” p. 11; and “The Fight,” p. 12) and other subjects may be found in her resource book. Friendship by Risa Jordan A friend is a person who wishes you well. And keeps all the secrets that you like to tell. Friends share their toys and their storybooks too, Friends can be older or younger than you. Friends can be real or made up in your mind, But they’re always thoughtful and always kind. Friends can live nearby or very, very far, But your friends are your friends, wherever you are! Immerse: Introduce the Poem Using the wall chart of the “Friendship” poem as a guide, read the poem aloud to the children, then invite them to choral read the poem with you. Explore the Concept. Invite your students to brainstorm with you various things that friends do with and for one another. What are some of the characteristics of their own friends? What do they like about their own friends? In what ways have they been good friends to other people? Who can be a friend? Record their responses on the wall chart, “What Friends Do.” Literature. To further stimulate their thinking about friends, you may want to read one or more books about friendship, such as the following: • Keats, Ezra Jack. (1968). A Letter to Amy. New York: HarperCollins. (Describes Peter’s efforts to invite a friend to his party.) • Lobel, Arnold. Lobel’s Frog and Toad books beautifully illustrate the many complications, difficulties, and enjoyments of having a good friend. All are published in New York, by Harper & Row: (1976), Frog and Toad All Year; (1970), Frog and Toad Are Friends; (1971/1971), Frog and Toad Together. • Viorst, Judith. (1974). Rosie and Michael. New York: Aladdin/Atheneum. (Describes a boy and girl’s friendship.) You may decide also to read additional poems about friendship. A book with a wealth of such poems is: • Thompson, Eileen (Ed.). (1987). Experiencing Poetry. New York: Globe Book Company, Inc. Some of the poems addressing the theme of friendship include those by Langston Hughes (pp. 97, 102), e.e. cummings (p. 52), Judith Viorst (p. 95), W.S. Merwin (p. 96), Richard Wilbur (p. 97), Walt Whitman (p. 103), and May Sarton (p. 104). Finally, three books edited by Paul Janeczko (published in Scarsdale, New York, by Bradbury Press) include many poems on relationships with family members and friends: (1881), Don’t Forget to Fly: A Cycle of Modern Poems: (1985), Pocket Poems Selected for a Journey; (1983), Poetspeak: In Their Work, About Their Work. For many children, their pets also play important roles in their lives, akin to their relationships with family and friends. You may want to include books, poems, and activities related to pets when addressing the themes of family and friends. Experiment with Writing Poems. With your students, review the Jordan poem, highlighting the couplets (rhyming pairs of verse lines) pattern she used. Refer next to the wall chart you have created, listing multitudinous things that friends do and characteristics of friends. On a whiteboard or chalkboard, invite your students to create two or three couplets about friends. If you are working with preschoolers and other prereaders, continue creating couplets as a class. If you are working with older students and other readers, invite them to create their own couplets, working individually, in pairs, or in small groups. Extend Knowledge Across the Curriculum. Extend the theme of friendship across the curriculum by fostering cooperation in various classroom activities. Encourage students to continue to think both of things friends do and of characteristics of friends, and add their ideas to the growing list you have posted on a wall chart. Cooperative activities can be employed in math and science, music and movement, and art. Math and Science. A particularly enjoyable math and science activity that reinforces cooperation is to make butter. • Note. It takes a while for butter to form, so introduce this activity at the beginning of a class period, and have your students do other things before and after they take their turns helping to make the butter. Be sure, however, to allow time at the end of the period for the students to sample the butter and the buttermilk they make. Pretty much all you need is a two-cup liquid measuring cup, a sturdy airtight translucent plastic container that can easily be grasped by students, enough paper cups for every student, 1 cup of cream (must be whole cream, not half and half or some other substitute) for every 12 or so students, some butter knives, and something onto which to spread butter (1 graham cracker per student works quite well). Have one or more students measure the cream into the sturdy container. Have each student in the class take a turn shaking the container vigorously. If you have a small class, students may need to take multiple turns shaking it. Eventually, the butter will separate from the buttermilk. Have the students measure the buttermilk in the liquid measuring cup. Work as a class to figure out how much butter they have, given the amount of buttermilk they have. Ask how many students want to sample the buttermilk, and count up the number of cups needed for those students. Divide the buttermilk into the correct number of cups. (Watch for students who have milk allergies.) Portion out the butter, and spread it onto graham crackers (or some bread squares or some other spreadable surface). If possible, schedule a chance for students to wash their hands. In any case, invite everyone to enjoy the buttery snack your children cooperatively created! Music and Movement. Use a cassette player or some other device to play Israeli hora music (or some other cross-cultural traditional music that has an intriguing rhythm). Have students form a long line, grasping one another’s shoulders or waists or holding hands. As the music plays, encourage the students to wind the line in and around one another, inventing their own patterns and dance steps. If your classroom cannot accommodate enough space for everyone to participate in the line (and you cannot go outside for this activity), encourage the nondancers to keep rhythm, either by clapping or by using rhythm instruments. If you have no way to play any music for your students, play another cooperative music-and-movement activity, such as singing and moving to the “Hokey Pokey.” The idea for the “Winding Game” and other cross-cultural children’s games may be found in: • Duckert, Mary. (1993). A World of Children’s Games. New York: Friendship Press. Art. Set up a learning center for creating a mural showing some of the many things that friends do. Make accessible a long sheet of butcher paper, either posting it at the bottom of a wall or laying it out on a long table (or perhaps even in an out-of-the-way section of the floor). Offer crayons or felt pens for children to draw their depictions. Alternatively, offer an assortment of outdated people-oriented magazines and children’s catalogues, and invite students to cut out pictures showing friends doing things together. Have them paste those pictures onto the butcher paper, then draw contexts around the pictures. Extend Understanding Through Poetry. School is one of the first places where children begin to expand their social world beyond the family and into the community. Encourage your students to expand their social awareness of the school environment by introducing additional poems about school in particular. The following poems offer distinctive (and often humorous) views of school: • “First Day at School” (pp. 129-130) and “The Lesson” (pp. 127-128), both by Roger McGough, and “My Teacher” (p. 107) by Deepak Kalha in Rosen, Michael (Ed.). (1985/1993). The Kingfisher Book of Children’s Poetry. New York: Kingfisher Books, Grisewood & Dempsey. • “First Day of School” by Judith Viorst (p. 12) in Viorst, Judith. (1995). Sad Underwear and Other Complications: More Poems for Children and Their Parents. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers. • “And the Answer Is…,” “Recess Rules,” and “Book Report” in Shields, Carol Diggory. (1995). Lunch Money and Other Poems About School. New York: Scholastic, by arrangement with Dutton Children’s Books, Penguin. (This book offers various other poems about school, as well.) • “Today Has Been Turned Upside Down” by Anthony Jaecks, Grade 5, and many other poems by young children and adolescents, in Lynne, Sandford (Ed.). (1996). Ten-Second Rain Showers: Poems by Young People. New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. The Community, the Nation, and the World Immersion: The Community Once children enter school, the school offers both a means of expanding their social world through peers and friends and a means of discovering their community, their nation, and the wider world, through field trips, books, lessons, and activities. Invite your students to start looking beyond the classroom and the schoolyard to notice the other people in their community. On a series of wall charts (or on a long roll of butcher paper), invite students to brainstorm with you all the things that they can see about people. For instance, how do people look? (Notice general physical features such as head, arms, legs; distinctive features such as skin, hair, and eye color and the shapes of people’s bodies and body parts.) How do people move? (Notice movements such as strutting, strolling, skating, and bicycling.) What do people do? (Notice activities such as reading, sleeping, eating, etc.) In essence, you are constructing a resource, which they will use late for creating a poem. Once you are satisfied that your students have brainstormed as many observations as they can, use the accompanying worksheet to immerse your students in Lois Lenski’s “Sing a Song of People.” Insert worksheet “Sing a Song Of People” about here Advance preparation. Duplicate enough copies of the worksheet for each student to have one. In addition, if you are working with younger children, copy the worksheet onto a transparency, for use with an overhead projector. Gather appropriate art materials for drawing, such as crayons, felt pens, or colored pencils. Introduce the Poem. Distribute the worksheet, for use as a whole-group activity. Read the poem aloud to the children, having the students follow along on their own papers (or looking at the overhead transparency). Have the students follow the first set of directions with you, marking off the four-line stanzas with their pencils as you do so on the transparency. Invite the children to join you in choral reading of the poem, highlighting the rhythm and rhyme structure of the poem. Explore the Concept. If you are using this worksheet with older students, read over the directions with the students, ask students whether they have any questions about the directions, and then invite the students to work in pairs or in small groups to complete the worksheet. If you are working with younger children, have the students follow the directions with you, as you fill in the worksheet on the transparency. 1. Poem-structure questions. What pattern does Lois Lenski use for her poem? Look at each of the poem’s four-line stanzas, and count the syllables (or stressed syllables) in each line. How many syllables are in each of the four lines of each stanza? Which lines rhyme? 2. Language questions. What word does Lenski use more than any other? How many times does she use it? Why does she use it so many times? What other word (or words) could she use instead? 3. Viewpoint or empathy questions. Look at the people who are around you right now. What are they doing? How do they look? Extend Knowledge Across the Curriculum. In addition, reinforce your students’ awareness of people, acquired through exploring the poem, by setting up a people-oriented social-studies learning center: • For young children, set up a dramatic-play learning center, offering an assortment of community-helper props and costumes. (For instance, include a mail-carrier’s satchel, a firefighter’s hat, a police officer’s badge, a doctor’s stethoscope, and a librarian’s stamp pad. Don’t forget to include family-oriented costumes and props, as well, such as a baby doll and stroller, a father’s jacket, and a mother’s coat.) Younger students need more realistic props and settings to facilitate their play, as they have fewer experiences and less rich cognitive schemata on which to draw when they are role playing various interactions with people in their community. • For older students, set up a learning center in which students can use either puppets or figurines to role play various people. The figurines may be wooden or plastic, such as those that are used with Legos, wooden blocks, or other construction toys. Include both community helpers and family members in the assortment of people. As children develop and mature, they are better able to draw on their experiences and imagination to role play assorted interactions in the community. Therefore, although realistic props may still enhance the experience, they are less important for older students than for younger ones. To extend students’ awareness of social studies across the curriculum, try the following activities in the areas of literature, music and movement, art, and math and science. Literature. Read any of the myriad books available about people in a community, such as these two: • Cowen-Fletcher, Jane. (1994). It Takes a Village. New York: Scholastic. (Describes how a village helps out when a big sister loses track of her little brother.) • Raskin, Ellen. (1996). Nothing Ever Happens On My Block. New York: Scholastic. (Shows the incredible goings-on around a boy who complains that nothing exciting ever occurs.) Music and Movement. Try using the tune for the nursery rhyme “Sing A Song of Sixpence” with Lois Lenski’s words. (It actually works quite well.) With your students, invent some additional verses to use with this tune. In addition, sing one or two traditional songs that highlight community works, such as “The People on the Bus” and “This Is the Way We…” (to the tune of “Here We Go ‘Round the mulberry Bush”). Invite your students to make up additional piggyback verses to these songs and to add their own hand or body movements to accompany the songs. Art. Invite your students to work in small groups to create minimurals, based on the pictures of people they drew on the Lenski worksheet. If your classroom setup allows it, have your students use bold tempera paints to create their minimurals. If not, have them use felt pens and crayons. If your classroom space allows it, post each group’s minimural on your classroom walls, thereby creating one large mural of people in their community. Math and Science. Read the classic story “Stone Soup” to your children. One of the many sources for this enchanting story about community cooperation is: • Brown, Marcia. (1947/1975) Stone Soup. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, a division of Macmillan. (Spanish Edition: [1991; translated by Teresa Mlawer]. Sopa de Piedras. New York: Lectorum Publications.) If you don’t have accss to any resources for the story, you can tell the story in simplified form, perhaps using flannel-board pieces, as available. Basically, a poor stranger enters a town, and it seems that no one will feed the stranger. The stranger then asks to borrow a pot in which to cook “stone soup” and offers to share the stone soup with whoever will provide a pot. Someone does, and soon, other villagers start noticing the stranger cooking the stone soup. They ask what’s going on, and the stranger says he’s cooking stone soup – but it would taste ever so much better if only it had a carrot (or some other food item). A villager offers a carrot in exchange for partaking in the stone soup once it is cooked. Pretty soon, the stone soup contains contributions from everyone in the village, and everyone indeed enjoys sharing the delicious stone soup. Send a note home with your students, asking their parents to contribute inexpensive food items for your class’s stone soup. (Give them at least a week to get the items. You’ll probably end up with lots of potatoes, carrots, and celery.) Once you have all the needed items, you’re ready to make your stone soup. Bring a large electric crock-pot, some bouillon cubes, some herbs, and some paring knives and cutting boards to school. With your students, make a wall-chart graph (or a recipe list) of the items you will put into the stone soup. Have a teacher aide or a parent volunteer supervise pairs of students as they wash and cut the food items. Toss those items into the crock pot, add the seasonings and bouillon (and anything else you want to add, such as stewing tomatoes or tomato sauce), and turn on the pot. If you have leftover raw vegetables, that’s fine. Set them aside, for comparison later with the cooked items. At the very last, place a small, clean stone into the crock pot. Bear in mind that the soup will take many hours to cook, so you may want to plan for this to be a two-day project. Be sure to take appropriate safety precautions with the crock pot and with the cooked soup. As with any cooking projects, be careful with electrical appliances and water, and exercise extreme caution with any hot liquids and vegetables once they have been heated. Invite all students to taste the soup, but don’t push anyone to have any who truly doesn’t want any. (Very rarely does a student completely refuse to have any at all! As always, however, be alert to potential food allergies.) This activity is particularly good for reinforcing the notion that a community of people can accomplish a great deal when they all work together. Exploration: The Nation Introduce A Poem Make a wall chart for three verses and the chorus of Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land.” (Note. You may want to write the refrain [chorus] on a separate chart, so that you can refer back to it each time you return to it.) This Land Is Your Land by Woody Guthrie Refrain This land is your land, this land is my land, From California to the New York island; From the redwood forest to the Gulf Stream waters, This land was made for you and me. As I was walking that ribbon of highway, I saw above me that endless skyway; I saw below me that golden valley; This land was made for you and me. Refrain I’ve roamed and rambled and I followed my footsteps To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts And all around me a voice was sounding: This land was made for you and me. Refrain When the sun was shining and I was strolling, And the wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling, As the fog was lifting a voice was chanting: This land was made for you and me. Refrain If possible, introduce your students to Guthrie’s song by sharing with them Kathy Jakobsen’s elaborately illustrated book depicting his song: • Guthrie, Woody. (1956/1958/1998). This Land Is Your Land (ill.: Kathy Jakobsen; scrapbook test: Janelle Yates; tribute text: Peet Seeger). Boston: Little Brown. In any case, go over the lyrics of Guthrie’s song as a poem before introducing it as a song. Explore the Concept. Explore the ideas introduced in Guthrie’s poem through cross-curricular activities in music and movement, math and science, art, and literature. Music and Movement. Sing Guthrie’s song once all the way through. Sing it a second time, clapping hands (or using rhythm instruments) to the rhythm. Sing the song a third time, making up hand motions to accompany the actions described in the song (e.g., fingers “walking” and “strolling”; ringers pointing to “you and me”). Math and Science. Prepare a dish using a recipe that involves food items from across the United States. Possibilities include a diverse array of pizza toppings, sandwich (or cracker) spreads and fixings, or cracker (or chip) dips. Art. Make magic pictures of scenes from America’s landscape. Have students use crayons darkly and thickly to create a colorful page of multicolored crayon work. Provide black tempera paint for each student to completely coat the crayoned page with black paint. After the paint has dried, invite the student to scratch out (using the blunt end of a paintbrush or some other implement) a picture of some scenery (trees, desert-scapes, mountains, oceans, etc.). By scraping away portions of the black paint, they reveal the colorful crayon beneath. These pictures look gorgeous when they are completed, almost regardless of what your students scratch out. Literature. Read other books about people and places, such as the following: • Coles, Robert. (1995). The Story of Ruby Bridges. New York: Scholastic. (Tells the true story of the six-year-old African-American girl who desegregated New Orleans schools.) • Shapp, Martha and Charles. (1962). Let’s Find Out About Houses. New York: Franklin Watts. (Describes many kinds of houses in many kinds of places.) • Sweeney, Joan. (1996). Me on the Map. New York: Scholastic, by arrangement with Crown Publishers. (A great introduction to geography for young readers.) Another classroom resource you may want to subscribe to all year long is National Geographic World magazine, published for young readers by the National Geographic Society (which also publishes atlases and other books suitable for every age level). In addition, many other poems have been written about American history and about famous Americans, and they may be found in almost any book of poems for young children. Among the famous Americans who are often praised in verse are George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, and Paul Revere. You may want to seek out these poems when you are addressing specific times and events in American history. Finally, you may enjoy getting additional ideas from the following resource, which offers literature-based curriculum ideas, divided into sections on picture books, story books, and chapter books: • McCarthy, Tara. (1992). Literature-Based Geography Activities: An Integrated Approach. New York: Scholastic Professional Books. Experimentation: The World Extend the Concept. For most young children, an understanding of the world beyond their own country is foreign. For them, the key to broadening their understanding of other people in other places is to link novel aspects of those experiences to familiar ones. For instance, everyone enjoys eating, although different people eat different kinds of things because they live in different places and have different kinds of foods available to them. Everyone enjoys celebrating special occasions with music and dance, but different people have different ways of celebrating. Everyone has a home, but… you get the idea. Hence, you may want to try introducing your students to cross-cultural appreciation through a few cross-curricular activities. Following are some activities that may foster some cross-cultural appreciation in your students in the areas of music and movement, math and science, art, and literature. For additional ideas, you may enjoy the following teacher resource books: • Two thematic units by Teacher Created Materials (Huntington Beach, California): Native Americans, Primary (1991) by Leigh Severson and Friendship, Primary (1991) by Janet Hale. (This publisher also produces many thematic units for grades 4-6, including “Ancient Egypt: Literature-Based Activities for Thematic Teaching, Grades 4-6,” and units on ancient Greece, Native Americans, and other cultural and historical themes.) • Four nation-specific thematic units for grades K-3 by Creative Teaching Press (Cypress, California), including three by Karen Bauer and Rosa Drew (1994) – Kenya, Mexico, and Japan – and one by Sara Griffiths Butler (1995) – Brazil; this “World Neighbor Series” also includes books on China, Germany, Vietnam, and the “global village.” • Milord, Susan. (1992). Hands Around the World: 365 Creative Ways to Build Cultural Awareness & Global Respect. Charlotte, VT: Williamson Publishing. In addition to the hundreds of daily activities, this book provides lists of additional resources and some comparative cultural views on topics such as growth and development, ending/beginning a year, wishes and superstition, and many more. Music and Movement. Although many poems about the wider world may be too sophisticated conceptually or linguistically, many folk songs (poetic verses set to traditional tunes) are highly appealing and accessible to young children. Invite your students to sing folk songs from around the world. For instance, some of the folk songs of Mexico and Latin America are peppy, fun songs to sing, such as “La Cucaracha,” “Las Mananitas,” and “De Colores.” Also, Jose Marti’s ballad for Cuba’s liberation, “Guantanamera,” has become almost an international anthem. Several suitable songs (with additional curriculum ideas) may be found in: • Downs, Cynthia, and Terry Becker. (1991). Bienvenidos: A Monthly Bilingual/Bicultural Teacher’s Resource Guide to Mexico & Hispanic Culture. Minneapolis, MN: T.S. Denison. Several albums of multicultural and cross-cultural music include the following: • Emilio Delgado’s Fiesta Musical: A Musical Adventure through Latin America for Children, in English and Spanish (1994, Music for Little People) • Ella Jenkins’s albums I Know the Colors in the Rainbow (Educational Activities) and Multicultural Children’s Songs (Ages 3-8) (Smithsonian/Folkways, 1995) • Family Folk Festival: A Multi-Cultural Sing Along (Music for Little People; includes Pete Seeger and many other singers and songwriters; available on audiotape cassette or CD) • Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Gift of the Tortoise: A Musical journey through Southern Africa (Music for Little People; available on tape or CD) • Tom Wasinger, The World Sings Goodnight: World Lullabies Sun in Native Voices (1993, Silver Waves Records and Amnesty International, available on tape or CD) In addition, recall the Duckert book, mentioned in the preceding section on friendships, which you may use as a resource for cross-cultural children’s games. Math and Science. Make a dish using a recipe that involves food items from around the world. For a very simple, no-heat recipe, offer plain or vanilla yoghurt with an international assortment of toppings or mix-in items. Encyclopedias offer a good resource for finding out the national origins of various fruits and other foodstuffs. In addition, you may find numerous ideas for toppings and mix-ins listed on page 29 of: • Cook, Deanna F. (1995). The Kids’ Multicultural Cookbook: Food & Fun around the World. Charlotte, VT: Kids Can! Williamson Publishing. In addition, a picture book about an Indian folktale beautifully illustrates the power of mathematical exponents: • Demi. (1997). One Grain of Rice: A Mathematical Folktale. New york: Scholastic. Art. Numerous resource guides offer suggestions for making a wide array of art projects to foster cross-cultural appreciation. One possibility is the crayon-relief activity described in the Learning-Center Task Card, “People I Love,” which you may use as a guide for implementing this activity. Essentially, crayon relief is the method used for making batik cloth (an Indonesian method of textile design). If you have any samples available, you may show students clothing or cloth that has been decorated via the batik technique. Essentially, batik is cloth for which wax (like the crayons) traces out a design, and then the cloth is covered with (or immersed in) a dye solution (like the paint solution). Learning-Center Task Card, “People I Love” Objective Explore family relationships by depicting an interaction with beloved family members Materials • Dilute solution of tempera paint • Thick paintbrushes • Crayons in a variety of colors • Manila construction paper or newsprint Directions 1. Use crayons to draw a picture of yourself doing something you enjoy with the people you love. Sign your name and today’s date in crayon. 2. Once you have completed your drawing, paint over the entire sheet of paper with the dilute tempera paint solution. 3. Put the painting in a place where it can dry. 4. (For older students: On a separate sheet of paper, write down what is happening in your picture. Once the paint is dry, staple or tape your description to your picture.) Other art projects may include masks, costumes, paper dolls, decorative and useful musical instruments, murals, weavings, pottery and other clay objects, woodworking, beadwork, and jewelry. Two resource books with a wealth of cross-cultural art activities are: • Ritter, Darlene. (1993). Multicultural Art Activities from the Cultures of Africa, Asia and North America, Grades 2-5. Cypress, CA: Creative Teaching Press. • Ryder, Willet. (1995). Celebrating Diversity with Art: Thematic Projects for Every Month of the Year. Glenview, IL: GoodYearBooks, Scott Foresman. Literature. The Creative Teaching Press “World Neighbor Series” books also provide lists of suitable books for each country covered, and Ritter’s book on art also provides comprehensive lists of appropriate children’s literature from Africa, Asia, and North America. A few books not included in these lists are the following: • Armstrong, Jennifer. (1993). Chin Yu Min and the Ginger Cat. New York: Crown Publishers (Dragonfly Books). • Baumann, Hans. (1985). Thank You, Brother Bear. New York: Philomel Books, Putnam; Scholastic. • Cha, Dia. (1996). Dia’s Story Cloth: The Hmong People’s Journey of Freedom. New York: Lee and Low Books. • Collins, Stanley H. (1997). Ananse the Spider: Why Spiders Stay on the Ceiling (Sign Language Literature Series). Eugene, OR: Garlic Press. (Written in American English, with American sign-language translations. Also available in sign-language versions: Coyote and Bobcat, a Navajo story; Raven and Water Monster, a Haida story; and Fountain of Youth, a Korean story.) • Jaffe, Nina. (1995). Older Brother, younger Brother: A Korean Folktale. Puffin Books, Penguin Books. • Johnson, Tony. (1994). The Tale of Rabbit and Coyote. G.P. Putnam’s Sons, Putnam & Grosset; Scholastic. • Myers, Walter Dean. (1995). The Story of the Three Kingdoms. New York: HarperCollins. • Slobodkina, Esphyr. (1940/1968). Caps for Sale: A Tale of a Peddler, Some Monkeys, and Their Monkey Business. New York: Scholastic. (Spanish version: Se Venden Gorras: La Historia de un Vendedor Ambulante, Unos Monos, y Sus Travesuras.) In addition, be on the lookout for numerous books by Aliki Brandenberg (often cited simply as “Aliki”), Tomie de Paola, Gerald McDermott, and Robert San Souci. Each of these authors has written several books of folktales from around the world. Also, UNICEF (the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund) publishes many wonderful books containing children’s stories from around the world, and the following books offer several folktales from various cultures around the world: • DeSpain, Pleasant. (1993). Thirty-Three Multicultural Tales to Tell. Little Rock, AR: August House Publishers, a Merrill Court Press Book. • McCarthy, Tara. (1992). Multicultural Fables and Fairy Tales: Stories and Activities to Promote Literacy and Cultural Awareness, Grades 1-4. New York: Scholastic Professional Books. • Pellowski, Anne (Ed.). (1993). A World of Children’s Stories. New York: Friendship Press. Experiment with Writing Poetry. Briefly review the format of Woody Guthrie’s song with your students. Invite your students to create additional verses to his poem, using the following refrain (adapted by Shari Hatch): This world is your world, this world is my world From Brazilian fountains to Tibetan mountains From Saharan deserts to Australian valleys This world was made for you and me. Older students may be able to work in pairs or in small groups to come up with their own verses. For preschoolers and other prereaders, work as a whole class to come up with verses, writing them on a whiteboard or an overhead transparency. In creating these verses, use the resource you developed with your students: the wall charts you made when working with Lenski’s poem “Sing a Song of People.” Science Introduction For young children, the study of science should center on the processes of science: exploring, describing, investigating, guessing and testing predictions, and discovering and synthesizing information. Because no one person can possibly master the wealth of information currently available within a single scientific discipline – let alone the breadth of science as a whole – it is becoming less important for your students to memorize a particular set of scientific facts. Instead, it’s increasingly important for your students to enjoy and appreciate the delightful insights that various fields of science can offer them and to learn how to use and evaluate scientific investigation to explore the topics of interest to them. As a warm-up to scientific investigation, set out two containers: an empty fish tank or a very large transparent (or translucent) plastic container and a container (e.g., a box or a dish basin) with a wide assortment of small objects made of wood, plastic, metal, and other substances. Invite your students to investigate these objects and to think about whether each item will sing or will float if placed in the fish tank, filled with water. Once all your students have had a chance to investigate the objects invite them to help you fill in a chart, guessing what will happen if each item is dropped into a water-filled container. Tally their responses, noting how many predict that each item will sink or will float. Insert table “float or sink?” about here After you and they have completed the chart, ask them how they can find out the answers to these questions, to see whether their predictions are correct. As needed, guide them to come up with the idea of testing their predictions by filling the tank or other container with water (leaving about 2” at the top). Compare your findings with your predictions, circling the tally marks for each correct prediction. Explore with your students the many processes involved in “doing science.” You may summarize these processes as an acrostic poem, such as the one shown here: Study, explore, touch, taste, smell, listen, see Consider, think about, ask “How can this be?” Identify, classify, define, describe, relate Estimate, imagine, guess, suppose, speculate Noodle around, try things, investigate Count, measure, test, numerate Evaluate, infer, judge, synthesize, rate You and your students may also enjoy reading Shel Silverstein’s poem, “Superstitious” (page 48 of his 1981 book, A Light in the Attic: Poems and Drawings of Shel Silverstein, New York: Harper & Row). His poem readily stimulates a discussion of science versus superstition. How do we know that something is really true? How can we find out whether what we believe is true? A picture book that does an excellent job of introducing children to how scientists do things is: • Duke, Kate. (1997). Archaeologists Dig for Clues. New York: Scholastic, HarperCollins. Biology, Chemistry, and Physics As in the case with all curriculum for young children, it is best to begin studying each of the major fields of science by exploring and thinking about he experiences and objects most familiar to them. For instance, they first learn about biology by considering their own bodies and health; they begin to explore chemistry by probing the mysteries of cooking foods they like to eat; and they find out about physics by considering the physical forces exerted on (and by) objects in their immediate environment. Exploring Biology: Healthy Bodies The first scientist most children get to know pretty well is their family doctor, whom they probably associate more with sickness than with health. It’s also often easier for them to understand the idea of health by discussing how it feels to be sick. A.A. Milne’s “Sneezles” charmingly describes what happens when a young child is sick. See the accompanying worksheet showing the poem and relevant questions to prompt understanding. Insert worksheet “Sneezles” about here Advance Preparation. Copy the excerpt from Milne’s poem onto a wall chart, and prepare two additional wall charts with the headings “Being Sick” and “Being Healthy.” Have handy an assortment of colored markers or crayons for highlighting words that rhyme. (If you plan to reuse this wall chart, you may want to laminate it, then use washable markers or crayons for your highlighting.) In addition, prepare a three-column chart (on a poster or on your chalkboard or whiteboard), for organizing the information you gather. See the table, “Feeling Sick, Feeling Healthy.” Insert table “feeling sick, feeling healthy” about here Immerse: Introduce the Poem. Read the excerpt from Milne’s poem aloud to your students, emphasizing the rhythm and the rhymes as you read. Invite your students to read along with you as you read the poem a second time, perhaps emphasizing with your gestures the words wheezles, sneezles, measles, and other rhyming words (bed/head, goes/nose, mumps/lumps, etc.). Explore the Concept. The accompanying worksheet may guide you in asking questions to extend your students’ understanding of the poem. In regard to the author’s changes to sneezles and wheezles, you may wish to bring up the notion of “poetic license.” (Later in this chapter, we cite a few poems by Ogden Nash, who is famous for taking poetic license with words.) In helping your students understand Milne’s poem’s structure, use a distinctive color crayon or marker for underscoring or circling each set of rhyming words (e.g., red for wheezles, sneezles, and measles; green for bed and head; blue for goes and nose; purple for chest and rest). When prompting your children to think about how it feels to have a cold or to be sick in other ways, write their responses on the chart titled, “Being Sick.” After your students have fully explored how it feels to be sick, encourage them to describe how it feels to be healthy, noting their responses on the wall chart titled, “Being Healthy.” Encourage them to describe how a healthy body feels and what it does, from their noses to their “toeses.” What do they feel like doing when they are healthy, which they don’t feel like doing when they are sick? As needed, refer back to your “Being Sick” chart for ideas about “Being Healthy.” (For instance, if their scalp itched or hurt when they felt sick, their scalp might feel relaxed and pain-free when they feel healthy.) Once you have generated as many responses as you can, work with your students to organize your data on the three-column wall chart you prepared. Extend Knowledge Across the Curriculum. Reinforce your students’ awareness of their healthy bodies by setting up a health-related learning center: Offer a stethoscope (inexpensive working stethoscopes are available at educational-supply stores, as well as medical-supply stores), a flashlight (for looking into ears and mouths and noses), disposable rubber gloves (for each student doctor to wear), and an assortment of photos, diagrams, and realistic drawings of human noses, ears, mouths, and bodies. If possible, have a school nurse or other health professional introduce the students to this center, then leave the center available for students to use throughout this thematic unit. In any case, check with a health professional to ensure that you’re using appropriate health and safety practices in your learning center (e.g., using rubbing-alcohol wipes on stethoscope earpieces between uses). To further extend your students’ awareness of health-related science across the curriculum, try these activities in the areas of music and movement, art, social studies, literature, and math. Music and Movement. With your students, sing “If You’re Healthy and You Know It” (tune “If You’re Happy and You Know It”), referring to your wall chart, “Being Healthy.” When they run out of steam on this song, try singing “If You’re Sickly and You Show It,” using the “Being Sick” wall chart. Encourage your students to dramatically exaggerate how crummy they’d feel for each of the verses. Another song that goes along with this theme is “Mother, Mother, I Feel Sick.” A delightfully illustrated book with the full text of the song is: • Charlip, Remy, & Burton Supree. (1964). Mother Mother I Feel Sick, Send for the Doctor Quick Quick Quick. New York: Parents’ Magazine Press. Art. Invite students to make “Mommy, Daddy, I Feel Sick” collages, depicting how they think they look (or feel) when they’re sick. Materials: An assortment of distinctly nonhuman colors of tissue paper – pea green, orange, shocking pink, turquoise, and purple will do nicely; pale yellow or dark black construction paper (large enough for them to fit their entire sickly tissue-paper body parts together); shallow containers with a mixture of a little white glue and a lot of starch as the adhesive; Q-tips or other applicators of glue mixture; and – later – crayons or colored pencils or felt-tip markers. Directions: Have your students tear (rather than cut) the tissue paper into the shapes of arms, legs, heads, hair, torso, and so on, then use the glue mixture to apply the tissue paper to the construction paper. After their collages dry, invite them to use crayons (or pencils or markers) to fill in the sickly faces and hair and clothing. Social Studies. Set up a physician’s office dramatic-play center, perhaps next to the health-related center. If you have room, provide both a reception area (chairs and magazines) and a check-up area (with a low table or bench on which “patients” can sit or lie). Although you can purchase a small lab coat from an educational-supply store, a fine alternative is an old white tailored shirt, with the sleeves cut to fit the size of your students’ arms. Provide a prescription pad (blank notepad) and pen, as well as books on the human body and other relevant materials. Literature. Read books about health and sickness, such as the following: • Bemelmans, Ludwig. (1939). Madeline. New York: Scholastic Book Services. (Spanish version: 1993.) • Brown, Laurie Krasny, & Marc Brown. (1990). Dinosaurs Alive and Well! A Guide to Good Health. New York: Scholastic, by arrangement with Little, Brown. • Freeman, Don. (1987). Corduroy Goes to the Doctor. New York: Viking Penguin. • Hathon, Elizabeth (photos). (1994). Let’s Go to the Doctor. New York: Grosset & Dunlap. • Katz, Bobbi. (1996). Germs! Germs! Germs! New York: Scholastic. (Not for the squeamish!) • Maccarone, Grace. (1992). Itchy, Itchy Chicken Pox. New York: Scholastic. (Spanish version: Pica, Pica, Varicela.) • Rey, Margret and H.A. (1966). Curious George goes to the Hospital. Boston: Scholastic, Houghton Mifflin. (Spanish edition: (1996). Jorge el Curioso en el Hospital.) Your students may also enjoy: • “Stop Sniffling!” by Bruce Lansky in his (1991) anthology, Kids Pick the Funniest Poems (New York: Meadowbrook Press, Simon & Schuster). • Two Shel Silverstein poems about feeling sick: “Bad Cold” on page 61 of his (1996) Falling Up: Poems and Drawings of Shel Silverstein (New York: HarperCollins); and “Sick” pages 58-59 of his (1974) Where the Sidewalk Ends: Poems and Drawings of Shel Silverstein (New York: Harper & Row). Math. Make a graph of all the kinds of sickness your students have had this year. The chart shown here gives an example of the symptoms you may wish to use. For young students, you may want to use a pocket chart, placing items (e.g., photos or drawings of student faces) alongside the pocket for each symptom. For older students, you may draw the graph on the board and make tally marks for each student who experienced each symptom. Where and how have we felt sick? Symptom How many students have felt each symptom this school year? stuffy nose runny nose fever itchy eyes stomach ache headache chills or fever (additional ideas?) Which symptom was the most common? Which was the least? Two other symptoms students love to discuss are vomiting and diarrhea. If you wish to generate a lot of enthusiasm, you may wish to include these items, but young students thoroughly enjoy getting very graphic about these, so if you don’t have the stomach for it, you may want to avoid mentioning these symptoms. You may also want to explore with your students some of the ways in which to try to prevent illness, perhaps brainstorming a list of ideas for preventing illness. Among the many ideas you explore, you may consider healthful food. Exploring Chemistry: Cooking (and Eating) Food Advance Preparation. Before you begin this unit of study, send home a note to all of your students’ parents, telling them that you are going to be studying health, nutrition, and food chemistry. Encourage them to tell you about any possible food allergies they or their children may have, as your students will be preparing and tasting a variety of foods, and you wish to avoid having students come into contact with foods to which they are allergic. (Note. Educators and health professionals have become increasingly aware of allergies to peanuts and peanut products, but other food allergies are also common.) In preparing this unit, you may want to have available some reference material, such as those from the Dairy Council or another health resource, detailing many of the foods for each level of the “Food Pyramid” (see the accompanying chart) and specifying the kinds of foods young children need. Prepare wall charts with headings for each of the main food groups: “Protein,” “Dairy,” “Fruits and Vegetables,” and “Cereals and Grains.” Fats and sweets: Use sparingly Milk, yogurt, cheese Meat, poultry, fish, (dairy): 2-3 servings eggs, beans, nuts per day (protein): 2-3 servings per day Vegetables: 3-5 servings per Fruits: day 2-4 servings per day Bread, cereal, rice, pasta (cereals and grains): 6-11 servings per day Explore the concept. With your students, brainstorm many different kinds of foods they enjoy eating. Although some of your students may be able to identify the food groups of the foods they name, most will need help to classify most foods correctly. As your students name particular foods, guide them in sorting the foods by food group. In addition, refer to your health and nutrition resource, as needed, to help them brainstorm a wide variety of foods for each category. Once you have brainstormed a large assortment of foods for each category, probe each category in greater depth, using both poetry and science experiments to study each category. In addition, work with your students to create an alliterative list poem for each food category. Alliteration is the repetition of an initial sound across words in a poem. For instance, alliterative items in a vegetable list poem might include carrot curls, celery salad, luscious lettuce, and puny peas. You’ll be amazed at young children’s creativity in suggesting alliterative adjectives. Investigate Proteins: Advance Preparation. Prepare a wall chart for the following limerick, quoted on page 10 in Nadine Westcott’s (1994) anthology, Never Take a Pig to Lunch and Other Poems about the Fun of Eating (New York: Orchard Books): A Fisherman Living in Deal by Charles Connell A fisherman living in Deal When asked what he liked for a meal, Said, “All kinds of fish, But my favorite dish Is a properly stuffed jellied eel.” If you plan to reuse this wall chart, you may wish to laminate it so that you can mark on it with crayons or markers to highlight the limerick structure of the poem. In addition, obtain the equipment and supplies you will need to hard-boil enough eggs for each child to have half a hard-boiled egg. Also try to have on hand an extra hard-boiled egg for you (and any parent volunteers or teacher aides in your room), as well as at least two more eggs, for them to see raw. (See the “Deviled Eggs” learning-center task card.) Learning-Center Task Card, “Deviled Eggs” Objective Experiment with food chemistry, using a familiar protein source Materials: Supplies and Equipment • Hot plate and Dutch oven (easier for cooking many eggs) or an electric skillet (safer for use in a classroom) (a glass Dutch oven or at least a glass lid is ideal, but most of us live in a less-than-ideal world) • Large bowl or casserole dish • Small bowls (at least 1 per each student chef, plus 1 extra) • Many hot pot holders and insulated pads for hot foods • Slotted spoon or other tool for retrieving boiled eggs from boiling-hot water • Sink and water faucet, if possible; if not, 3 gallon-sized jugs of water and a place to pour out the hot water • Forks (at least 1 per each student chef, plus 2 extra) • Salt • Mustard (in a squirt bottle) • Mayonnaise (to be kept somewhere cool, if not in a refrigerator) (ideally, use a squirt bottle for this; if not, supply enough clean spoons for each student chef to have a turn spooning out the mayonnaise) • 1 egg for each 2 students in the class, 1 egg for each adult in the classroom, and 2 additional eggs (labeled “R” for “raw” with a crayon) (Try also to have on hand a few extra eggs, just in case of breakage.) • Optional: - resealable plastic baggies, 1 per student - crackers, toast squares, or bread slices Directions for Adult Helper 1. Crack open one raw egg, and pour it into a clean bowl, showing the contents to the students. Invite the students to predict what will happen to the other raw eggs when they are boiled. Pour water into a Dutch oven until it is half full. Invite the students to predict what will happen to the level of the water when the eggs are placed into the pan. 2. Gently place the eggs into the Dutch oven. Were the students’ predictions about the water level correct? As needed, add more water to cover the eggs. Invite the students to predict what will happen to the eggs when boiled. Bring the eggs to a boil, and boil them (on a low simmer) for 20-30 minutes (depending on your altitude, etc.). Set a timer, and monitor the eggs while supervising interested children (this is where the glass Dutch oven or lid comes in handy). If too many children are gathering around to watch, have the children take turns visiting the egg-cooking center, setting a timer, as needed, for each group of children to watch. For highly competent, experienced adult helpers, you might also make one egg flower by dropping the raw egg into the boiling water, then watching what happens to the egg in the boiling water. This is only worth doing if you can help the students safely see what happens to the egg. 3. When the egg timer goes off, turn off the heat and remove the eggs from the Dutch oven to the large bowl. 4. Pour cool water over the hot eggs. Have all the students clear a wide path to make way for you to take the hot water to where it can be poured out. Swirl the eggs in the cool water until it, too, is warm. Repeat the process one more time (dumping the heated water and pouring more cool water over the eggs). 5. Set aside one hard-cooled egg and one unbroken raw egg, for the teacher to use for a whole-class demonstration. 6. Work with small groups of children to peel the eggs and cut them in half. Were the children’s predictions correct regarding what would happen to the eggs? Work with the children to make small batches of deviled eggs (easy on the mustard and the salt for most children!). Set aside the crushed eggshells to be used for an art project later. Directions for Student Chefs 1. Wash your hands. 2. If your egg still has a shell, tap the egg gently on the table to make a few cracks. Then peel off the shell, and give the eggshell remnants to the adult helper. 3. Use a butter knife to slice the egg in half the long way. (You should end up with an egg-shaped half of an egg, not with a circle-shaped half of an egg.) 4. Take the yolk (the yellow part of the egg) out of the egg white, and put the yolk into a small bowl. Smash the yolk with a fork until it’s thoroughly mashed up. 5. If you like mayonnaise, add about a spoonful (or a very big squirt) of mayonnaise to the smashed yolk. If you like mustard, add a tiny squirt of mustard to the smashed yolk. You will probably also want to add a pinch of salt. To measure a pinch of salt, pour a little tiny bit of salt into one of your hands, then use the thumb and index finger of your other hand to pinch a few grains of salt. Sprinkle those grains of salt into the smashed yolk mixture. Wipe the rest of the salt off of your other hand, being careful not to get it onto the egg. 6. Use a fork to thoroughly mix the yolk, the mayonnaise, the mustard, and the salt. When you are satisfied that everything is very well mixed, use the fork to put the egg-yolk gloop back into the hole in the egg white from which you removed the egg yolk. 7. Tell the adult helper that you are finished. She or he will tell you when it’s okay for you to eat it. Optional: Instead of making small batches of deviled eggs, make individual portions of egg salad. For each student, place half a hard-boiled egg into a baggie, along with a sprinkle of salt and a dab of mustard and a dollop of mayonnaise. Seal the bag, and have the student demolish the egg, then mix the mayonnaise, mustard, and salt thoroughly into the egg. Warn them not to use their fingernails, or they may pierce the baggie and make the contents inedible. Once they are satisfied that everything is thoroughly gooshed together, invite them to open the bag part of the way and squeeze the mixture onto the crackers, toast, or bread. Some students will open the bag and drop the mixture directly onto the bread, but then spreading the goop over the bread is a bit more difficult. Investigate Proteins: Exploration. Display the poem about the fisher from deal, and read the poem aloud to your students, emphasizing the rhythm and rhyme pattern of the limerick. Read the poem a second time, inviting them to choral read the poem with you. Ask questions to extend your students’ understanding of the poem. Use a crayon or felt pen to highlight the stressed syllables in each line. Count up the stressed syllables in each line, and record the number in the margin for each line. Next, use a different colored crayon or pen to highlight the words that rhyme (e.g., if you used purple for counting the syllables, use green for Deal, meal, and eel, and use orange for fish and dish). What is the pattern of this poem? A limerick is a five-lined poem, which as a distinctive rhythm pattern and a rhyming pattern of aabba. The usual rhythm pattern is that the first two lines and the last one are anapestic (~ ~ /) trimeter (~ ~ / ~ ~ / ~ ~ /), and the third and fourth lines are anapestic dimeter (~ / ~ ~ /), although some variation is okay. (The eel-loving fisher’s pattern is ~ / ~ ~ / ~ ~ / for the first and second lines.) The verse is almost always humorous or at least light, and it often centers on a particular person, who is named in the first line (and often again in the last one). For young children, these literary terms (anapest, trimeter, dimeter) are usually too sophisticated. Nonetheless, they readily grasp the idea of counting stressed and unstressed syllables, and they can quickly learn to identify limericks. You may find another example of a limerick at the start of the discussion of physics and gravity, later in this chapter; see also Edward Lear’s “The Tiger” in Appendix B, on animal poems. For further examples of limericks, see the limericks by Dixon Merritt, by W.S. Gilbert, and by Oliver Herford (pp. 228-229) in Michael Rosen’s (1985/1993) compilation, The Kingfisher Book of Children’s Poetry (New York: Kingfisher Books, Grisewood & Dempsey). After you have explored the poem’s structure, tell your students that you hate to disappoint them, but you will not be preparing “properly stuffed jellied eel” for the class to taste. Offer to give them a hint about what you will be cooking instead, then recite the nursery rhyme, “Humpty Dumpty.” Ask the students to guess what “Humpty Dumpty” is. If no one guesses “egg,” give them additional clues. Assign a small group of your students to be the first to work with an adult helper to prepare “deviled eggs” (see the learning-center task card). (Note. This activity is possible if you don’t have an adult helper, but we wouldn’t really recommend it, as the electrical equipment and boiling water require constant close supervision. Meanwhile, it’s very difficult to adequately supervise the rest of the classroom and to handle any minor crises that arise elsewhere in the room.) After the adult helper has made available a cooled hard-boiled egg, invite all the students to gather around you. Take one of the cooked eggs, and spin it on its axis. It should spin perfectly. Next, take the raw egg, and attempt to do the same thing. It should wiggle and wobble. Invite the students to help you think about what is different about the two eggs. Allow a few students to try spinning the eggs themselves, to see whether they can figure out the difference. If someone guesses correctly, confirm the guess by cracking open each egg, dumping the contents of the raw egg into a small bowl. If no one guesses correctly, suggest that they investigate further, and crack open each egg, pouring the raw egg into the bowl. Swirl the bowl of raw egg, to show the egg yolk swishing around in the bowl. Invite your students to help you think about what caused the difference between the raw egg and the cooked egg. At least some of your students will notice that the yolk and the white can wobble around in the raw egg but not in the cooked egg. (You might also point out that if Humpty Dumpty had been a hard-boiled egg, the king’s men might have been able to put him back together again.) Discuss with your students what happens to protein when it is heated. Have they ever watched a parent cook a floppy piece of chicken, liver, or steak? What happens to it? What do they notice about its appearance (glimmering dark color to opaque lighter color), as well? Investigate Proteins Across the Curriculum. To extend your students’ awareness of chemistry across the curriculum, try the following activities in the areas of social studies, math, art, literature, and music and movement. Social Studies. If your classroom can accommodate it, reinforce your students’ awareness of foods by setting up a grocery-store (or family home) learning center: Offer as many props as you have room to provide for children to use to explore foods. Although educational-supply stores have a wealth of props to buy for your classroom, you may do fine with empty cereal boxes and TV-dinner boxes, and empty cans of cooked fruits and vegetables. Math. For older students, add money to your grocery-store learning center. Run off worksheets with paper coins and bills of specific monetary value, and have your students cut out the “money.” Label all of the food items with specific monetary values. Use a shoebox, a gift box, or a utensil-drawer sorter as a “cash” box. Guide students in how to use money to pay for items and how to give change. Complete accuracy in the figuring is not as important as getting the idea of an exchange. For younger children (over 3 years old) for whom any arithmetic figuring with money is too challenging, you may want to offer instead an assortment of mixed beans for them to sort by color, size, or type. Art. Set up a learning center at which students can create eggshell collages, using the eggshells from the science experiment. For egg-static fun, you may want also to offer some feathers or other bird-related items. If this topic really egg-cites you, you may even want to use egg-shaped construction paper for the collages. If you’re not too eggs-asperated with these suggestions, you may even want to try using food dye to color the eggshells for the collages. Literature. Read books about various sources of protein. The following books are just a few of the many excellent children’s picture books on eggs, fish, and other protein sources: • Brandenberg, Aliki. (1969). The Eggs: A Greek Folk Tale retold and illustrated by Aliki. New York: Pantheon Books, Random House. • Geisel, Theodor (Dr. Seuss). (1960/1988). Green Eggs and Ham. New York: Random House. • Jeunesse, Gallimard, & Pascale de Bourgoing. (1989). The Egg. (Karen Backstein, trans.). New York: Scholastic; France: Editions Gallimard. • Wolcott, Patty. (1975). Tunafish Sandwiches. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. Another protein source we often neglect is beans, so don’t forget to tell the story of “Jack and the Beanstalk” when you are discussing protein foods. (You can also make or buy flannel pieces for this story, which can greatly enhance everyone’s enjoyment when you are telling bout Jack.) In addition, your students may enjoy many other poems about protein foods. Following are just a few of the many protein-related poems available: • In Nadine Westcott’s Never Take a Pig to Lunch, you may find “Eels” by Spike Mulligan (p. 11); “The Eel” by Ogden Nash (p. 11); [Rattlesnake Meat] by Ogden Nash (p.11); and “O Sliver of Liver” by David Greenberg (p. 19). • You may find Douglas Florian’s “Diet Riot” (p. 48) and his “Children, Please” (p. 48) in his 1994 book, Bing Bang Boing, New York: Puffin/Penguin. • Jack Prelutsky wrote “When Tillie Ate the Chili” (p. 88) and “Eggs!” (pp. 104-105), two delightful protein-related poems from his 1984 book, The New Kid on the Block, New York: Greenwillow Books, William Morrow. • Three poems on the turkey’s view of holiday meals are “The Little Girl and the Turkey” by Dorothy Aldis (p. 49) in Tomie dePaola’s (compiler) 1988, Tomie dePaola’s Book of Poems. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons; “The Turkey” by Richard Digance (p. 62) in Michael Rosen’s (compiler) 1985/1993, The Kingfisher Book of Children’s Poetry, New York: Kingfisher Books, Grisewood & Dempsey; and “Point of View” by Shel Silverstein (p. 98) in his Where the Sidewalk Ends. • Shel Silverstein has “Eggs Rated” (p. 149) and “Turkey?” (p. 34) in his Falling Up. Music and Movement. Invite your students to join you in pantomiming and singing the words to “Are You [Eating]?” (tune: “Frere Jacques”), in which you substitute various kinds of foods and describe them with the children. For instance, Are you eating, are you eating Scrambled eggs, scrambled eggs? Eating them with ketchup, All of them we snatch up. Yum, yum, yum In my tum Are you eating, are you eating Jellied eels? Jellied eels? In my tum, they wiggle, They wriggle and they jiggle. Yum, yum, yum, In my tum. Investigate Dairy Foods. When exploring dairy foods, you may want to refer to the social-studies chapter, where we discussed how to make butter (and buttermilk) from cream. You may also want to make two other kinds of dairy foods: custard and ice cream. Both of these offer interesting opportunities for scientific investigation – as well as a lot of fun and a delicious outcome. It’s particularly interesting for children to watch very high temperatures turn liquids into solids (to make custard) and then to watch very cold temperatures turn liquids into solids (to make ice cream). Although recipes for custard may be found in almost any cookbook, the following books offer international recipes designed for children to make: • “Catalonian Cream,” p. 13-14, in UNICEF. (199?). The Little Cooks: Recipes from Around the World for Boys and Girls (illustrated by Jean-Christophe Raufflet and Valerie Pettinari; printed in Italy; product code 92654; ISBN: 0-940065-99-1). New York: United States Committee for UNICEF. • “Crème Caramel,” pp. 30-31, in UNICEF. (199?). [untitled] (cited on back cover: Patrick Regout, Belgium; printed in Italy; product code G780MB; UPC 7-611502-120733). New York: United States Committee for UNICEF. When you make custard, you may want to read to your students a silly poem about custard (guess what rhymes with “custard”!): “Arbuckle Jones” by Peter Wesley-Smith, on page 15 of Nadine Westcott’s Never Take a Pig to Lunch. Quick-and-easy recipes for frozen dairy desserts (ice milk and frozen pudding, respectively) may be found in the following books: • On page 116, “Island Smoothies,” the recipe for “Quick banana ice cream” (requires a blender and access to a freezer) in Deanna F. Cook’s (1995) The Kids’ Multicultural Cookbook: Food & Fun around the World, Charlotte, VT: Kids Can! Williamson Publishing. • On page 41, “Birthday Cones” (requires an electric mixer and access to a freezer) in Janet Bruno’s (1991) Book Cooks: Literature-Based Classroom Cooking, 35 Recipes for Favorite Books, Grades K-3; Cypress, CA: Creative Teaching Press. With a little extra work, you can make a more authentic ice cream – even without benefit of an ice-cream-making machine. • One approach is to use 4-ounce containers of ice-cream gloops inside 1-pound coffee cans filled with salted ice, following the recipe on pages 23-24 of John B. Bath and Sally C. Mayberry (1994), Kitchen Chemistry: Creating Mixtures, Solutions, and Reactions; Mixing and Separating Colors; Growing Crystals (Step-by-Step Science Series, Grades K-3); Greensboro, NC: Carson-Dellosa Publishing. • A second approach is to put ice-cream gloop inside two sandwich bags (double-bagged to prevent spillage), which are placed inside a 1-quart resealable bag, filled with salted ice, which is then wrapped in a towel and placed in a plastic shopping bag. The recipe for the ice-cream gloops and the exact instructions for this procedure appear on page 99 of Jill Frankel Hauser (1998), Science Play: Beginning Discoveries for 2- to 6-Year-Olds; Charlotte, VT: Williamson Publishing, a Little Hands Book. You may also find a recipe for ice milk, using this bag-in-a-bag-in-a-bag method, on page 491 in Kathy Charner’s (Ed.) (1998) The Giant Encyclopedia of Science Activities for Children 3 to 6: More Than 600 Science Activities Written by Teachers for Teachers; Beltsville, MD: Gryphon House. In addition, if you have available an actual ice-cream maker (the electric kind is very nice!), you can make any number of ice cream recipes. Often, the manufacturer of the ice-cream maker supplies quite a few, or you may prefer recipes by Ben and Jerry or almost any other recipe-book author. For a poem about the huge number of ice-cream flavors your students would not want to try (e.g., “YAM ANCHOVY PRUNE PASTRAMI”), see: • “Bleezer’s Ice Cream” by Jack Prelutsky, on page 48 of his New Kids on the Block. A more appetizing poem is “Ice-Cream Colors,” by Susan M. Paprocki, on page 198 of: • Totline Staff. (1994). 1001 Rhymes and Fingerplays. Torrance, CA: Totline Publications, Frank Schaffer Publications. Investigate Fruits. One way to introduce some fruity poetry is to make a wall chart displaying Ogden Nash’s poem about “The Cantaloupe” (p. 161, in his 1931-1956/1962, The Pocket Book of Ogden Nash [with an introduction by Louis Untermeyer], New York: Washington Square Press, Pocket Books): The Cantaloupe by Ogden Nash One cantaloupe is ripe and lush, Another’s green, another’s mush. I’d buy a lot more cantaloupe If I possessed a fluoroscope. Read the poem aloud to your students, then invite them to choral-read the poem with you. After introducing the poem, probe it a little further. • Language questions. Explain to your students what a fluoroscope (X-ray machine) does. Why does Nash want such a machine? Invite them also to explore the words lush and mush. Why did he choose those words? What other words could be used to mean the same thing? • Poem-structure questions. With your students, figure out the rhythm pattern and the rhyming scheme in the poem. Invite them to compare the pattern of this poem with the pattern in the eel-loving fisher limerick. • Viewpoint or empathy questions. Invite your students to add to the list of foods they like, focusing on fruits. As needed, look back at your food-categories list, to find the fruit items they named. Encourage your students to identify the three main parts of a fruit (seeds, pulp, and skin). To help them grasp the diverse ways in which these parts are evident in various fruits, invite them to brainstorm about different kinds of fruits. For instance, compare a strawberry seed, and apple seed, and a peach pit; blackberry pulp, avocado pulp, and watermelon pulp; cantaloupe skin, kiwi skin, and grape skin. Jot down their ideas on a whiteboard or chalkboard. Afterward, work with your students to create a list poem highlighting some of these fruity comparisons. For instance, these fruity comparisons might include “peach pit: hard as a door knob / strawberry seed: tinier than a dog’s flea / avocado pulp: creamy as custard / kiwi skin: fuzzy as a puppy.” For additional poems on fruits, see: • “Watermelons” by Charles Simic (p. 10) and “Strawberries” by Judith Hemschemeyer (p. 74) in Eileen Thompson (compiler) (1987), Experiencing Poetry, New York: Globe Book Company. • “Ten Red Apples” (author unknown, p. 195), “Two Green Apples” (traditional, p. 195), “Look at the Apple” (Martha T. Lyon, p. 195), “Applesauce” (Martha T. Lyon, p. 195), “I’m a Juicy Orange” (Jean Warren, P. 198), “Color Fruits” (Lois E. Putnam, P. 201), and “Making Fruit Treats” (Polly Reedy, p. 201) in Totline Staff (1994), 1001 Rhymes and Fingerplays, Torrance, CA: Totline Publications, frank Schaffer Publications. In addition, your students may enjoy the following rhythmic, rhyming book about the delights of berry jam: • Degen, Bruce. (1983). Jamberry. New York: HarperCollins. Whereas Jamberry highlights the luscious delights of foods, the book Picky Nicky features a less-than-enthusiastic eater. Although somewhat less poetic than Jamberry, this rebus book includes numerous rhyming pairs (Freddy/spaghetti, apes/grapes, bears/pears, parrots/carrots, bees/peas): • Dubowski, Cathy East, & Mark Dubowski. (1996). Picky Nicky. New York: Scholastic. Whenever you serve chopped or sliced fresh-fruit pieces, encourage your students to make a scientific observation: Squeeze a little lemon juice over the chunks or slices your children will eat, and leave a sample slice or chunk to brown when the pulp is exposed to air over time. You needn’t explain the exact chemistry involved. Simply noticing that there’s a difference will suffice. In addition to eating fruits raw (whole, in pieces, or in fruit salads), you may want to try canned fruits, frozen fruits, and even dried fruits. If you want to dry your own fruits, follow one of the methods shown in these books: • “Solar Snacks” on p. 228 in Charner, Kathy (Ed.). (1998). The Giant Encyclopedia of Science Activities for Children 3 to 6: More Than 600 Science Activities Written by Teachers for Teachers. Beltsville, MD: Gryphon House. • “Fruit Jerky” on pp. 34-35 in Johmann, Carol A., & Elizabeth J. Rieth. (1996). Gobble up Science: Fun Activities to Complete and Eat for Kids in Grades 1-4. Santa Barbara, CA: The Learning Works. • “Dried Apple Rings” on p. 33 in Schultz, Danielle. (1996). Terrific Topics: Food and Nutrition, Includes Activities in Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Awareness, Arts and Crafts, and Music, Grades Pre-K – 1. Greensboro, NC: Carson-Dellosa Publishing. Investigate Vegetables. There are countless humorous poems about children’s aversion to vegetables, such as these: • “I’d Never Eat a Beet” by Jack Prelutski (pp. 124-125) in his New Kids on the Block. • “Food Mood” and “Send My Spinach” on page 27 of Douglas Florian’s Bing Bang Boing. • Four poems from Nadine Westcott’s Never Take a Pig to Lunch: “Spinach” by Delia Ephron (p. 55), “Peculiar” by Eve Merriam (p. 15), “The Parsnip” by Ogden Nash (p. 14), and “[Tomatoes, Lettuce]” by Nadine Bernard Westcott (p. 14). Although these poems delight most young listeners, you may feel that they do not send the message about nutrition that you’re trying to highlight. Don’t panic. There are still quite a few vegetable-related poems that children will enjoy – without reinforcing an aversion to veggies. You may find several celebratory vegetable poems in: • Totline Staff (1994), 1001 Rhymes and Fingerplays, Torrance, CA: Totline Publications, Frank Schaffer Publications, including “Three Little Carrots” (Jean Warren, p. 196), “Pea Soup” (Jean Warren, p. 199), “A Red Tomato” (Jean Warren, p. 202), “Vegetables” (Gayle Bittinger, p. 202), “Vegetable Colors” (Gayle Bittinger, p. 202), “Carrots and Peas” (Jean Warren, P. 202). Perhaps the poem best suited for highlighting the science of food chemistry, however, is “Celery” by Ogden Nash (p. 148) in Jack Prelutsky’s (1983) anthology, The Random House Book of Poetry for Children, New York: Random House: Celery by Ogden Nash Celery, Raw, Develops the jaw, But celery, stewed, Is more quietly chewed. Read the poem aloud to your students, then invite them to choral-read the poem with you. After reading Nash’s poem, explore it a little more deeply: • Language questions. Have your students feel their own jaws opening and shutting. (If you’ve already discussed “levers” with your students, you might mention that jaws are hinged levers.) Ask them to compare the meanings of raw versus stewed. What words could the author have used instead of these words? • Poem-structure questions. Investigate the rhythm pattern and the rhyming scheme in the poem. Invite your students to compare the pattern of this poem with the pattern in Nash’s quatrain about cantaloupe and with the pattern in the limerick about eels. • Viewpoint or empathy questions. On the chalkboard (or whiteboard), write two column headings: “Raw vegetables” and “Cooked vegetables.” Ask your students to name all the vegetables that they eat raw (e.g., lettuce), that they eat cooked (e.g., potatoes, peas), or that they eat either raw or cooked (e.g., carrots, spinach). For vegetables that can be eaten either way, which ones do they like better raw (e.g., tomatoes and celery for most children)? (Technically, tomatoes, cucumbers, and squashes are fruits, but most people consider them vegetables.) Conduct a simple science experiment by having your students compare raw and cooked vegetables, such as carrots, spinach, and celery. (If classroom facilities for cooking are difficult to obtain, you may precook the items. It’s more fun and more educational, however, if you can cook the vegetables on site, perhaps using a microwave oven or an electric skillet, Dutch oven, or hot plate.) Encourage your students to smell, touch, bend, snap, bite, chew, and taste at least one vegetable in both the raw and the cooked form. If you cook the raw spinach in class, measure the volume of the spinach before and after cooking it. Ask the students, What happened? Investigate Cereals and Grains: Advance Preparation Prepare a wall chart for “Oodles of Noodles” by Lucia and James L. Hymes, Sr., from page 4 of Prelutsky’s (1981) anthology, For Laughing Out Loud: Poems to Tickle Your Funnybone (New York: Knopf): Oodles of Noodles by Lucia and James L. Hymes, Jr. I love noodles. Give me noodles. Make a mound up to the sun. Noodles are my favorite foodles. I eat noodles by the ton. Gather together the equipment and supplies you will need to boil an assortment of noodles for your students. Your equipment will include a hot plate and a large pot, hot pads, a colander, cool water, small paper plates, and eating utensils. Your supplies will include uncooked macaroni, spaghetti, lasagna, bow-tie, shell, and any other kinds of noodles you can acquire cheaply and easily, as well as a little butter and some grated Parmesan cheese. Arrange somehow to have an adult helper when you boil your noodles. (Remember that you’ll need a lot of water for just a little of the noodles.) Investigate Cereals and Grains: Exploration Display the wall chart with the noodles poem. Read the poem aloud to your students, highlighting oodles and foodles and sun and ton. Next, choral-read the poem with your students. After introducing this poem, ask your students questions to extend their understanding of the poem. • Language questions. Why did these authors choose the word oodles instead of saying, “lots,” or “a great deal?” What are some other words meaning the same thing? Why did the authors say “foodles?” What might the authors have said instead? • Poem-structure questions. With your students, figure out the rhythm pattern and the rhyming scheme in the poem. Invite them to join you in creating another verse or two for the poem. You might want to keep the first and third line, changing only the second and fourth lines of each quatrain. • Viewpoint or empathy questions. Invite your students to add to the list of foods they like, focusing on cereals and grains. Look back at your food-categories list, to find the cereals-and-grains items they named. If your students would enjoy oodles more pasta poems, you might noodle around with the following: • “Noodles” by Douglas Florian, on page 84 of his Big Bang Boing • “Spaghetti” by Shel Silverstein, on page 100 of his Where the Sidewalk Ends • Two poems in Michael Rosen’s The Kingfisher Book of Children’s Poetry: “When Betty Eats Spaghetti” by Colin West (p. 205) and “Spaghetti” by Frank Flynn (p. 83) • “The Spaghetti nut” by Jack Prelutsky (p. 220 of Elizabeth Hauge Sword and Victora Flournoy McCarthy’s A Child’s Anthology of Poetry) • Two poems in Nadine Westcott’s Never Take a Pig to Lunch: “Spaghetti! Spaghetti!” by Jack Prelutsky (p. 22) and “Lasagna” by X. J. Kennedy (p. 23) Investigate Cereals and Grains Across the Curriculum As a science investigation, have your adult helper boil an assortment of noodles, keeping out a few of each type of dried noodle for comparison later. If you have available a kitchen scale (or a postage scale), measure (volume) and weigh the noodles before and after you cook them. If you really want to be precise, you might also measure and weigh the water before and after you cook the noodles. (Have available an extra pot into which you place the colander, then pour the cooked noodles and water through the colander, straining the water into the second pan.) As soon as the noodles have been cooked, add the butter to melt throughout. When the buttery noodles are cool enough, serve a little of each kind to each student. Offer Parmesan cheese for each student to add, to taste. Have students compare the taste and texture of the noodles, raw (dry) and cooked. If you decide to make noodles from scratch (see the social-studies activity in this section), you might also compare the store-bought dried noodles with the relative fresh ones. What happens when you leave the fresh ones out for a full day? What would happen if you toasted, baked, or microwaved the noodles? Another alternative for scientific exploration may be to experiment with bread. Compare three forms of bread: (1) fresh bread, (2) bread that you leave out a full day, and (3) toasted bread. How do they feel? How do they taste? If you’re truly adventurous, you might also compare microwaved bread and boiled bread (tasting won’t be an option for these!), too. In addition, to extend your students’ awareness of chemistry across the curriculum, try the following activities in the areas of social studies, art, music and movement, literature, and math. Social Studies. Invite your students to work together in small groups to make noodles from scratch. Amazingly, this activity is not really that difficult. Other than ensuring that your students use clean hands, this activity is also quite safe (but can be very messy). You may also want to consider other cooperative cooking projects, such as making various breadstuffs from scratch, including pizza, yeast-based bread or rolls, or quick breads such as biscuits, muffins, pancakes, or even waffles. Although these projects require a lot more planning and effort, they are very rewarding for everyone involved. Now that most families include one or two very busy parents, few children have a chance to see how to make bread items from scratch, to these projects can be very enlightening. Learning-Center Task Card, “Pasta from Scratch” Objective Experiment with food chemistry, working with starches, proteins, and emulsifiers. Materials: Supplies and Equipment • 1-1 ½ cups of all-purpose flour + extra flour on hand • 1 or 2 eggs • 1 or 2 tablespoons of oil • a little salt • water • large mixing bowl • forks (1 per student chef) • large cutting board or sanitary, smooth surface (e.g., tabletop) • rolling pins (1 per student chef; other smooth, clean cylinders also work, e.g., the wooden cylinders in unit locks, clean cylindrical drinking glasses) • waxed paper (or plastic wrap) • clothes line or sturdy string hung across an area of a room (alternatively, you will need to use a tabletop or other flat surface that is removed from traffic) • butter knife, miniature cookie cutters (e.g., letters, animals, geometric shapes), pizza-dough cutting wheels, or other safe instruments for cutting soft dough • sealable storage container for dried noodles (e.g., plastic bowl and lid) • means of cooking dried noodles (either outside the classroom or in a Dutch oven on a hot plate in the classroom, using large quantities of salted water for small quantities of dried noodles) Directions for Student Chefs 1. Wash your hands. 2. Measure 1 cup (or 1 ½ cups) of all-purpose flour. 3. Use a fork to mix in 1 egg (or 2 eggs, depending on how much dough you want to make). 4. Add 1 tablespoon (or 2 tablespoons) of oil, and mix the dough well with a fork. 5. Add a pinch of salt (holding it between your thumb and forefinger). 6. Mix the dough thoroughly with a fork. 7. Add spoonfuls of water to the dough until it holds together. At this point, mix the dough with your hands. Keep adding water, little by little (up to a couple of tablespoons total) until the dough is thoroughly mixed and you can roll the dough into a ball without having it stick to your hands. (You may have to add a little more flour if you added too much water.) 8. Divide the dough ball into several smaller balls of dough. Give a small ball of dough to each person in your cooking group. 9. Use your hands to knead the balls thoroughly for about 10 minutes. 10. Set the balls aside for about an hour. (Teacher note: If your schedule doesn’t allow for time in one day to make the noodles, you can refrigerate the balls overnight, then let the balls sit out for an hour before rolling them out.) 11. On a table, spread out a big sheet of waxed paper. Sprinkle a little bit of flour onto the waxed paper. Sprinkle a little more flour onto a rolling pin. Use the rolling pin to roll out your ball of dough on the waxed paper. Pull the dough with your fingers, as needed, until the dough is very thin (almost translucent). (You might have to add a little more flour, if the dough is too sticky.) 12. When the dough is very, very thin, lift the waxed paper with the dough, and hang up the dough and waxed paper over a clothesline. Instead, you can let the dough dry on the paper on a table. Wherever you leave it, let the dough dry for about half an hour. Don’t let the dough get too dry and brittle, though. 13. While the dough is still nice and soft, it’s time to cut it. You may enjoy cutting the flattened dough into odd shapes (e.g., your initials, with jigsaw shapes left over), either using cookie cutters or using a butter knife. Instead, you may roll up the dough layer loosely like a scroll or a jelly roll and then use a butter knife to cut the noodles into whatever widths you would like. 14. Once the noodles are cut, show them to your adult helper. Directions for the Adult Helper 1. If you have the facilities in the classroom, you can cook the noodles right away. Boil them in salted rapidly boiling water for about10 minute. (You’ll need a Dutch oven or other large pot, a hot plate, hot pot holders, a colander, and access to water.) Instead, you may set the noodles aside in a sealed container for cooking at a later time. Art. Have your students make a simple flour-salt-and-water dough. Almost any combination of flour, salt, and water will do, but for a glimmering and pliable, dough, use more salt. If you want your students to play with the dough before pressing it into service, you may want to add a dab of vegetable oil to the mixture. For a little extra zing, you may even squeeze a drop or two of food coloring into the dough. When your students have had enough experience manipulating the dough, they can press it into disposable plastic storage-container lids (e.g., cottage-cheese or margarine tub lids). Offer them an assortment of dried macaroni and other noodles to press into the dough base. You may also want to offer corn kernels, popped corn, or even some items from the protein group, such as various dried beans, dried split peas, and other items. The dough-filled lids make an excellent base for attractive collages. Music and Movement. Invite your students to sing the children’s classic, “On Top of Spaghetti,” to the tune of “On Top of Old Smoky.” Invite them to add new verses about what happens to the spaghetti or other noodles. Another song relating to the cereals and grains groups is the traditional nursery song, “Oh, Do You Know the Muffin Man?” Literature. Read books about cereals and grains, such as the following: • Carle, Eric. (1990). Pancakes, Pancakes! New York: Scholastic. • Carle, Eric. (1972/1995). Walter the Baker. New York: Simon & Schuster; Scholastic. • DePaola, Tomie. (1978). Pancakes for Breakfast. New York: Scholastic. In addition, your students may enjoy the following poems about cereals, grains, and breads: • “Betty Bopper” by John Ciardi (p. 40) and “How Do You Make a Pizza Grow?” by Eve Merriam (p. 24) in Nadine Westcott’s Never Take a Pig to Lunch. • “The Bagel” by David Ignatow (p. 76) in Eileen Thompson’s (1987) Experiencing Poetry, New York: Globe Book Company • “Cereal” by Shel Silverstein (p. 42) in his Falling Up • “Making a Cake” (traditional, p. 196), “Sweet Corn” (Jean Warren, p. 197), “Mix a Pancake “ (traditional, p. 198), “I Love Pasta” (Gayle Bittinger, p. 198), “Pizza Treat” (Diane Thom, p. 200), “Popcorn in the Pan” (Jean Warren, p. 200), and “See the Little Kernel” (Neoma Kreuter, p. 200) in Totline Staff (1994), 1001 Rhymes and Fingerplays. • Also, don’t forget some of the classic nursery rhymes, such as “Hot Cross Buns,” “Pease Porridge Hot,” and “Pat-a-Cake.” Rhymes about other kinds of food include “Jack Sprat,” “Little Miss Muffet,” “Simple Simon,” “This Little Piggy Went to Market,” and “To Market, To Market.” Mathematics. Invite your students to create recipe charts for any of the foods you have prepared in class. Alternatively, you may want your students to create imaginative recipes for foods they enjoy, which they have eaten at home or elsewhere. Years ago, Jane G. Martel published a book titled Smashed Potatoes: A Kid’s-Eye-View of the Kitchen, which compiled numerous delightfully unrealistic recipes authored by children. According to Amazon.com, the book is now out of print, but your local librarian may know how to track down a copy for you. If you can put your hands on a copy, it will surely inspire you and your students to greater heights of culinary writing wizardry. Another possibility is to have your students create their own recipes to accompany books they have read, such as Three Bears porridge, bread or jam (for Russell Hoban’s Bread and Jam for Frances), mouse-worthy cookies (for Laura Numeroff’s If You Give a Mouse a Cookie), and of course Maurice Sendak’s Chicken Soup with Rice. You may find the accompanying “Recipe Format” worksheet helpful, especially if you have your students draw a picture of the expected outcome on the back of the sheet. The worksheet isn’t essential, though, as your students may come up with rebus recipes that will amaze you. Insert worksheet “recipe format” about here As a culminating math activity for your chemistry (food and nutrition) unit, invite your students to chart the effects of heat on various types of foods (proteins, dairy items, vegetables, pastas, and breads). Create a four-column chart such as the one shown here. Have your students fill in the chart, describing the texture (hardness, especially) f the foods after they were heated or frozen. What are some general conclusions they can draw? What were some surprises they noticed? Insert table “The effects of heat or cold on types of food” about here Further food fun. If you wish to deviate from nutritious foods, you may want to try making cookie-cutter cookies, such as gingerbread people cookies. If so, be sure to read Rowena Bennett’s poem, “The Gingerbread Man,” on page 50 in: • De Regniers, Beatrice Schenk (compiler). (1988). Sing a Song of Popcorn: Every Child’s Book of Poems. New York: Scholastic. You and your students may also enjoy reading two related books – the traditional folktale of the gingerbread man and Jon Scieszka’s distinctly nontraditional variation, “The Stinky Cheese Man”: • Aylesworth, Jim. (Reteller). (1998). The Gingerbread Man. New York: Scholastic. • Scieszka, Jon. (1992). The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales. New York: Viking/Penguin; Scholastic. For more food- and cooking-related ideas, see also Danielle Schultz’s (1996) Terrific Topics (mentioned previously as a source for making dried apple rings); a thematic unit titled Food and Nutrition, published by Teacher-Created Materials Press (in Westminster, California); and many ideas in Laurie Anderson’s (1996) Early Childhood Health and Safety Curriculum (Grand Rapids, MI: Instructional Fair, T.S. Denison). Don’t forget to include poems in all of your food-, nutrition-, cooking-, chemistry-related experiences. There are countless other poems about food, many of which you may find on: • Pages 146-153 of Jack Prelutsky’s (1983) anthology, The Random House Book of Poetry for Children, New York: Random House. • Pages 30-35 of Michael Rosen’s (1993) anthology, Poems for the Very Young. New York: Kingfisher Books, Grisewood & Dempsey • Nadine Westcott’s (1994) anthology, Never Take a Pig to Lunch and Other Poems about The Fun of Eating, New York: Orchard Books. Exploring Physics: Gravity and Machines Investigate Physics: Poetry Exploration Probably the first principle of physics that has a profound impact on all children is gravity (starting even in the womb!). Several poems specifically address this principle – some playfully, and some practically: • “Swing Song” by A.A. Milne (p. 75) in his Now We Are Six • Two poems by Shel Silverstein: “Falling Up” (p. 7) in his Falling Up and “Pancake?” (p. 34) in his Where the Sidewalk Ends. • Two poems in Nadine Westcott’s Never Take a Pig to Lunch: “[I eat my peas with honey]” by Anonymous (p. 51) and “The Catsup Bottle” by Richard Armour (p. 51) A particularly whimsical poem about gravity is “I Wish That My Room Had a Floor” by Gelett Burgess (pp. 208-209) in Donald Hall’s 1985 anthology, The Oxford Book of Children’s Verse in America, New York: Oxford University Press: I Wish That My Room Had a Floor by Gelett Burgess I wish that my room had a floor; I don’t care so much for a door. But this walking around Without touching the ground Is getting to be quite a bore. • Language questions. Invite your students to help you define the word gravity. Why didn’t Burgess use the word gravity in his poem? How do we know that Burgess was talking about gravity, when he didn’t use that word? What are some words that Burgess used, which we infer as referring to gravity? • Poem-structure questions. With your students, investigate the rhythm pattern and the rhyming scheme in the poem. What is another poem you’ve explored previously, which had this same pattern (check back on the fond-of-eels fisher)? If you feel that they are up to the task, try creating another verse or two for this limerick. (You may try just changing the third and fourth lines, leaving the others as is.) • Viewpoint or empathy questions. Invite your students to think about how their lives would be different if there weren’t gravity. Have any of them seen television programs or movies of people in outer space, who are living in an environment that has no gravity as we know it? What would it be like to eat, play a ball game, and so on? Many other principles of physics are important to young children, but few others are specifically addressed in poetry. (Know any good force, effort, or friction poems?) On the other hand, many of these principles are illustrated in the machines we use in our environment. Young children seem particularly fascinated with machines of all kinds – from simple machines such as forks and hammers to complex machines such as washers and bulldozers. Several poems about machines have been written for children, including: • “Monkey Wrench” by Kristine O’Connell George (1997) in her The Great Frog Race and Other Poems, New York: Scholastic, by arrangement with Clarion Books, Houghton Mifflin • “The Engineer” by A.A. Milne (pp. 42-43) in his Now We Are Six • “The Bulldozer” by Robert Francis (p. 30) in Paul Janeczko’s 1985 anthology, Pocket Poems Selected for a Journey, New York: Bradbury Press • “The Power Shovel” by Rowena Bennett in Dilys Evans’s 1992 anthology, Monster Soup and Other Spooky Poems, New York: Scholastic • Two poems in Jack Prelutsky’s 1983 anthology, The Random House Book of Poetry for Children: “Steam Shovel” by Charles Malam (p. 141) and “The Riveter” by Mabel Watts (p. 90) • Three poems in Eileen Thompson’s Experiencing Poetry: “Concrete Mixers” by Patricia Hubbell (p. 15) and “The Invention of the Telephone” by Peter Klappert (p. 50), as well as “Fork” by Charles Simic (p. 14) • “Washing Machine” by Douglas Florian (p. 126) in his Bing Bang Boing • “Genius” by Anonymous (p. 21) in Rosen’s The Kingfisher Book of Children’s Poetry Investigate Physics Across the Curriculum. To further investigate physics, set up a machine- (lever-) exploration learning center. If possible, obtain a hammer-and-peg toy, with ready-made pegs to be hammered down, then flipped over and hammered down again. If not, obtain a wooden mallet, some sharp-tipped flat-head nails, and some very soft wood (e.g., pine), and have an adult helper available to supervise the students pounding the nails into the wood. Before they use the hammer or mallet, however, your students should try to push the pegs or the nails down with their fingers or hands. (Make sure that they don’t use their arms as levers, or they may hurt their hands.) You may also offer an assortment of other common levers: bottlecap removers (wedges with levers), lever-based jar openers, long-handled pliers and monkey wrenches, car jacks, crowbars, salad tongs, and so on. If possible, offer some uses for at least one or two of these tools. For instance, offer some jars with lids screwed on tightly, which students can open using the jar openers. In addition, to extend your students’ awareness of physics across the curriculum, try the following activities in the areas of math, art, music and movement, literature, and social studies. Mathematics. Invite your students to help you fill in a chart predicting which factors will affect the speed with which wheeled toys go down an inclined plane. Make tallies showing the number of students who predicted each outcome. Add other tests that you and your students devise for testing the effects of gravity, wheels, and inclined planes. Save this chart for later reference. Insert table “gravity, wheels and inclined planes” about here To test their predictions, set up a gravity-exploration center, inviting your students to experiment with gravity, wheels, and inclined planes. It would be ideal to set up this learning center on the floor in a corner of the room, but it will also work as a table if you can’t set aside floor space. In any case, offer the following objects: and assortment of small-wheeled toys (trucks, cars, construction vehicles, etc.), some ramps (doublong unit blocks or the thing planks, if you have them; if not, use well-sanded 3-4” wide plywood boards of various lengths), and some unit blocks (or well-sanded blocks of 2” x 4” boards). When you set up the center, set up at least two inclined planes of different heights, and place one wheeled toy at the top of each (use a block or other object to keep the toy from rolling down). Your students will quickly grasp the idea of experimenting with inclined planes of differing heights. You might also encourage them to try letting other objects go down the plane (e.g., small flat toys, small balls). If your center is set up at a table, have the students establish a unit-block perimeter around the edge of the table so that fast-moving wheel toys don’t zip off into other areas of the classroom. After all of your students have had an opportunity to try out your gravity-exploration center, invite them to help you fill in your chart showing which factors did affect the speed with which wheeled toys go down an inclined plane. What can you and your students conclude, based on your tests? How well were they able to predict what would happen? Art. Invite your students to make “gravity paintings”: In advance, cut construction paper to fit inside a shoebox or some other smallish box. (Clothing gift boxes work quite well; also, dark or vibrant colors of construction paper make the paintings particularly attractive.) Obtain a handful of marbles, and put one marble in each of three or four shallow dishes containing tempera paint of different colors. Have your students put a precut sheet of construction paper in the bottom of the box, then choose a paint-covered marble, and drop it into the box. Each student then tips the box multiple times, watching gravity pull the marble toward the bottom edge of the box with each tipping. When the student’s marble runs out of paint or the student decides to stop the marble, she or he replaces the marble in the shallow dish and chooses another marble. Specify how many times you will allow your students to repeat the process. I’ve always just let students pick up the marble with their fingers, but you may want to have your students use a slotted spoon or tongs to pick up the marble, so that they avoid getting paint on their fingers. Music and Movement. Invite your students to play the game for the song “London Bridge Is Falling Down.” Ask them also to come up with additional verses for other objects that are subject to gravity (e.g., “Soccer balls are falling down”; “Frisbee disks…”; “Tennis balls…”). Alternatively, if you are discussing leverage and levers (see the “machines-exploration” activities), you may want to sing “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.” Explore with them the idea of the oars as long levers to move the boat through the water, as compared with trying to move the boat through the water with a short-handled paddle. Note that both “Frere Jacques” (“Are You Eating?” mentioned in the protein-foods section of this chapter) and “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” can be sung as rounds. If you and your students particularly enjoy singing rounds, you might enjoy some additional suggestions for rounds (originally rondeau in French), given on pages 80-81 in: • Lipson, Greta Barclay. (1998). Poetry Writing Handbook: Definitions, Examples, Lessons. Carthage, IL: Teaching & Learning Company. Literature. Read to and with your students any of numerous books about gravity and about machines, such as the following: • Barton, Byron. (1987). Machines at Work. New York: HarperCollins. • Two books by Margaret Wise Brown: her 1954 The Friendly Book (Racine, WI: Western Publishing Company); and her 1940s/1992 (updated by Roberta Brown Rauch) Red Light, Green Light (New York: Scholastic). • Two books by Virginia Lee Burton: her 1943 Katy and the Big Snow, and her 1939/1969 Mike Mulligan and the Steam Shovel (both published in New York by Houghton Mifflin, Scholastic). • Three books by Donald Crews: Freight Train (1978), School Bus (1984), and Truck (1980) (all published in New York by William Morrow, Scholastic). • Gibbons, Gail. (1994). Emergency! New York: Scholastic • Loehr, Mallory. (1992). Trucks. New York: Random House. • Sheldon, William D. (1966). The House Biter. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. • Wolcott, Patty. (1974). The Marvelous Mud Washing Machine. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. A more general reference book including information about machines is • Kaufman, Joe. (1971). Joe Kaufman’s What Makes it Go? What Makes it Work? What Makes it Fly? What Makes it Float? New York: Golden Press; Racine, WI: Western Publishing. In addition, if you have a computer (Macintosh or IBM-compatible with Windows 95) in your classroom, which is equipped with a CD-ROM drive, you may find a CD-ROM program of interest to some of your older students (who can read independently): • David Macaulay’s The Way Things Work, version 2.0 – the program is mostly text based, but there are many minivideos that students can initiate, which illustrate how various kinds of machines work and the principles underlying those machines. Macaulay’s book of the same name is also fun for children to browse through. To explore gravity and other principles of physics (and other aspects of science, for that matter), you might want to refer to a delightful book, which stimulates children’s thinking about science while addressing some of the questions they may have (e.g., “What if the Earth were square?”) • Ehrlich, Robert. (1998). What If? Mind-Boggling Science Questions for Kids. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Social Studies. Set up a social-interaction learning center for exploring gravity: Offer some gravity-dependent games, such as pick-up-sticks, taking turns stacking small blocks until the structure topples, or building a structure of uniform blocks and then taking turns removing one block at a time until gravity pulls the structure down. (There are commercial games based on this principle, but no-name sets of small blocks are really just as good for this purpose.) After scientifically investigating the immediate environment, your students are ready to explore the wider world. For young children, one of the most exciting and wondrous ways in which to explore science is to investigate the wide world of animals. See Appendixes A, B, and C for curriculum ideas, poetry, and books on animals. Two other aspects of science also intrigue young children: plants and weather. Botany and Meterology Plants Of the myriad poems written about plants, many are suitable for young children. A poet who seems to transcend age boundaries is Robert Frost, whose “The Sound of the Trees” (p. 226), “Gathering Leaves” (p. 236), “A Leaf Treader” (p. 237), “In Hardwood Groves” (p. 227), and “Nothing Gold Can Stay” (p. 227) can be found in his (1916/1971) book, New Enlarged Anthology of Robert Frost’s Poems (Louis Untermeyer, Ed.), New York: Washington Square Press. Many of the other poetry books mentioned in this chapter also include poems about plants (e.g., Eileen Thompson’s Exploring Poetry, Paul Janeczko’s Pocket Poems Selected for a Journey, Douglas Florian’s Bing Bang Boing, and Totline’s 1001 Rhymes and Fingerplays). Also, if your students might enjoy exploring assorted fruit and vegetable riddles, see pages 224 and 225 of Charner’s (1998) The Giant Encyclopedia of Science Activities for Children 3 to 6. You’ll find plenty of curriculum ideas related to plants in almost any curriculum book, so we’ll just mention a few of the numerous possibilities here. Art. Have your students make leaf rubbings or leaf prints. Leaf Rubbings: Choose flat leaves that are not yet brittle. Arrange the leaves (or leaf) on a smooth, flat surface, and place a piece of newsprint (or other paper of about that thickness) over the leaf. To make it easier to make the rubbing, tape down two edges of the paper (using masking tape or regular adhesive tape). Invite the student to gently rub the side of a crayon (or chalk, for a slightly messier but attractive alternative) over the paper, thereby revealing the shape, texture, and vein structure of the leaf. Leaf prints: Offer an assortment of leaves that are relatively large or in large clusters, and ensure that the leaves are free of dust and dirt. Pour a very little tempera paint into a shallow container (e.g., a clean TV-dinner tray). Invite the students to place the leaves face down into the paint and then to remove the leaves and print with them by pressing them firmly but gently down onto construction paper. (Newsprint also works, but it can get soggy rather quickly.) Music and Movement. Have students sing a piggyback song, such as “Growing, growing, little tree,” to the tune of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”: Growing, growing, little tree Taller, taller you will be Up above me, oh, so high, Swaying gently ‘neath the sky Growing, growing, little tree, Oh, how lovely you will be. Another alternative is to use the tune for “I’m a Little Teapot,” with piggyback verses, such as “I’m a big, tall pine tree [place hands together, overhead], growing on my own [stretch hands upward], here are some needles [splay and wiggle the fingers of one hand], here is a cone [make a fist with the other hand].” Literature. Among the many enchanting children’s books about plants are the following: • Cherry, Lynne. (1990). The Great Kapok Tree. San Diego: Harcourt Brace and Company. (Spanish edition: 1994, trans. By Alma Flor Ada: El Gran Capoquero: Un Cuento de la Selva Amazonica. San Diego: Libros Viajeros, Harcourt Brace and Company.) • De Paola, Tomie. (1992). Jamie O’Rourke and the Big Potato: An Irish Folktale. New York: Scholastic. • De Paola, Tomie. (1988). The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush. New York: Grosset & Dunlap. (Spanish edition: 1993, trans. By Clarita Kohen: La Leyenda del Pincel Indio.) • Krauss, Ruth. (1945). The Carrot Seed. New York: Harper & Row. • Thompson, Eleanor. (1963/1972). What Shall I Put in the Hole That I Dig? Racine, WI: Western Publishing. Science and Social Studies. At almost any time of year, you can grow young plants and cuttings in your classroom. (You may want to avoid starting with plants just before a holiday break.) Some teachers also enjoy keeping mature plants as permanent features of their classrooms. (Like human, plants that are mature require less diligent attention than young ones.) With young plants and cuttings, you may want to try experimenting with the amount of light (in the sun, out of the sun), the amount of water (how much you add, testing the moisture of the soil with your finger), and the amount of air (leaving the leaves alone or coating them with Vaseline ointment to prevent the leaves from breathing). As much as possible, involve each of your students in taking care of the plants. You may also enjoy sprouting seeds (raw lime beans make terrific sprouts) by placing them between moistened, folded paper towels, inside a glass jar. An alternative is to place alfalfa-sprout seeds (or other small seeds) on a moist sponge in a dark place. Mathematics. Invite your students to experiment with geometry and part:whole relationships by creating jigsaw puzzles using plant pictures. First, have your students select pictures of plants that are at least the size of a page from National Geographic magazine. If possible, offer your students some stiff paper on which to mount their pictures. An ideal surface is half of a manila file folder. Often, you can get office workers to donate used file folders to your class; usually, these are almost flawless except for a little writing on the tabs. Offer your students a tray (a 9” x 12” baking dish is just right!) containing a thin mixture of glue and water, into which they can gently dip their pictures. After they dip the pictures, have them spread the pictures gently onto the mounting surface. When the pictures are coated, they tear easily, so warn your students to be careful while the pictures are still soggy. After the pictures are mounted, your students should set them aside to dry. Once the pictures are dry, your students can cut them into jigsaw patterns, put the pieces into an envelope, and label the envelope regarding the picture to be made. (You might also want your students to label both the envelope and the back of each piece with their initials, so that if the pieces become separated from the envelopes, you don’t have a monumental task to find the envelope for the odd pieces.) Investigations of plants lead also to explorations of ecology (see Appendixes A, B, and C, regarding animals) and of the influence of weather and climate on all living things. Weather Although the weather is not quite as captivating as furry, fierce, or funny animals, it still sparks a lot of interest, both in children and in those who write for children. Two books containing a wealth of weather poems were compiled by Beatrice Schenk de Regniers: • (1969) Poems Children Will Sit Still For: A Selection for the Primary Grades; New York: Scholastic – in particular, see pages 20-23, as well as “Galoshes” by Rhoda Bacmeister (p. 27) • (1988) Sing a Song of Popcorn: Every Child’s Book of Poems. New York: Scholastic – see the “Mostly Weather” section on pages 13-37. The poems that seem to captivate children the most are those that emphasize children’s sensual experiences in weather of various kinds (e.g., “Galoshes”). See also: • “Bella had a New Umbrella” by Eve Merriam (p. 42) and several other wondrous weather poems in Jack Prelutsky’s (1991) For Laughing Out Loud: Poems to Tickle Your Funnybone. Perhaps the poem most often cited for its appeal to children is the poem we quoted in our introduction to this book: • “Fog” by Carl Sandburg (p. 96) in Prelutsky’s (1983) anthology, The Random House Book of Poetry for Children. Rain and snow also lead naturally into science topics such as mud, dirt, sand, and water. These lead back to your initial investigations of what floats and what sinks. What have your students learned from their various guesses, predictions, and experiments? Creative Arts: Music, Movement, Drama, Visual Arts, and Literature Intuitively, we feel a link between the artistry of poetry and the artistry of music, drama, movement, visual arts, and prose literature. In this chapter, we attempt to make that connection more apparent. Music To see the link between poetry and song, we have only to view the first verse of the poem by James Weldon Johnson, which accompanies a tune written by his brother Rosamond, “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing,” quoted on p. 20 of Wade and Cheryl Hudson’s (1995) anthology How Sweet the Sound: African-American Songs for Children (New York: Scholastic): Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing by James Weldon Johnson Lift ev’ry voice and sing, Till earth and heaven ring, Ring with the harmonies of Liberty; Let our rejoicing rise High as the list’ning skies, Let it resound loud as the rolling sea. Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us, Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us, Facing the rising sun of our new day begun, Let us march on till victory is won. (Two more verses follow) Even if you had never heard J. Rosamond Johnson’s tune (which you may find on p. 42 of the Hudsons’ anthology), when you read the words aloud, you can still hear the musicality of James’s lyric. Advance preparation. Copy the Johnson brothers’ song onto a permanent wall chart, and laminate it (or cover it with clear Contac paper). If you aren’t already familiar with the tune, and you can’t red music, you can obtain an audiocassette of it from Scholastic Books, as a companion to the Hudsons’ anthology. Immerse: Introduce the Poem. Begin by reading the poem aloud to your students, even if you and they already know it as a song. Highlight the pauses and emphases that come naturally when singing the verse. Invite your students to choral-read the verse with you. Once you have experienced the musicality of the verse without the tune, go ahead and sing the song with the students. (Again, if you’re all familiar with the song, sing it a capella, but if not, use an audiocassette or the sheet music as an aid.) Explore the Concept. Ask questions to extend your students’ understanding of the poem. • Viewpoint or empathy questions. Johnson was born in 1871, eight years after Lincoln proclaimed emancipation of the slaves, yet he wrote this poem for the celebration of Lincoln’s birthday, February 12, 1900. he himself had never been enslaved, so why would he write this song for this celebration? • Language questions. Why does Johnson use “ev’ry” instead of “every?” Why does he use “list’ning” instead of “listening?” Does he mean “listening” or “glistening?” Why? • Poem structure questions. With your students, trace out the intriguing rhyme scheme of the poem. Specifically, Johnson interweaves couplets within a sestet (aabccb), followed by two couplets (ddee). In addition, in the first line of the last couplet of the verse, Johnson includes an internal rhyme (sun/begun). If you have the second and third verses available, you can use these to underscore this intriguing scheme. Poems that have a musical quality, regardless of their topic, are lyric poems (from the word lyre, alluding to its musical accompaniment for early Greek poets). A lyric poem is any poem having the form and musicality of a song, usually expressing some personal feelings – often a short poem; more broadly, a lyric poem is any poem that’s not narrative or satirical. An ode is a particularly long lyric poem focusing on a noteworthy person, place, thing, or event. The lyric poems “Who has Seen the Wind?” by Christina Rossetti, “April” by Sara Teasdale, and “Autumn” by Emily Dickinson appear in: • Backus, Maria. (1997). Reding and Writing Poetry: Poem Selections and Activities. Torrance, Ca: Good Apple, Frank Schaffer Publications. Exploration Advance Preparation. Prepare wall charts for the versus of one or more nursery songs or folk songs. You may find numerous nursery songs in: • Amery, Heather (Ed.). (1988). The Usborne Children’s Songbook. London: Usborne. (Traditional nursery rhymes, with music and words: “Little Bo Peep,” “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star,” “Sing a Song of Sixpence,” “Cockles and Mussels”) • Fujikawa, Gyo (Ill.). (1968). Mother Goose. New York: Platt & Munk, Grosset & Dunlap. (Verses for songs only, tunes not given; e.g., “Sing a Song of Sixpence”; “Three Little Kittens;” “Mary Had A Little Lamb;” “The Pumpkin Eater;” “Jack and Jill;” “Old King Cole;” “Rock-a-Bye Baby”) For myriad folk songs, see • Amery, Heather (Ed.). (1988). The Usborne Children’s Songbook. London: Usborne. (Traditional songs, with music and words: “Jingle Bells,” “Yankee Doodle,” “Oh Susanna,” “Michael Row the Boat Ashore,” “Home, Home on the Range”) • Goode, Diane (Ed.). (1989/1996). The Diane Goode Book of American Folk Tales & Songs. New York: Dutton, Puffin/Penguin. (Music and words, e.g., “Yankee Doodle,” “Buffalo Gal,” “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” “Billy Boy,” “Clementine,” “On Top of Old Smokey,” “I’ve Been Workin’ on the Railroad”) • Hudson, Wade and Cheryl (Eds.). (1995). How Sweet the Sound: African-American Songs for Children. New York: Scholastic. (e.g., “Follow the Drinkin’ Gourd,” p. 11; “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” p. 23; “This Little Light of Mine,” p. 24; “Miss Mary Mack,” p. 28; “We Shall Not Be Moved,” p. 31) • Schwartz, Alvin. (1992). And the Green Grass Grew All Around: Folk Poetry from Everyone. New York: HarperTrophy, HarperCollins. (tunes: “Turkey in the Straw,” “Farmer in the Dell,” “Alouette,” “On Top of Old Smoky,” “John Brown’s Body,” “I’ve been Working on the Railroad,” “Hark the herald Angels Sing,” “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” “The Wedding March,” “The Green Grass Grew All Around,” “When Johnny Comes Marching Home,” “Stars and Stripes Forever”) For traditional Hispanic songs and rhymes (with English translations), see: • Schon, Isabel (Ed.). (1983). Dona Blanca and Other Hispanic Nursery Rhymes and Games. Minneapolis, MN: T.S. Denison. Whichever song you choose, it must have two key qualities: You enjoy it, and you’re thoroughly familiar with it. If you feel you have absolutely no facility for singing a capella (it happens), an excellent resource for musical accompaniment may be found in Ella Jenkins’s audiocassettes, albums, and CDs, such as: • Ella Jenkins’s You’ll Sing a Song and I’ll Sing a Song album (available from Smithsonian/Folkways Records or from Educational Activities) • Ella Jenkins’s I Know the Colors in the Rainbow (Educational Activities) and Multicultural Children’s Songs (Ages 3-8) (Smithsonian/Folkways, 1995) You can count on her to tempt even your most reticent students to participate in singing. Immerse: Introduce the Poem. Read the verse aloud to your students, then invite them to choral-read it with you. Assuming that you are all familiar with the song, invite the students to sing the verse with you, following it on the wall chart. (If not all of your students are familiar with the song, sing it alone to them, sing it along with a musical accompaniment such as Ella Jenkins, or sing it with those of your students who do know it.) Explore the Concept. Ask questions to extend your students’ understanding of the poem. • Poem-structure questions. What is the rhyme pattern of the song? What is the song’s rhythm pattern? In analyzing the rhythm pattern, you might ask students to notice when they start running out of breath, when they take a breath, when they are singing loudly, and when they are singing softly. • Language questions. What are some words that are elided or lengthened (to fit the rhythm pattern of the song)? Ask students why the author did so. What are some new or difficult or pleasing or disrupting words within the song? • Viewpoint or empathy questions. Invite the students to guess why the author wrote this song. Reasons may be anything from being in a silly mood (e.g., “Oh, Susanna”) to feeling troubled or feeling the need to get through a tough situation (e.g., “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad”), to telling a story (e.g., “Three Little Kittens” or “Mary Had a Little Lamb”), to making an observation (e.g., “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”), to giving instructions (e.g., “Follow the Drinkin’ Gourd”), to feeling sand and lonely (e.g., “Home, home on the Range”), to asking a question (e.g., “Buffalo Gal”), to keeping up your shared determination (e.g., “We Shall Not Be Moved”), to expressing a loyalty to a group (e.g., “Stars and Stripes Forever”). Extend Knowledge Across the Curriculum. To extend your students’ awareness and enjoyment of poetry as expressed through music, offer a variety of activities in the areas of movement, social studies, art, science and math, and literature. Movement. For whichever song or songs you chose, you may have students move to the music. Choose movements to match the rhythm of the song: For instance, “Stars and Stripes Forever” clearly lends itself to a march, and “Skip to My Lou” obviously facilitates – well, you know. In addition to marching and skipping, try galloping, tiptoeing, sliding or gliding, elephant-walking (with two folded hands swinging in front of the body), hopping, jumping, ostrich-walking (with two folded hands stretched way above the head), and so on. If you aren’t limited to two-footed transportation, you may want to try crawling, creeping, bear-walking (lift left leg and arm, then right leg and arm), crab-walking (moving sideways), and other movements. Social Studies. Make wall charts for “Frere Jacques” (the music for which you may find in Amery, 1988, The Usborne Children’s Songbook), or “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.” Write each line of the song in a distinctive color. Divide the class into two or four singing groups, and have each group take a turn singing the song through once. After each group has done so, have them stagger their turns starting the song, and begin singing the song as a round. Art. Music-Inspired Artistry. One simple thing you can do is to play music for your students, offering them a variety of musical genres while they create artistic works. Encourage your students to observe how their artwork differs for each genre (or musical selection). You may also wish to play music while your students experiment with various visual-art media (watercolor paints, crayons, felt pens, collages, etc.), to see whether some genres are better suited to particular media. For instance, do marches naturally go with crayons and waltzes with watercolors? Artistically Decorative Musical Instruments. Make and decorate paper-plate shakers for shaking along to the music. To make paper-plate shakers (not for children under 3 years old), have students place several dried beans, peas, or corn kernels, or other small items on top of a paper plate. Fold over the plate, and staple around the edges, stapling the plate edges together. Use wide masking tape (or other inexpensive, flexible tape) to cover the staples and to seal the edges of the plate together. Decorate the plate with crayons, felt pens, or even collages. Usually, a simple decorative design is fine, but you may want to encourage children to make representational drawings depicting particular events, animals, or objects discussed in a particular song with which you will use them. (You can also decorate the plate prior to stapling and sealing it, but sweaty hands may smear the penwork, and the tape may cover some of the design.) Science and Math. Experiment with sound. Bring five or more tall glasses (or glass bottles) into the classroom. If you are using five, fill one of the glasses almost to the brim, another three fourths full, another half full, another one fourth full, and leave the last one empty. (If you’re using nine, use eighths; if you’re using seven, use sixths; etc.) To be really accurate, you can measure the liquid (e.g., for an eight-ounce glass, the one-fourth-full glass will have two ounces). Invite the students to use a small metal spoon to “play” the “instrument” by (gently!) tapping the edge of the glass. Once your students have fooled around with making random sounds, play a simple song, such as “Mary Had a Little Lamb” (four notes) or “Hot Cross Buns” (five notes) on the instrument. Label the bottles with numbers, and work with your students to figure out the pattern for the song. (Mary’s song is 3-2-1-2-3-3-3, 2-2-3, 3-5-5; 3-2-1-2-3-3-3, 3-2-2-3-2-1.) Literature. Your students will probably enjoy reading some books depicting various traditional songs, such as the following: • Aliki [Brandenberg] (Ill.) (1968). Hush Little Baby: A Folk Lullaby. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. • Karas, G. Brian. (1980). I Know an Old Lady. New york: Scholastic. • Keats, Ezra Jack (Ill.) and Olive A. Wadsworth (verse). (1971). Over in the Meadow. New York: Scholastic. (Keats’s illustrations, as usual, captivatingly charm his readers.) For bilingual (Spanish/English) versions, see the edition illustrated by David A. Carter (Olive A. Wadsworth, verse). (1992 [1993: Spanish]). En Aquel Prado: Una Antigua Rima de Numeros. New York; Scholastic. In addition, your students may enjoy Eve Merriam’s poem about the musicality of poems: “Advice from a Visiting Poet,” which you may find on page 21 in my (Michael’s) (1997) anthology, Poems That Sing to You, Honesdale, PA: Wordsong, Boyds Mills. For additional poems on songs and singing, see: • “Yes! Strike Again That Sounding String” by James M. Whitfield (pp. 25-26 in Catherine Clinton’s 1998 I, Too, Sing America: Three Centuries of African American Poetry; Boston: Houghton Mifflin) • “Everyone Sang” by Siegfried Sassoon (on p. 243 in James Berry’s 1995 anthology, Classic Poems to Read Aloud, New York: Kingfisher) Your students may also enjoy the following poems about musical instruments: • “Ourchestra” (1974, Where the Sidewalk Ends: Poems and Drawings of Shel Silverstein. New York: Harper & Row, p. 23) • “Music Lesson” by Shel Silverstein (1996, Falling Up: Poems and Drawings of Shel Silverstein. New York: HarperCollins, p. 135) • “Musical Career” (p. 60) and “My Guitar” (p. 80) by Shel Silverstein (1981, A Light in the Attic: Poems and Drawings of Shel Silverstein. New York: Harper & Row.) • “The Fast Fiddler” by John Ciardi (p. 49, in Ciardi’s 1989 The Hopeful Trout and Other Limericks, Boston: Houghton Mifflin) • “Lewis Has a Trumpet” by Karla Kuskin (on p. 15 in Michael Strickland’s 1997 anthology, Poems That Sing to You; this book also contains many other poems about music and song; see also Michael Strickland’s 1997 anthology, My Own Song and Other Poems to Groove To, Honesdale, PA: Wordsong, Boyds Mills Press) Investigation: Prosody Another way to view the link between poetry and music is to focus on the prosody of poems. Prosody is the analysis of the rhythmic and intonational aspects of verse. Elsewhere in this book (e.g., the math chapter), we have discussed the rhythmic aspects of prosody, including meter and stanzas. Here, we address the sonorous aspects of poetry, such as onomatopoeia, repetition, assonance, consonance (including alliteration), and rhyme. Onomatopoeia. Onomatopoeia occurs when the sound of a word suggests its meaning, such as in the words bang, belch, burp, crack, crackle, crunch, ding-dong, pop, scratch, splash, snap, vroom, zoom. An easy way to introduce onomatopoetic words is to focus on animal sounds. For instance, invite your students to picture which animals make these sounds: baa, bow-wow, buzz, croak, growl, hee-haw, hiss, howl, meow, mew, peep, roar, sniff, snort, squeak, tweet, whippoorwill, and woof. Peter Wesley-Smith’s “The Ombley-Gombley” makes great use of onomatopoeia (see page 57 of Jack Prelutsky’s 1991 anthology, For Laughing Out Loud: Poems to Tickle Your Funnybone, New York: Alfred A. Knopf): The Ombley-Gombley by Peter Wesley-Smith Once upon a train track The Ombley-Gombley sat. Rumble clang, Jumble jang, Crumble bang – And that’s the end of that. Before you try to use onomatopoeia in poems, you might try an art activity and a music activity to reinforce the idea: Invite your students to draw cartoon animals with onomatopoetic sound bubbles, and invite them to sing “Old MacDonald Had a Farm [or Zoo].” After you and your students have explored onomatopoeia, you may be ready to crate a class poem. A list poem readily lends itself to onomatopoetic frivolity. Another aspect of onomatopoeia is somewhat more subtle, and you may not wish to address this with your students. This aspect involves the use of the poem’s rhythms and sounds to highlight the meaning of the poem. David McCord does this particularly effectively in his poem about a picket fence, which you may find on page 5 in: • Cullinan, Bernice E. (Ed.). (1996). A Jar of Tiny Stars: Poems by NCTE Award-Winning Poets. Honesdale, PA: Wordsong, Boyds Mills Press. For example, in the middle of the poem, he says, ‘The pickety fence / Give it a lick it’s / A lickety fence / Give it a lick.” Through the click, click, click sounds and rhythms, he helps the reader feel and hear the stick tap, tap, tapping each picket of the fence. Repetition, Consonance, Assonance. Probably the most common and the simplest aspect of prosody is repetition, in which the poet repeats the same affix (e.g., “the battle unwon, the plan was undone”), word (e.g., To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,” from Shakespere’s Macbeth), or phrase. For instance, in James Weldon Johnson’s poem, he repeats most of the phrasing in the penultimate couplet of his poem: “Sing a song full of the [faith/hope] that the [dark past/present] has [taught/brought] us.” Often, poets use the same line, phrase, or word to begin and end a poem. Usually, this repetition brings a sense of completion or of irony (if the poet has introduced information to change our point of view between the first and the last lines). In songs, we usually notice repetition in the refrains (“choruses”). Some poems and songs, instead, have incremental refrains, in which the same basic pattern is repeated, with a little variation from verse to verse, as in “I know an old lady who…” A poem with an incremental repetition is: • “The Last Cry of the Damp Fly” by Dennis Lee, page 63, in Jack Prelutsky, Ed., 1991, For Laughing Out Loud: Poems to Tickle Your Funnybone, New York: Alfred A. Knopf. The incremental repetition is “Bitter batter boop! / … soup. / Bitter batter bout: / … out! / Bitter batter boon: / … spoon! / Bitter batter bum! / … tum!” Repetition actually underlies the other main aspects of prosody: assonance (repetition of the same vowel sound, e.g. peach tree) and consonance (repetition of the same consonant sound anywhere in a word, e.g., tub of butter). An excellent example of assonance and consonance may be found in Laura E. Richards’s “Eletelephony,” cited in the math chapter. Also, in the middle of “Garbage Delight,” Dennis Lee includes this delicious tidbit in its refrain: “With a nip and a nibble / A drip and a dribble / a dollop, a walloping bite” (which may be found on page 15 of Jack Prelutsky’s 1991 anthology, For Laughing Out Loud: Poems to Tickle Your Funnybone, New York: Knopf). Prelutsky’s anthology also contains numerous examples of internal consonance: “Come visit my pancake collection, / it’s unique in the civilized world. / I have pancakes of every description, / pancakes flaky and fluffy and curled” (the first of seven verses from “The Pancake Collector” by Jack Prelutsky, p. 38); and “My chomp is the champ” from the middle of “Garbage Delight” by Dennis Lee (p. 15). Two other examples may be found in Bruce Lansky’s (1991) anthology, Kids Pick the Funniest Poems (New York: Meadowbrook Press, Simon & Schuster): “I’d like to drill the dentist’s tooth / …” from “Daydream” by Joyce Armour (p. 8); and “…/ They want me to eat just the tiniest sliver / of yukky old slimy old slithery liver / …” from “A Sliver of Liver” by Lois Simmie (pp. 12-13). The form of consonance that most readily calls our attention is alliteration (repetition of the same initial-consonant sound within a line, a stanza, a poem). Numerous poems for children are alliterative. Just a few ear-pleasing poems are these, which you may also find in Prelutsky’s For Laughing Out Loud: Poems to Tickle Your Funnybone: • N.M. Bodecker’s “Sing Me a Song of Teapots and Trumpets” (p. 22) • X.J. Kennedy’s “Snowflake Souffle” (p. 25) • Arnold Lobel’s “Friendly Frederick Fuddlestone” (p. 23) One pair of sounds deserves special mention here because it can pose problems if overused: “s” and “sh.” Theater-goers use the hiss to great effect if they really want to rile the performers, and librarians have long known the powerful effect of “Sh!” These two sibilant sounds should be used sparingly in poems. A poem that slides across the slippery slope of sibilance is: • “Snake” by Barbara Esbensen (in Cullinan’s 1996 anthology, A Jar of Tiny Stars, p. 72) The sibilants are members of a larger group of consonants. The table “Consonant Families” shows some of the relationships among the consonants, which you may find useful in exploring the sounds of poems and how those sounds affect the flow of a poem. Insert table ‘consonant families” about here Vowels, too, have distinctive relationships. These relationships depend on the position of the tongue, the shape of the lips (rounded vs. smile-shaped), the openness of the jaw, and the degree of tension in the mouth. (If you enjoy playing with sounds, you may want to experiment with changing these features of your mouth, to see how they affect the sounds you produce. If you think it’s fun, you might experiment with your students, as they’ll pick up on your enthusiasm.) Another way to encourage your students to play with sounds is to introduce them to tongue twisters. You may find a wealth of tongue twisters in: • Brandreth, Gyles. (1978). The Biggest Tongue Twister Book in the World. New York: Sterling Publishing. Just a few of the animal tongue-twisters Brandreth includes are the following: “The crazy cockroach crowned the crooked cricket” (p. 25); “if a dog chews shoes, [whose] shoes should he choose to chew?” (p. 28); “five frantic fat frogs fled from fifty fierce fishes” (p. 39); “[his] bees hoard heaps of honey in hives” (p. 49); and “nine nestlings nestle nightly in their nine nests” (p. 72). Once students have heard a few tongue twisters and get the idea of how to create them, they can concatenate cartons of crazy creations. They’re certain to tender ten or twenty tantalizing tongue-twisting, tantrum-taunting teasers. Another form of play with the sounds of words is spoonerisms, in which the initial sounds of two or more words are transposed, making two (or more) entirely new words (e.g., “May I sew you to another sheet?” instead of “May I show you to another seat?”). This sound-switching word play was unwittingly invented by educator and cleric William Archibald Spooner. He apparently inadvertently created many of them, such as the example given and “You have hissed all my mystery lectures.” You may find out more about Spooner and see many other spoonerisms (e.g., “As one frog said to another, “Time’s fun when you’re having flies.’”) in: • Lederer, Richard. (1996). Puns and Games: Jokes, Riddles, Tairy Fales, Rhymes, and More Word Play for Kids. Chicago: Chicago Review Press. Rhyme. Technically, of course, rhyme is just another form of aural repetition. Somehow, however, rhymes seem to evoke a pleasing magic to the human ear. Most classical and folk poems, especially those handed down through the oral tradition, use rhyme. They do so not only because of the delightful sound of rhyme, but also because rhyme aids us in remembering the next line in a narrative, song, or other verse. Usually, when we think of rhyme, we think of end rhyme (rhyming sounds at the end of a poetic line). Almost anything by Ogden Nash illustrates end rhyme, as does “The Bluffalo” by Jane Yolen on page 76 in Prelutsky’s For Laughing Out Loud, as you can see from it’s opening lines: “Oh, do not tease the Bluffalo / With quick-step or with shuffalo.” Another charmingly rhyming poem on the same page is “Is It Possicle?” by Marion Edey. Not all rhyme is end rhyme, however. For instance, on page 15 of Prelutsky’s anthology is a pair of lines from the middle of “Garbage Delight,” which have an internal rhyme (rhyming sounds within a poetic line): “I’m handy with candy. / I star with a bar.” The preceding examples illustrate perfect rhyme (also called full, complete, true, or exact rhymes), in which the final sounds are exactly the same, as in maybe and baby and pawed and odd. Most poets who write light verse or write for children use perfect rhyme. Sometimes, however, poets use off rhyme (also called half, near, imperfect, partial, or slant rhyme), in which the final sounds are similar, but not identical, as in Daddy, shabby, badly, and happy or in odd and ought. The prevalence of rhyme in the verses we repeat to one another generation after generation may be found in folk poetry, street rhymes (hand-clapping rhymes, ball-bounding rhymes, counting rhymes, game-playing rhymes, and insults), Mother Goose rhymes, and other traditional verses, countless examples of which you may find in the following books: • Cole, Joanna, & Stephanie Calmenson (Eds.). (1990). Miss Mary Mack and Other Children’s Street Rhymes. New York: A Beech Tree Paperback Book. (see especially the chapters, “Hand-Clapping Rhymes” [e.g., “Miss Mary Mack”], “Ball-Bouncing Rhymes” [e.g., “A. My Name is Alice”], “Counting-Out Rhymes” [e.g., “Eeny, Meeny, miney, Mo”], “Just-for-Fun Rhymes” [e.g. “It’s Raining, It’s Pouring”], and “Teases and Comebacks” [e.g., “Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire”]) • Fujikawa, Gyo (Ill.). (1968). Mother Goose. New York: Platt & Munk, Grosset & Dunlap. (verses, not songs, e.g., “This Little Pig”; “Hickory, Dickory, Dock”; “The Old Woman in a Shoe”; “Old Mother Goose”; “Wee Willie Winkie”; “The Cat and the Fiddle”) • Schwartz, Alvin. (1992). And the Green Grass Grew All Around: Folk Poetry from Everyone. New York: HarperTrophy, HarperCollins. (See the chapters, “People,” “Teases and Taunts,” “Nonsense”) In addition to these, many children’s books are written in rhymes. For a list of several children’s books that highlight rhythm and rhyme, see Appendix D: Poetic Verse Books. Two such books, illustrating traditional children’s rhymes, are: • Charlip, Remy, & Burton Supree. (1964). Mother Mother I Feel Sick, Send for the Doctor Quick Quick Quick. New York: Parents’ Magazine Press. • Christelow, Eileen. (1989). Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed. New York: Clarion Books, Houghton Mifflin. Putting It All Together. A poem that manages to incorporate almost every aspect of rhyming, alliterative, consonant, assonant, ear-tickling play with words is Joyce Armour’s “Icky,” from page 62 of Bruce Lansky’s (1991) anthology, Kids Pick the Funniest Poems (New york: Meadowbrook Press, Simon & Schuster): Icky by Joyce Armour Icky, sticky, slimy sludge, A greasy, gloppy, grimy smudge, Oozy, swampy puddle splatter, Gooey, gunky cookie batter. Dirty, filthy, mucky scum, Gluey, stringy, tacky gum, Meat and sauce from sloppy joes – Time, I guess, to change my clothes. Probably the easiest way for children to synthesize their learning about the sounds of words in poetry is to create piggyback songs, using familiar songs. In addition to the nursery-rhyme songs mentioned before, you may find a wealth of songs (words and music) in • Amery, Heather (Ed.). (1988). The Usborne Children’s Songbook. London: Usborne. (Some of the nursery songs therein are “Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush,” “If You’re Happy,” “Where, Oh Where has My Little Dog Gone?” “Ten in a Bed,” “Old Macdonald Had a Farm,” “Frere Jacques,” “Nick Nack Paddy Wack” [This Old Man], “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean,” “She’ll Be Coming Round the Mountain,” and “Froggie Went A-Courting.”) Movement We usually think of music and dance as natural companions, but most forms of movement actually follow a rhythmic pattern. We “hit our stride,” march, gallop, jog, and skip in rhythm. Even an infant’s crawling seems to express a natural internal rhythm. Perhaps because of the beating of our hearts and our rhythmic inspiration and expiration, whenever we move our bodies gracefully through space, we do so in rhythmic patterns. Hence, movement and poetry, too, are natural companions. The next poem we explore is a free-verse poem that truly celebrates movement. “Celebrate,” by me (Michael Strickland), may be found on page 39 in My Own Song and Other Poems to Groove To. In free verse, the poem’s rhythm pattern is informal (i.e., not metrical). (In the subsequent “Drama” section, we discuss exploring free verse with your students.) Advance Preparation. Use sentence strips to write out the poem, using separate words for each verb and each body-part noun. Have available additional blank sentence strips, a felt pen, and a large double-wide pocket chart on which to display the strips. Celebrate by Michael R. Strickland and dance. Raise Ring your hands chimes and bells. Wiggle Prance your fingers. about and Jump right up, sing. and let go! Spread Raise your joy your voice and to the world. clap to a beat. It’s time to Beam raise a smile your hands. Shout Introduce the Poem. Display the poem in a pocket chart. Read the poem aloud to the children one time through. Have the children stand up and choral-read the poem with you, moving as the poem dictates. Encourage them to participate in reading and acting out the poem as they are moved to do so. Modify the Poem. Have the children sit down again, and as a class, come up with alternative verbs to substitute in the poem. Write the students’ suggestions on the blank sentence strips, and insert them in the places the students choose. For instance, “Flash / a smile” or “Hop right up” or “wave / your hands.” After the students have explored the verbs sufficiently, ask for suggestions for changing the body parts to move (e.g., “Raise your elbows” or “Wiggle / your knees”). As a group, settle on a version of the poem that the students like. Read that version aloud with the students, as they act it out. Create a Poem. Use a chalkboard, whiteboard, or wall chart for writing a new movement poem, as a class. Encourage students to be creative in their choices of movements. As a group, read this new poem, and act it out. Enjoy additional movement poems. Share additional movement-inspired and –inspriring poems with your students. In my (Michael’s) Poems That Sing to You, you may find the following poems: “Russian Dance,” by Ogden Nash (p. 3), “Dry and Parched” by Alonzo Lopez (p. 4), “Celebration” by Alonzo Lopez (p. 4), “dance poem” by Nikki Giovanni (p. 5), and “Dancing in the Street” by William Stevenson, Marvin Gaye, and Ivy Hunter (pp. 2-3). John Ciardi has two delightful movement poems in his (1989) The Hopeful Trout and Other Limericks (Boston: Houghton Mifflin): “Stop Squirming!” (p. 20) and “Willis C. Sick” (p. 39). A couple other movement poems your students may enjoy are: • “S-T-R-E-T-C-H-I-N-G” by Sharon Cheeks (on p. 50, in Michael Rosen, Ed., 1985/1993, The Kingfisher Book of Children’s Poetry, New York: Kingfisher Books, Grisewood & Dempsey) • “Funky Snowman” by Calef Brown (4th poem in Brown’s 1998 collection, Polka-Bats and Octopus Slacks: 14 Stories. New York: Houghton Mifflin) A few other books include numerous movement-related poems: • Schwartz, Alvin. (1992). And The Green Grass Grew All Around: Folk Poetry from Everyone (the “Fun and Games” chapter). New York: HarperTrophy, HarperCollins. • Cole, Joanna (Ed.). (1989). Anna-Banana: 101 Jump-Rope Rhymes (e.g., “A Sailor Went To Sea, Sea, Sea”; “Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, Turn Around”; “Keep the Kettle Boiling”). New York: Scholastic, by arrangement with William Morrow. • Strickland, Michael, My Own Song and Other Poems to Groove to. For still more music and dance poems, see these songbooks: Amery’s (1988) The Usborne Children’s Songbook (traditional nursery rhymes with music for tunes: “London Bridge is Falling Down,” “Pop Goes the Weasel”); Goode’s (1989/1996) The Diane Goode Book of American Folk Tales & Songs; Hudson and Hudson’s (1995) How Sweet the Sound: African-American Songs for Children; and Schon’s (1983) Dona Blanca and Other Hispanic Nursery Rhymes and Games. Your students may also enjoy reading “[Every Time I Climb a Tree]” by David McCord (on p. 4 in Cullinan’s 1996 anthology, A Jar of Tiny Stars). It’s not really a movement poem, but it poetically exults in the joy of climbing a tree. If movement truly moves you, try also reading aloud and moving along with these two movement-inspired storybooks: • Bond, Felicia. (1996). Tumble Bumble. New York: Scholastic. (an accumulating gathering of animals move, zig, zag, tumble, and bumble) • Westcott, Nadine Bernard. (1989). Skip to My Lou. New York: Scholastic, by arrangement with Little, Brown. (comical adaptation of the delightful folk song) Drama Immersion Through movement, we naturally express our emotions, telling a story with our bodies and our facial expressions. When you hear that Maricela stamped her feet or Kareem pounded his fist, you can guess their emotions. If you see Juliet tiptoe hastily away from them, you can imagine how she feels, too. Later, if you see Ivan spontaneously jump up and down, thrusting his open palms into the air over his head, and Bernadette clap her hands rapidly, while she skips lightly toward him, you may wonder what led to their actions, but you’re pretty sure of how they feel about it. In each of these situations, if you could also observe each person’s facial expressions and hear the intonations of their voices, you would have an even clearer idea of how they felt. The poem “Moon of Popping Trees” by Joseph Bruchac and Jonathan London evokes powerful emotions, which lead naturally to dramatic expression. You may find the poem in my (Michael’s) (1997) anthology, My Own Song and Other Poems to Groove to. Advance Preparation. Make copies of the accompanying worksheet for each student, and copy the poem “Moon of Popping Trees” onto a wall chart. On a chalkboard or on a second wall chart, make two columns. At the top of the left column, write “Frost Giant”; to head the right column, write “Coyote.” Insert worksheet “the moon of popping trees” about here Introduce the Poem. Read the poem aloud once to the children, pointing to the words on the wall chart. Ask questions to extend your students’ understanding of the poem. • Language questions. Work with your students to clarify the meaning of any words with which they may not be familiar (e.g., “lodge,” “cottonwoods,” “buffalo robes”). • Viewpoint or empathy questions. Read the poem aloud to your students a second time, and encourage them to describe what they imagine that the Frost Giant looks and acts like. Record their responses on the chalkboard or wall chart. Next, ask them to do the same for the Coyote. Invite them to think about how the people and the children in the buffalo robes feel when they hear the Frost Giant. How do they feel when they are staying inside near the bright fire, in their warm buffalo robes? • Poem structure questions. Reinforce the concept of free verse, in which the poem’s rhythm pattern is informal (i.e., not metrical). Choral-read the poem with your students, pointing to the words on the wall chart, and emphasizing the natural pauses at the line breaks. Act out the poem. Choral-read the poem again, encouraging your students to act out the parts of the Frost Giant and the cottonwoods (fake hitting only, please), the people hiding, the Coyote, and the children in their buffalo robes. For a fifth reading, invite small groups of children to role-play the parts in the poem as a drama, and have the remaining students do choral reading of the poem. Encourage students to engage in dramatic expression of poetry. Distribute the accompanying worksheet for the poem, and have your students complete it. Exploration Our earliest records of poetry involve narrative poems, poems that tell stories. In the Western literary tradition, two of the earliest poems we cherish are Homer’s narratives The Iliad and The Odyssey, both of which are ballads, narrative poems designed to be sung. Some narrative poems lend themselves to dramatic portrayals, and all of them lend themselves to dramatic readings. In our country, some of the most captivating narratives are poems about famous Americans. Following are a few narrative poems your students may enjoy: • “Washington” by Nancy Byrd Taylor (p. 39), “Lincoln” by Nancy Byrd Taylor (p. 37), and “Martin Luther King” by Lilian Moore (p. 37) in Jack Prelutsky’s (1983) anthology, The Random House Book of Poetry for Children, New York: Random House. • “Sojourner Truth” by Robert Hayden (p. C) in Ashley Bryan’s (1997) anthology, Ashley Bryan’s ABC of African American Poetry, New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, Simon & Schuster • “Harriet Tubman” by Eloise Greenfield (p. 23) in Wade Hudson’s (1993) anthology Pass It On: African-American Poetry for Children, New York: Scholastic • “To Meet Mr. Lincoln” by Eve Merriam (p. 76) in Beatrice Schenk de Regniers’s (1969) anthology, Poems Children Will Sit Still for: A Selection for the Primary Grades, New York: Scholastic • “Paul Revere’s Ride” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (p. 45) in Donald Hall’s (1985) anthology, The Oxford Book of Children’s Verse in America, New York: Oxford University Press. • “Forgetful Paul Revere” by Shel Silverstein (p. 122) in his (1996) collection, Falling Up: Poems and Drawings of Shel Silverstein, New York: HarperCollins. • “The Funeral of Martin Luther King” by Nikki Giovanni (p. 68) in Virginia Seeley’s (1993) anthology, African American Poetry, Paramus, NJ: Globe Book Company, Division of Simon and Schuster In addition, they may enjoy a few poems that respond to literary narratives: • “The Blind Men and the Elephant” by John Godfrey Saxe (pp. 82-83, in Hall’s 1985 anthology, The Oxford Book of Children’s Verse in America) • “Interview” [with Cinderella’s stepmother] by Sara Henderson Hay (p. 137, in Eileen Thompson’s 1987 anthology, Experiencing Poetry, New York: Globe Book Company) • “Paul Bunyan” by Shel Silverstein (pp. 124-125, in his Where the Sidewalk Ends) Other narrative poems include “Captain Kidd” and “Nancy Hanks,” by Rosemary and Stephen Vincent Benet (in Maria Backus’s 1997 Reading and Writing Poetry: Poem Selections and Activities, Torrence, CA: Good Apple, Frank Schaffer Publications). Almost any poems by Robert Service are narratives, and “Casey at the Bat,” by Ernest Lawrence Thayer, may be one of the most famous fictional narrative poems in America. Among the 25 copies of the narrative listed in Amazon.com, a charmingly illustrated (by Patricia Polacco) version may be found in: • Thayer, Ernest Lawrence. (1888/1997). Casey at the Bat: A Ballad of the Republic, Sung in the Year 1888, published by Paper Star. Visual Arts The connections among music, movement, drama, and poems may be more readily apparent than the connection between poetry and the visual arts. The link exists nonetheless. In fact, if you think about what distinguishes poetry from prose, two features stand out: Poems, with their distinctive line breaks, appear different from prose on the page; and poems much more intently and frequently focus on imagery, especially visual images. The Chinese acknowledge this relationship between visual imagery and poetry in their proverb (quoted in Berry, 1995, p. 215): There are pictures in poems and poems in pictures. Regarding line breaks, metrical poems have obvious, predictable breaks, which appear as a formalized pattern on the page. The line breaks in free verse are less predictable, and the poet has much more flexibility in choosing where to break each line. Usually, the poet chooses where to break the line in order to create pauses in the flow of the poem or to add emphasis to particular words or phrases within the poem. For instance, in “Moon of Popping Trees,” the authors use line breaks to guide the reader toward natural pauses in the flow of reading the poetry, and they place “magic song,” on a separate line, to give it emphasis. Exploring Visual Imagery The notions of line breaks and of visually presenting the poem on the page are concrete and easy to grasp. (There is such a thing as a prose poem, which most adults can’t readily distinguish from prose, so I see no need for your students to learn to do so.) The notion of visual imagery, however, is more abstract and difficult to grasp. One way in which to introduce the idea of visual imagery is to explore figures of speech. An excellent resource suited to children’s exploration is • Terban, Marvin. (1993). It Figures! Fun Figures of Speech. New York: Clarion Books. In it, Terban cites numerous similes, in which the writer compares (finds the similarities between) two different things, using the words “like” or “as.” For instance, Terban mentions “as snug as a bug in a rug” (by Benjamin Franklin; p. 11), “moves like a snail” (p. 12), “works like a horse” (p. 12), and “quiet as a mouse” (p. 13). Whereas similes make comparisons using the word “like” or “as,” metaphors make those comparisons more directly, without specifying the similarity (e.g., “she’s a real bear when you first wake her up, but she’s a teddy bear the rest of the time”). (Terban also offers satisfyingly clear explanations of onomatopoeia, alliteration, and hyperbole.) Although Terban cites quite a few metaphors in his It Figures book, you can find many more in his (1996) Scholastic Dictionary of Idioms, New York: Scholastic. In his dictionary, Terban explores both the meanings and the origins of idioms, proverbs, and clichés. Most of these are excellent examples of metaphors, such as “[your] bark is worse than your bite”; “birds of a feather flock together”; to have “butterflies in your stomach”; you can “catch more flies with honey than with vinegar”; “clam up”; and “don’t count your chickens before they hatch.” On a series of posters or wall charts to which you can add over time, work with your students to develop a class resource for similes and metaphors. On one of the posters, on the left side of the poster, develop a list of verbs (e.g., sings, walks, runs, hops, jumps, gallops, slides, slithers), and on the right, jot down your students’ brainstorms regarding the metaphorical (or simile) comparative. Prompt them by using the phrase, “like,” as in “[sings] like [a nightingale].” On another occasion, develop your list using adjectives (e.g., lazy, angry, green, speedy, slow, goofy). Prompt them by using the phrase, “as… as a,” as in “as [speedy] as a [child going to recess].” You and your students can use this cumulative figure-of-speech resource for any of your poetry work, as well as for other literary and writing activities. One more way of making comparisons to evoke powerful mental images is personification, in which we impart to inanimate objects the characteristics (and thoughts, feelings, etc.) of human beings. For instance, “The camera loves Denzel Washington,” “This computer is thinking slowly today,” “My car knows the way home from here,” and “Your vacuum cleaner is just barely clinging to life.” The good news is that young children often personify inanimate objects without giving it any thought. That is, they often find it difficult to distinguish between being animated and having thoughts, feelings, and intentions. (Developmental psychologists refer to this as “animism.”) Hence, with just a little encouragement, they can usually come up with vivid examples of personification. It may take a little more work, however, to help them see the difference between using it as a literary device and actually perceiving that inanimate objects have human characteristics. You may find several examples of poems employing personification (i.e., “The Musical Lion,” by Oliver Herford; “Under a Telephone Wire” and “Proud Words,” by Carl Sandburg; “The Puzzled Centipede” and “Alas, Alack,” by Walter de la Mare; “Daffadowndilly,” by Mother Goose; and “Dreams,” by Langston Hughes) in • Backus, Maria. (1997). Reading and Writing Poetry: Poem Selections and Activities. Torrance, CA: Good Apple, Frank Schaffer Publications. Exploring Visual Expression In addition to offering visual imagery, poems evoke sensations through audition, touch, smell, and even taste – as well as our more subtle senses (such as the sensations we experience through our inner ear and within our muscles, tendons, and ligaments). It’s beyond the scope of this book to delve into each of these senses, as expressed through poetry. We addressed the auditory sense at the beginning of this chapter, and here, we focus on just one aspect of our visual sense: Color. Extend Knowledge Across the Curriculum. First of all, you will probably need to open up your children’s views of art. Most children, from an early age, are given coloring books, craft kits, prepackaged art materials, and other so-called art experiences that restrict their ability to express themselves artistically. An excellent poem to stimulate children to think about drawing creatively, instead of in coloring books is • “Auntie and Uncle” by John Hegley (p. 92, in Michael Rosen’s 1985/1993 anthology, The Kingfisher Book of Children’s Poetry. New York: Kingfisher Books, Grisewood & Dempsey) A delightfully whimsical set of poems and illustrations to further stimulate openness may be found in Calef Brown’s (1998) Polka-Bats and Octopus Slacks: 14 Stories (New York: Houghton Mifflin). In particular, the following two poems highlight color: “Ed” (3rd poem) and “Clementown” (9th poem). Encourage your students to respond graphically to these and other poems that delight in the sensory world. If you think your students may be particularly resistant to free exploration, provide them with large (11” x 17”) sheets of newsprint and chalk or pastels or crayons that have had their paper wrappers removed, then ask them to close their eyes while they draw their responses to the poems. Science. Experiment with color diffusion and with primary colors. Follow the procedure as described on the learning-center task card, “Color Changes.” Learning-Center Task Card, “Color Changes” Objective Observe how food dye diffuses through cold versus hot water, and observe how the primary colors combine to make secondary colors. Materials • 12 heat-resistant transparent plastic or glass containers that will hold at least 4 ounces of liquid • tray of ice • baking pan containing hot (from the faucet, not scalding) water • 12 ounces of cold water • 12 ounces of hot (not scalding) water • liquid measuring cup • blue, red, and yellow food coloring • (optional: flour, salt, and dough, to make playdough) • (optional: cornstarch, to make gooey mixture) Directions 1. Prepare a wall chart on which to record the speed with which the dye diffused through the water: In which temperature of water does dye mix the fastest? Hot water Cold water Blue dye Yellow dye Red dye 2. Set 3 of the containers in a tray of ice, and pour 4 ounces of cold water into each container. 3. Pour 4 ounces of hot (not scalding) water into 3 other containers as you place them in the pan of hot water. 4. Drip 4 drops of blue food coloring into 1 of the containers of cold water, then drip 4 more drops into 1 of the containers of hot water. Repeat this process for yellow food coloring and for red food coloring. Try not to jostle the containers, and watch how long it takes for the color to diffuse in each of the containers. Record the order in which the dye diffused throughout the water in each of the containers. Invite your students to guess whether diffusion is affected more by the color of the dye or by the temperature of the water. 5. Invite your students to guess what will happen when the water colors are mixed, asking them specifically about each combination of primary colors. Once all of the dye has diffused throughout all of the containers, test their predictions. Use the liquid-measuring cup to measure 2 ounces of blue and 3 ounces of yellow, and pour them into one of the remaining containers. Next, measure 2 ounces of red and 3 ounces of yellow, and pour them into another empty container. Finally, measure 2 ounces of blue and 2 ounces of red, and pour them into the last container. What happened? Were their predictions confirmed? 6. You should now have 5 ounces each of green water and of orange water; 4 ounces each of red, of blue, and of purple water; and 2 ounces of yellow water. You can now use the colored water to create mixtures for tactile exploration. Use the three secondary colors as the liquid for making three colors of play dough, by adding salt, flour, and oil. Empty out the tray of ice, and pour the blue water into it. Add cornstarch to the water until it’s a gloopy, slurpy mixture to set out for your students to experience tactilely. Pour out the hot water from the pan, and pour the red water into it. Again, add cornstarch until the consistency is delightfully gloppy. Add more cornstarch to the 2-ounce container of yellow water. 7. Enjoy! Social Studies, Music, and Movement. Dance paintings: Post butcher paper along an entire wall of the classroom (or as much of it as possible). Place newspapers all along the floor beneath the butcher paper, using masking tape to hold it in place. Gather various kinds of music (e.g., classical such as Mozart, Bach, Tchaikovsky; jazz such as Dave Brubeck, Duke Ellington; blues such as Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday; contemporary gospel such as Sweet Honey In The Rock) to play on an audiocassette or CD player. Add a little water or liquid starch to tempera paint in each of the primary colors, as well as black, so that the paint is thin but not overly drippy. Place small amounts of the paint in containers such as individual-portion milk cartons. Put a primary-size paintbrush in each container. Invite groups of four students to paint on the butcher paper, and play various selections of music as they do so. Encourage them to make large, sweeping movements to the music. They need not attempt to paint any representational pictures, but rather to move their bodies as they feel the music, swirling and swishing the paint, mixing their own colors into their neighbors’ colors as they do so. If you think they will trade colors cooperatively, encourage them to do so. Facilitate their noticing the effects of colors mixing into one another (e.g., blue + yellow = green, red + blue = purple, black + red = dark red). Literature. Read books about colors, such as the following verse book: • Rosetti, Christina G. (1963). What Is Pink? New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Other books featuring colors include these: • Johnson, Crockett. (1955). Harold and the Purple Crayon. New York: HarperCollins. (Spanish version: Harold y el Lapiz de Color Morado.) • Lionni, Leo. (1975). A Color of His Own. New York: Scholastic. • McGovern, Ann. (1969). Black is Beautiful. New York: Four Winds Press, StarLine Edition, Scholastic. • Tison, Annette, & Talus Taylor. (1971). The Adventures of the Three Colors. New York: World Publishing. Additional poems on colors may be found in almost any poetry book, such as the poems on blackness in Adoff’s (1974/1994) My Black Me: A Beginning Book of Black Poetry (New York: Puffin, Penguin) and in poems by Adoff on pages 54-55, 57, in Cullinan’s (1996) A Jar of Tiny Stars: Poems by NCTE Award-winning Poets (Honesdale, PA: Wordsong, Boyds Mills Press). Math. At a learning center, offer various math manipulatives highlighting color patterns, such as colored beads and string, colored cubes, and colored parquetry and pattern blocks. You may also provide your students with sheets of construction paper in the same colors as the parquetry or cubes, onto which they may trace the shapes, cut them out, and create collages or paper mosaics. Experimenting with Visual Imagery Work together as a class to create poetry that highlights visual imagery. For instance, try writing a poem personifying an inanimate object (e.g., a book), a realistic or fantastic animal (e.g., a bookworm), or an idea (e.g., homework). In doing so, you may create poems that exult in sensory images, using highly accessible formats such as list poems or free-verse poems. Encourage your students to illustrate the poems they create, exploring various visual-art media (watercolor paints, crayons, felt pens, collages, etc.). Literature and Language Immersion: Books, Poems, Words Earlier in this chapter, we highlighted narrative poems and other poems directly tied to literature. In addition, numerous poets have written about literature, about books, and about speaking, reading, writing, and listening to language. Following is just a sampling of the many poems about books, poems, and reading: • In his (1994) Bing Bang Boing (New York: Puffin/Penguin), Douglas Florian includes his poems “Pages” (p. 8), “Book Crooks” (p. 8), “Mr. Cook” (p. 9), and “Book Schnook” (p. 102). • In Eileen Thompson’s (1987) anthology Experiencing Poetry (New York: Globe Book Company), she includes “Pocket Poem” by Ted Kooser (p. 56) and “Surprise” by Beverly McLoughland (p. 25). • In Donald Hall’s (1985) anthology The Oxford Book of Children’s Verse in America (New York: Oxford University Press), he includes “There Is No Frigate Like a Book” by Emily Dickinson (p. 110), “Books Fall Open” by David McCord (pp. 241-242), and “The Letters at School” by Mary Mapes Dodge (p. 113). • In Cullinan’s (1996) A Jar of Tiny Stars: Poems by NCTE Award-Winning Poets (Honesdale, PA: Wordsong, Boyds Mills Press), she includes “I Have a Book” by David McCord (p. 7) and “How to Eat a Poem” by Eve Merriam (p. 34). • In Michael Rosen’s (1985/1993) anthology The Kingfisher Book of Children’s Poetry (New York: Kingfisher Books, Grisewood & Dempsey), he includes “Think Carefully before Reading This” by Andrew Darlington (p. 56). • In Judith Viorst’s (1981) collection If I Were in Charge of the World and Other Worries: Poems for Children and Their Parents (New York: Aladdin Books, Macmillan), she includes “My – Oh Wow! – Book” (p. 55). A few of the many poems written about writing are: • “Writing” by Jan Dean (in Rosen’s Kingfisher Book of Children’s Poetry, p. 58) • “Writer Waiting” by Shel Silverstein (in his Falling Up, p. 58) • In Elizabeth Hauge Sword and Victoria Flournoy McCarthy’s (1995) A Child’s Anthology of Poetry (Hopewell, NJ: Ecco Press), they include “Freedom” by Wimal Dissanayake (p. 82) and “Looking for Poetry” by Carlos Drummond de Andrade (trans: mark Strand) (pp. 66-67). Poems about punctuation include “Commas” by Douglas Florian (in his Bing Bang Boing, p. 100) and “Private? No!” by Willard R. Espy (in Rosen’s Kingfisher Book of Children’s Poetry, p. 78). Poems about words, word origins, and languages include: • Two poems in Beatrice Schenk de Regniers’s (1988) anthology Sing a Song of Popcorn: Every Child’s Book of Poems (New York: Scholastic) – “Where Do These Words Come From?” by Charlotte Pomerantz (p. 11) and “Lulu, Lulu, I’ve a Lilo” by Charlotte Pomerantz (p. 11) • “Bituminous?” by Shel Silverstein (in his Falling Up, p. 134) • “What’s Its Name?” by Willard R. Espy (in Rosen’s Kingfisher Book of Children’s Poetry, p. 78) • “Quiddling with Words” by Kristine O’Connell George in her (1997) collection, The Great Frog Race and Other Poems, New York: Scholastic, by arrangement with Clarion Books, Houghton Mifflin • Numerous poems on poetry and language in Paul Janeczko’s anthologies (1981) Don’t Forget to Fly: A Cycle of Modern Poems; (1985) Pocket Poems Selected for a Journey; and (1983) Poetspeak: In Their Work, About Their Work (all published in New York by Bradbury Press) Exploration: Enriching Your Poetry Repertoire Another way in which to explore poetry and literature is to study poetry as a distinctive form of literature. In this regard, you and your students may enjoy plunging into various types of poetry. If any of these types of poems don’t sing to you and your students, however, don’t force yourselves to endure them just for the sake of doing so. In addition to the poetry forms mentioned elsewhere in this book, a few pattern poems you might enjoy investigating are the triolet, the tercet, the sonnet, the clerihew, the cinquain, and the diamante. A triolet is an eight-lined poem (or stanza) that rhymes abaaabab, in which the fourth line repeats the first line, and the seventh and eighth lines repeat the first two lines. The lines are usually short, and the poet is not limited as to meter. Often, the repeated lines pose an alternative view of the expression, perhaps changing the punctuation or emphasis to change the meaning. Shari Hatch (need citation) wrote the following triolet expressing her fondest wishes: I wish I had a million books To skim, to scan, to hold, to read I’d like their feel, I’d like their looks I wish I had a million books I’d read in crannies and in nooks A million books are what I need I wish I had a million books To skim, to scan, to hold, to read A less common form is the tercet (also called “triplet”), a stanza (or poem) of three lines, rhyming aaa or aba (or sometimes even abb). A more complex form is a repeating rhyming scheme, known as the terza rima, which rhymes aba bcb cdc. For an example of a tercet, see “The Toucan” by Shel Silverstein (p. 92) in his 1974 book, Where the Sidewalk Ends: Poems and Drawings of Shel Silverstein (New York: Harper & Row). A sonnet is a 14-line poem comprising first an octet (also called “octave”), which usually rhymes abbaabba (or sometimes abbaacca), and second a sestet that usually rhymes cdecde but may have some other pattern. Shakespearean sonnets rhyme ababcdce efefgg. Generally, the octet poses a question or a point of view, to which the sestet responds. Most volumes of classical poetry include some Shakespearean sonnets, such as his famous sonnet beginning, “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” A clerihew is a quatrain comprising two couplets (aabb). The first line of the first couplet is (or ends with) a person’s name (usually a celebrity), and the remainder of the poem humorously tells something about the person. For instance, the poet for whom the form is named, Edmund Clerihew Bentley, wrote this about some fellow writers: Edgar Allan Poe Was passionately fond of roe He always liked to chew some When writing anything gruesome. Daniel Defoe Lived a long time ago. He had nothing to do so He wrote Robinson Crusoe. The people of Spain think Cervantes Equal to half-a-dozen Dantes: An opinion resented most bitterly By the people of Italy. As the last example shows, the clerihew’s rhythm and rhyme schemes are not always precise, thereby allowing poets more flexibility in constructing this type of poem. (The first clerihew here is quoted from p. 39 of Paul B. Janeczko’s 1988 curriculum book, Favorite Poetry Lessons, New York: Scholastic Professional Books; the second is quoted from p. 51 of Michael Rosen’s 1985/1993 anthology The Kingfisher Book of Children’s Poetry, New York: Kingfisher Books, Grisewood & Dempsey; and the third is from “clerihew” in Merriam-Webster, 1995, Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature, Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster.) For each of the preceding types of poetry, you may want simply to introduce them for your students’ reading pleasure, rather than attempt to have them write their own at this stage of their literary experience. Two other types of poetry are much more accessible to young readers and readily lend themselves to students’ attempts to write their own: the cinquain and the diamante. A cinquain has five lines: The first line has two syllables (and introduces the topic), the second has four syllables (and describes the topic), the middle line has six syllables (and introduces an action as a phrase or as verb participles – ending in –ed or –ing), the fourth line has eight syllables (and expresses a feeling), and the final line has two syllables (and repeats the topic, using a synonym for the first line). “On Being Introduced to You,” by Eve Merriam (on p. 58 in Thompson’s Experiencing Poetry) illustrates the cinquain. Here’s another example Shari Hatch (need citation) jotted down: Painting Swirls of color Swishing, swooshing, sploshing Joyously swoop across the page Art – work? If counting syllables may be too difficult for your students, you may prefer a simplified version of the cinquain: Line 1 is a one-word noun introducing the topic; line 2 is two adjectives describing it; line 3 is a set of three verbs or verb participles; line 4 is any four-word phrase or sentence; line 5 is a noun repeating the topic, usually a synonym or equivalent to the topic. (If you are using the preceding poem as an example, change the first line to “Brushstrokes,” change the second line to “Purple, yellow,” and change the last line to “Painting.”) An even simpler form is one word, two words, three words, four words, and one word, with no further specifications. For a little more challenge, a related poem form is the lantern poem, with one syllable, then two syllables, then three syllables, four syllables, and one syllable. A diamante is a seven-line poem in which line 1 is a noun (introducing the topic), line 2 is two adjectives, line 3 is the three verb participles; the middle line (4) is four words, line 5 is three more verbs or verb participles, line 6 is two more adjectives, and line 7 is a noun. In one type of diamante, the entire poem describes a single theme, and line 7 is a synonym for line 1. The more typical version involves two apparent opposites; in this version, line 4 includes two adjectives for the original topic, then two adjectives for its opposite; lines 2 and 3 describe the original topic, and lines 5 and 6 describe its opposite; line 7 states the opposing topic. Following is an example Shari Hatch (needs citation) wrote using the alternative type of diamante: Sad Heartsick, tearful Bawling, weeping, crying Need hugs, Give hugs Smiling, cheering, laughing Joyous, blissful Glad By using the opposites form of the diamante, you can help children develop key concepts, such as seasons (summer/winter) or temperature (hot/cold). You can also use diamantes to highlight contrasts that aren’t truly opposites, such as animals (birds/reptiles) or transportation (boats/planes) or seasons (spring/summer). Both the cinquain and the diamante are very child-friendly poetry formats, for at least three reasons: (1) Unlike pomes that require a particular meter and rhyme, these poem formats allow lots of flexibility in word choice, so even children with limited vocabularies can feel successful rather easily; (2) they offer a definite focus on a topic, so children don’t ramble and stray afield; and (3) they provide a clear structure, guiding children in what kinds of words to choose next, and when to end the poem. For young poets, an even simpler variant of these poetry types is a pyramid poem, comprising three to nine lines, with the first line being just one word, and each subsequent line having one additional word (so that line 7, e.g., comprises seven words). For additional poetry types and formats, please see Appendix E: Types of Poetry. Experimenting with Word Play: Riddles and Puns Poetry is, essentially, a way of playing with words. We should mention a couple more ways in which to delight your students with the ways of words: riddles and puns. A delightful series of verse riddles is Eve Merriam’s “What in the World?” on pages 63-64 of de Regnier’s Sing a Song of Popcorn. In addition, penguinophile Judy Sierra includes quite a few “Predator Riddles” in her Antarctic Antics. Michael Rosen’s Kingfisher Book of Children’s Poetry also includes numerous animal and other riddles on pages 230-233 (e.g., riddles by J.R.R. Tolkien, by Kevin Crossley-Holland, and by Ian Serraillier). Another riddle-ish poem is: • “Foolish Questions” an American folk rhyme adapted by Willaim Cole (p. 89 in Bruce Lansky’s 1991 anthology, Kids Pick the Funniest Poems, New York: Meadowbrook Press, Simon & Schuster) Several books are dedicated entirely to riddles, such as these: • Cole, Joanna, & Stephanie Calmenson (Ed.). (1994). Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road? And Other Riddles Old and New. New York: Scholastic, by arrangement with William Morrow. (children’s riddles and jokes) • Lewis, J. Patrick. (1996). Riddle-icious. New York: Scholastic, by arrangment with Random house. (easy rhyming riddles, with illustrations that offer added hints) • Schwartz, Alvin. (1992). And the Green Grass Grew All Around: Folk Poetry from Everyone. New York: HarperTrophy, HarperCollins. (see the chapter “Riddles”) In addition, a great riddler for young and old readers is Richard Lederer. Your students will particularly enjoy reading some of his word-playful writing in • Lederer, Richard. (1996). Puns and Games: Jokes, Riddles, Tairy Fales, Rhymes, and More Word Play for Kids. Chicago: Chicago Review Press. Lederer’s word play includes “What’s the difference?” riddles (e.g., “What’s the difference between a sprinting feline and a clever rodent?” [a running cat and a cunning rat]). He also relates knock-knock jokes and puns to homographs (words that are spelled alike but have different meanings) and homophones (words that sound alike but have different meanings), and he tells “furry tells” (punish fairy tales) and “noisier rams” (punny nursery rhymes). He even makes up punish “daffynitions” for words, such as the one for alarms: “What an octopus is.” In addition, Lederer incites students to enjoy adverbs with numerous “Tom Swiftly” jokes (e.g., “’I love pancakes,’ said Tom flippantly” and “’Fire!’ cried Tom alarmingly”). The Tom Swiftly jokes are relatively easy to create as a class activity, and they’re terrific for reinforcing the idea of adverbs. As a class, you and your students may also enjoy writing “Sneaky Metaphor” poems. The type of poem isn’t’ the key – a cinquain, diamante, quatrain, or other simple poetry form will work just fine – the key is to describe the topic using vivid metaphors, then to end the poem by giving the true name of the topic. For instance: I creep o’er the land on my little cat feet I cover the ground with a gray flannel sheet I hide your hand in front of your face You’re so confused you can’t find your place Fog Another type of riddle is often called “Terse Verse” because the answer to each riddle’s question is a rhyming adjective and noun. A few Shari Hatch (need citation) came up with are “What do you call a G.I. Joe doll’s son? A toy boy.” “What do you call a Barbie that’s 7 feet high? A tall doll.” “What do you call a cranky taxi driver? A crabby cabby.” “What do you call a wet puppy? A soggy doggy.” “What hangs next to the tub in a turkey’s bathroom? A fowl towel.” In addition, you may find dozens of them, such as “What is a library burglar? A book crook,” on page 285 (where they are called “Hink Pinks” in List 104) in • Fry, Edward Bernard, Jacqueline E. Kress, & Dona Lee Fountoukidis. (1993). The Reading Teacher’s Book of Lists (3rd ed.). West Nyack, NY: The Center for Applied Research in Education, Prentice Hall, Simon & Schuster. Terse verse is particularly easy for children to create. To do so, however, you start backwards: Using your imagination – or a good rhyming dictionary – come up with a rhyming adjective/noun pair. Next, make up a question that will elicit that answer, being careful not to use words in the question that appear in the answer. (For instance, it’s not okay to ask, “What would you call a boy doll? A boy toy.”) Here’s one more, which we hope applies to what you have found herein. What do you call reading material that catches your interest and gets you to peer inside it? A hook look book. Appendix A: Animal-Related Curriculum Appendix B gives a smattering of the abundant variety of animal poems children enjoy. Of these, haiku poems are particularly appealing and accessible to young student poets who seek to describe these animals. Haiku poems are unrhymed three-line poems in which the first line has five syllables, the second has seven, and the third has five syllables again. The original Japanese form focused almost entirely on nature, although more contemporary, American haiku poems often address a multitude of topics and themes. (Some poet purists consider only nature-oriented poems to be haiku and call haiku-format poems about other themes and topics “senryu” poems.) In any case, creaking crickets, croaking toads, and roaring lions all fit nicely into the haiku scheme of things. Numerous haiku poems may be found in • Hill, Jeff. (ill.). (1960). Cherry Blossoms: Japanese Haiku Series III. Translations of poems by Basho, Buson, Issa, Shiki, and others. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. Among them are these animal-related haikus, which focus on the sounds animals make: by Wafu (p. 33) We hark to cricket and to human chirpings with ears so different by Issa (p. 23) Even with insects… some are hatched out musical… some, alas, tone-deaf According to Greta Lipson (1998), poet Jack Dollom created a contemporary variation of the haiku, called the lune. The lune, like the haiku, has three lines, but you count words, rather than syllables, to make the poem: The first and third lines have three words, and the second has five words. Going back in time, a Japanese form of poetry that is even older (dating back to about A.D. 800) and more elaborate than haiku is tanka poetry. Tanka poems comprise five lines, with the first and third lines having five syllables and the second, fourth, and fifth lines having seven syllables. Lipson suggests that tanka poems usually feature figurative, imagery-rich language such as simile, metaphor, and personification. If you decide to try tankas, you may want to flip to the creative arts chapter, where these figurative aspects of language are discussed in greater detail. Because animals have universal appeal for children, virtually every curriculum book ever written includes numerous ideas for tying animals into the early childhood curriculum. Following is just a brief sampling of a few cross-curricular ideas you may want to include in your zoology unit. Art. Use animal-shaped papers for art projects of every kind. The simplest and easiest is just to draw on the paper with felt pens or crayons. Collages are also relatively easy to implement (e.g., fish-shaped paper with tissue-paper half-circles, for making scaly collages; bird-shaped paper for feather collages). Prints are another way to go: Use animal-shaped sponges of various sizes, for use with tempera paints, perhaps even using animal-shaped paper for the sponge printing (e.g., on kangaroo-, mouse-, or bat-shaped paper). For a special occasion (e.g., Father’s Day, May Day), have your students make fish prints, using a thoroughly washed whole dead fish (often available for little or nothing from a fish market) and an oil-based ink or acrylic paint. If you print onto cloth (muslin’s still pretty inexpensive), rather than paper, you may end up with a gorgeous final product, suitable for gift giving. You and your students may also enjoy making paper-bag animal puppets. As an added benefit, the product of this labor can be used for dramatic play long into the future. If your class is highly motivated to make these, there are a few books dedicated solely to making an assortment of paper-bag puppets. If you’re not quite that interested, you can easily find some patterns in most craft books, and your children may also enjoy coming up with their own patterns. (Remind them that the key is to have the top of the mouth or snout on the top fold of the bag and the bottom part of the head beneath the fold.) If your students are ready for a little more challenging activity, origami animals can yield amazing results. Most origami paper comes with suggestions for making some animals, and there are numerous books illustrating myriad animals, from frogs to swans to beetles to kangaroos. A resource book that includes puppets, origami, and various other animal-related arts and crafts is • Ritter, Darlene. (1993). Multicultural Art Activities from the Cultures of Africa, Asia and North America, Grades 2-5. Cypress, CA: Creative Teaching Press. Music and Movement. Invite your students to play the game for “The Farmer in the Dell.” For a little variation, modify the verse to include zoo animals, singing “The Keeper at the Zoo.” Other animal-related songs include “B-I-N-G-O (the farmer’s dog),” “How Much Is That Doggie in the Window?” and “The Little White Duck.” In addition, your students may enjoy adding variations to “Eensy-Weensy Spider” (e.g., “The Huge, Monstrous Spider”), and they may relish suggesting alternative animals to “Mary Had a Little Lamb” (e.g., “Juana Had a Little Snake”). With a little prompting, your students may be quite creative in adapting familiar songs to animal themes. Literature. There is no shortage of delightful children’s books about animals. See “Appendix C: Animal Books,” for a few your students might enjoy. Be sure to include verse books when you’re looking for entertaining books about animals. Sandra Boynton has written numerous books highlighting animals in rhythmic, rhyming verse, such as her 1993 book Barnyard Dance and her 1984 book Moo, Baa, La La La (see Appendix C for publication information). Another poetic animal-related book is Alyssa Satin Capucilli’s 1995 book, Inside a Barn in the Country: A Rebus Read-Along Story (New York: Scholastic). If your students are enjoying an insect infestation of their minds – and ridiculously revolting rhymes won’t bug you – you might also enjoy Greenberg’s Bugs! Science. If possible, invite animal guests into your classroom, such as inexpensive fish (e.g., guppies, goldfish), mammals (e.g., mice, rats, hamsters, guinea pigs), reptiles (lizards, snakes), or amphibians (tadpoles, polliwogs, toads, frogs). If your classroom (or your lifestyle) won’t accommodate live animals spending days or weeks in your classroom, you may invite animal pets to visit. If live animals of any kind are out of the question, you may contact your local natural-history museum, to ask whether they have a school-loan program for animal taxidermic models. You may supplement these with some of the excellent animal-related videos available from the National Geographic Society or tape-recorded from television, such as Public Broadcasting System’s shows (e.g., Nature), Discovery Channel’s Ultimate Guide series and other nature shows, and almost anything on the Animal Planet channel. For animals that require very little supervision and care, you may want to consider spiders (bigger is often better, for children to see what they’re doing) or insects (e.g., crickets, ants, caterpillars). An excellent resource for delightful experiments with these creatures is • VanCleve, Janice. (1998). Janice VanCleve’s Insects and Spiders: Mind-Boggling Experiments You Can Turn into Science Fair Projects. New York: Scholastic, by arrangement with John Wiley and Sons. Social Studies. Set up a zoo or farm dramatic-play learning center, including animal puppets, animal costumes, and other toy animals. If your classroom does not readily accommodate such an area, add rubber, wooden, or plastic animals to your construction-materials (e.g., blocks) area. If you do not normally have available construction materials, add toy animals to your math-and-manipulatives learning center (where you have your puzzles and other manipulative materials). If your students are ready for more complex jigsaw puzzles, many educational-supply stores, science stores, and nature stores sell numerous excellent puzzles illustrating animals in their natural habitats, some of which even illustrate the animals’ life cycles and ecology. Mathematics. Invite your students to help you come up with some obvious taxonomic criteria for birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, insects, spiders, and other invertebrates. Write these criteria on the board (e.g., “feathers,” “fur,” “breathe underwater,” “have six legs,” “have eight legs,” “have no backbone”). Once you have established your criteria, invite your students to play “Twenty Questions.” Have each pair of students choose one animal and draw and name the animal they have chosen. Have each pair of students turn their animal drawings face down. Invite each pair to be the respondents to the 20 questions, then when the animal is guessed (or the questions run out), the students can show the correct answer. Encourage all the guessers to cooperatively come up with the most effective questions to ask. (You might want to play this game for brief periods over a series of days, so that you don’t exhaust the patience of your participants.) Extend your students’ appreciation of the animal they choose by inviting each student duo to create a haiku, lune, or tanka poem about their animal. Appendix B: Animal Poems Almost every poetry book written for children includes numerous poems about animals. In addition to the obvious sources often mentioned in this book (e.g., anthologies by Michael Rosen, anthologies and collections by Jack Prelutsky, and collections by Douglas Florian), you may want to pay special attention to collections by famous poets who have enjoyed writing poems much beloved by children, such as Ogden Nash (couplets and quatrains on kangaroos, turtles, bats, squids, octopuses, cuckoos, ostriches, asps, wasps, and myriad more), John Ciardi (e.g., poems about bears, tigers, and sharks), Theodore Roethke (e.g., poems about sloths, bats, donkeys, and cows), and Edward Lear. Lear wrote various kinds of poems about animals, but his specialty seemed to be limericks (introduced in the science chapter), and he wrote charming limericks on several rather whimsical subjects appealing to children. Following is just one example, in which Lear wrote about the predilections of tigers, found on page 45 of Greta Barclay Lipson’s (1998) Poetry Writing Handbook: Definitions, Examples, Lessons, Carthage, IL: Teaching & Learning Company: [Tiger limerick] by Edward Lear There Was a Young Lady of Niger Who smiled as she rode on a tiger; They returned from the ride With the lady inside, And the smile on the face of the tiger. Whatever animals interest you and your students, you are virtually certain to find some poet somewhere who has written captivatingly about them. For starters, see the 88 pages of child-delighting animal poems in Eric Carle’s 1989 anthology, Eric Carle’s Animals Animals, New York: Scholastic, Philomel Books, Putnam. Carle conveniently provides an index of animals from “Ant” to “Yak,” and he includes poems from such diverse sources as Australian aborigine, biblical Genesis, and Hungarian, Papago, and Pawnee sayings, as well as from such poets as Lewis Carroll, Emily Dickinson, Benjamin Franklin, Rudyard Kipling, D.H. Lawrence, Edward Lear, and William Shakespeare. Following is a more detailed listing of poems about specific animals (mammals, fish, birds, reptiles, amphibians, dinosaurs, insects, spiders, other invertebrates, and microscopic beasties). One other book deserves special mention: Jack Prelutsky’s (1983) The Random House Book of Poetry for Children, which includes two entire sections devoted to animals (“Dogs and Cats and Bears and Bats” and “The Way of Living Things”) and many other animal poems (e.g., “The Puffin” and “Clickbeetle”) in other sections. The source books mentioned here are listed by author or editor’s last name and year of publication. Complete publication information may be found in the bibliography at the end of this book. Animals: A Menagerie of Poems • “Jump or Jiggle” by Evelyn Beyer (in Rosen, 1993, p. 16) • “Busy Summer” by Aileen Fisher (in dePaola, 1988, p. 74) • “The Hunter” by Ogden Nash (Nash, 1931-1956/1962, p. 3) • “Rules to Live By” by Linda Knaus (in Lansky, 1991, pp. 94-95; what not to do with animals) Animals: Mammals • “What Did You Learn at the Zoo” by John Ciardi (Ciardi, 1962, p. 54) • “The Bat” by Randall Jarrell (In Hall, 1985, pp. 259-260; in Sword & McCarthy, 1995, p. 132) • “The Bat” by Ogden Nash (Nash, 1931-1956/1962, p. 50) • “A Warning about Bears” by John Ciardi (Ciardi, 1962, p. 46) • “More About Bears” by John Ciardi (Ciardi, 1962, p. 46) • “Still More about Bears” by John Ciardi (Ciardi, 1962, p. 47) • “Last Word about Bears” by John Ciardi (Ciardi, 1962, p. 47) • “Wild Boar” by Shel Silverstein (Silverstein, 1974, p. 68) • “The Chipmunk” by Ogden Nash (Nash, 1931-1956/1962, p. 50) • “The Cow” by Ogden Nash (Nash, 1931-1956/1962, p. 88) • “The Dog” by Ogden Nash (in Lansky, 1991, p. 36) • “Gift with the Wrappings Off” by Mary Elizabeth Counselman (in Prelutsky, 1983, p. 90) • “Greedy Dog” by James Hurley (in Rosen, 1985/1993, p. 102; in Lansky, 1991, p. 84) • “Zeke, an Old Farm Dog” by Kristine O’Connell George (George, 1997, p. 26) • “My Donkey” by Ted Hughes (in Thompson, 1987, p. 8) • [Elephants munching] by Jack Kerouac (Kerouac, 1945/1971, pp. 71-72) • “Giraffe’s Laughs Last” by X.J. Kennedy (in Thompson, 1987, p. 6) • “Habits of the Hippopotamus” by Arthur Guiterman (in Hall, 1985, pp. 210-211) • “Rent-a-Horse” by Kristine O’Connell George (George, 1997, p. 7) • ”The Kangaroo” by Ogden Nash (Nash, 1931-1956/1962, p. 163) • “The Lama” by Ogden Nash (Nash, 1931-1956/1962, p. 87-88) • “Leopard,” a Yoruba Poem (in Rosen, 1985/1993, p. 217) • “The Manatee” by Ogden Nash (Nash, 1931-1956/1962, pp. 193-194) • “The Mule” by Ogden Nash (Nash, 1931-1956/1962, p. 42) • “The Porcupine” by Ogden Nash (Nash, 1931-1956/1962, p. 5; in Prelutsky, 1991, p. 20) • “The Porcupine” by N.M. Bodecker (in Prelutsky, 1991, p. 20) • “Urban Raccoon” by Pat Mora (Mora, 1998) • “Drats” by Shel Silverstein (Silverstein, 1974, p. 72) • “The Sloth” by Theodore Roethke (in Thompson, 1987, p. 5) • “How to Tell a Tiger” by John Ciardi (Ciardi, 1962, p. 42) • Other land mammals – see also Carle, 1989: Bar, Bear, Billy Goat, Camel, Cat, Cow, Dog, Donkey, Elephant, Flying Squirrel, Fox, Giraffe, Hedgehog, Hippopotamus, Horse, Kangaroo, Lion, Mouse, Pony, Porcupine, Rhinoceros, Sheep, Sow, Squirrel, Tiger, Yak • Marine mammals – see Carle, 1989: Narwhal, Porpoise, Seal, Walrus, Whale • Marsupials – see Carle, 1989: Duck-billed Platypus • Other Mammals – “The Bat,” “The Donkey,” and “The Cow,” by Theodore Roethke, in Hall, 1985, pp. 257-258; in Sword & McCarthy, 1995, pp. 228-231; in Thompson, 1987, p. 5 Animals: Fish • “Fishes’ Evening Song” by Dahlov Ipcar (in Prelutsky, 1983, p. 78) • “Fish?” by Shel Silverstein (Silverstein, 1974, p. 145) • [Indian Poetry: fish]” by Rabindranath Tagore (Tagore, 1961, p. 339) • [Catfish fighting for his life] by Jack Kerouac (Kerouac, 1945/1971, pp. 71-72) • “To Catch a Fish” by Eloise Greenfield (in Hudson & Hudson, 1993, p. 18) • “The Guppy” by Ogden Nash (Nash, 1931-1956/1962, p. 22) • “The Shark” by Lord Alfred Douglas (in Prelutsky, 1983, p. 78) • “Never Mince Words with a Shark” by Jack Prelutsky (Prelutsky, 1984, p. 89) • “About the Teeth of Sharks” by John Ciardi (in Hall, 1985, p. 263; Ciardi, 1962, p. 9) • Other fish – see also Carle, 1989; Barracuda, Electric Eel, Fish, Flying Fish, Shark Animals: Nonfishy Sea Creatures • “A Jelly-Fish” by Marianne Moore (in Sword & McCarthy, 1995, p. 181; Berry, 1995, p. 21) • “The Octopus” by Ogden Nash (Nash, 1931-1956/1962, p. 161) • “The Squid” by Ogden Nash (Nash, 1931-1956/1962, p. 192) • See also Carle, 1989: Octopus Animals: Birds • “A Bird” by Emily Dickinson (in de Regniers, 1969, p. 81) • “I Won’t Hatch!” by Shel Silverstein, 1974, p. 127) • “Egg” by Kristine O’Connell George (George, 1997, p. 15) • “What Happened to the Ice Cream Cone Someone Dropped “ (birds ate it) by Kristine O’Connell George (George, 1997, p. 20) • [birds singing] by Jack Kerouac (Kerouac, 1945/1971, pp. 71-72) • “The Canary” by Ogden Nash (Nash, 1931-1956/1962, p. 79) • “Ballad of a Boneless Chicken” by Jack Prelutsky (prelutsky, 1984, pp. 116-117) • “The Cuckoo” by Ogden Nash (Nash, 1931-1956/1962, p. 42) • “The Eagle” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (in Rosen, 1985/1993, p. 197) • “The Gander” by Ogden Nash (Nash, 1931-1956/1962, p. 149) • “Canada Geese” by Kristine O’Connell George (George, 1997, p. 37) • “Exclamation” [hummingbird] by Octavio Paz (in Sword & MacCarthy, 1995, p. 203) • “Joyful Jabber” by pat Mora (Mora, 1998) • “The Ostrich” by Ogden Nash (Nash, 1931-1956/1962, p. 192) • “The Pelican” by Dixon Merritt (in Rosen, 1985/1993, p. 229) • Penguins (by Judy Sierra, 1998) - “A Hatchling’s Song” - “Mother Penguin’s Vacation” - “My Father’s Feet” (cited in Social-Studies chapter) - “Regurgitate” (cited in Social-Studies chapter) - “I Am Looking for My Mother” - “Penguins’ First Swim” - “Diary of a Very Short Winter Day” - “Belly Sliding” - “Be My Penguin” - “Antarctic Anthem” • “Mrs. Peck-Pigeon” by Eleanor Farjeon (in De Regniers, 1969, p. 81) • “Pigeons” by Lilian Moore (in Thompson, 1987, p. 4) • “The Ptarmigan” (in Prelutsky, 1983, p. 193) • “The Puffin” by Robert Williams Wood (in Prelutsky, 1983, p. 192) • “This Big Sky” [ravens] by Pat Mora (Mora, 1998) • “The Squab” by Ogden Nash (Nash, 1931-1956/1962, p. 193) • “The Vulture” by Hilaire Belloc (in Westcott, 1994, p. 36) • Other birds – see also Carle, 1989: Bird, Chick, Chickadee, Crow, Duck, Eagle, Gull, Hawk, Hen, Hummingbird, Jay, Owl, Partridge, Peacock, Pelican, penguin, Pigeon, Rooster, Sparrow, Swallow, Turkey, Woodpecker Animals: Reptiles • “The Crocodile” by Oliver Herford (in Hall, 1985, pp. 193-194) • “The Crocodile” by Lewis Carroll (in Sword & McCarthy, 1995, p. 47) • “Said a Long Crocodile” by Lilian Moore (in Westcott, 1994, p. 36) • “The Lizard” by John Gardner (in Prelutsky, 1983, p. 79) • “Horned Lizard” by Pat Mora (Mora, 1998) • “Old Snake” by Pat Mora (Mora, 1998) • “An Anaconda” by Douglas Florian (Florian, 1994, p. 62) • “The Asp” by Ogden Nash (Nash, 1931-1956/1962, p. 24) • “The Boa” by J.J. Bell (in Prelutsky, 1983, p. 79) • “Boa Constrictor” by Shel Silverstein (Silverstein, 1974, p. 45) • “The Tortoise” by Ogden Nash (Nash, 1931-1956/1962, p. 41) • “The Little Turtle” by Vachel Lindsay (in de Regniers, 1969, p. 55; in Rosen, 1985/1993, pp. 118-119) • “The Turtle” by Ogden Nash • Other reptiles – see also Carle, 1989: Crocodile, Lizard, Snake, Turtle Animals: Amphibians • “Polliwogs” by Kristine O’Connell George (George, 1997, p. 1) • “The Great Frog Race” by Kristie O’Connell George (George, 1997, p. 23) • See also Carle, 1989: Frog • “Sally and Manda” by Alice B. Campbell (in Prelutsky, 1983, p. 79) Animals: Dinosaurs • “Long Gone” by Jack Prelutsky (in Prelutsky, 1983, p. 78) • “Next!” by Ogden Nash (in Thompson, 1987, p. 16) • “Prehistoric” by Shel Silverstein (Silverstein, 1981, p. 79) • “dinosaurs” by Valerie Worth (C-AJTS, p. 60) • “Ankylosaurus” by Jack Prelutsky (in Evans, 1992) • “Brontosaurus” by Gail Kredesner (in Prelutsky, 1983, p. 37) • “If I Had a Brontosaurus” by Shel Silverstein (Silverstein, 1974, p. 103) • “Pachycephalosaurus” by Richard Armour (in Sword & McCarthy, 1995, p. 21) • Bone Poems by Jeff Moss (Moss, 1997, pp. 1-78) • See also Carle, 1989: Dinosaur Animals: Insects • [insect haiku] by Kobayashi Issa (in Sword & McCarthy, 1995, p. 130) • “Insects” by George Macbeth (in Berry, 1995, pp. 22-23) • “Interlude” by Karl Shapiro (Janeczko, 1981, pp. 118-119) • “Life in the Grass Lane” by Douglas Florian (Florian, 1994, p. 93) • “Bug in a Jug” by Anonymous (in Prelutsky, 1983, p. 74) • “The Bug” by Marjorie Barrows (in Prelutsky, 1983, p. 74) • “Goodnight, Sleep Tight” by Anonymous (in Prelutsky, 1991, p. 63) • “The Army Ants” by Douglas Florian (Florian, 1998, p. 12) • “The Termite” by Ogden nash (Nash, 1931-1956/1962, p. 167) • “The Termites” by Douglas Florian (Florian, 1998, p. 38) • [Wasp/Bee Limerick] by W.S. Gilbert (in Rosen, 1985/1993, p. 229) • “The Hornet” by Douglas Florian (Florian, 1998, p. 28) • “Wasps” by Dorothy Aldis (in Prelutsky, 1983, p. 74) • “Waspish” by Robert Frost (Frost, 1916/1971, p. 209) • “The Wasp” by Ogden Nash (Nash, 1931-1956/1962, p. 162) • “The Whirligig Beetles” (concrete poem) by Douglas Florian (Florian, 1998, p. 22) • “The Monarch Butterfly” by Douglas Florian (Florian, 1998, p. 34) • [Indian Poetry: Butterfly] by Rabindranath Tagore (Tagore, 1961, p. 339) • “The Caterpillar” by Douglas Florian (Florian, 1998, p. 6) • “Clickbeetle” by mary Ann Hoberman (in Prelutsky, 1983, p. 193) • “Cockroaches” by kaye Starbird (in Prelutsky, 1983, p. 75) • “The Crickets” by Douglas Florian (Florian, 1998, p. 40) • “Splinter” [cricket sound] by Carl Sandburg (in Hall, 1985, p. 217) • “The Dragonfly” by Douglas Florian (Florian, 1998, p. 8) • “A Dragonfly” by Eleanor Farjeon (in Prelutsky, 1983, p. 75) • “Dragonfly” by Kristine O’Connell George (George, 1997, p. 18) • “Fireflies in the Garden” by Robert Frost (Frost, 1916/1971, p. 213) • “Songs of the Ojibwa: Fire-fly Song” (in Cronyn, 1934/1962, p. 12) • “Flea Fur All” by Douglas Florian (Florian, 1994, p. 93) • “The Flea” by Roland Young (in Prelutsky, 1983, p. 74) • [flea haiku] by Kobayashi Issa (in Sword & macCarthy, 1995, p. 130) • [flea and fly limerick] by P.L. Mannock (in Rosen, 1985/1993, p. 228) • “To the Fly in My Drink” by David Wagoner (Janeczko, 1981, pp. 119-120) • “The Last Cry of the Damp Fly” by Dennis Lee (in Prelutsky, 1991, p. 63) • “The Fly” by Ogden Nash (Nash, 1931-1956/1962, p. 166) • “On the Toe-Test!” by Norma Farber (in Prelutsky, 1983, p. 74) • [fly haiku] by Kobayashi Issa (in Sword & McCarthy, 1995, p. 129) • “The Mayfly” by Douglas Florian (Florian, 1998, p. 46) • “Gnat on My Paper” by Richard Eberhart (Janeczko, 1981, pp. 117-118) • “The Locusts” by Douglas Florian (Florian, 1998, p. 42) • “The Praying Mantis” by Douglas Florian (Florian, 1998, p. 16) • “The Praying Mantis” by Ogden Nash (Nash, 1931-1956/1962, p. 192) • “Mosquito” by Mary Ann Hoberman (in Prelutsky, 1991, p. 21) • “Lovely Mosquito” by Douglas MacLeod (in Prelutsky, 1991, p. 21) • “When Mosquitos Make a Meal” by Else Holmelund Minarik (in Prelutsky, 1983, p. 75) • “Mosquito” by Mari Zbierski (in Rosen, 1985/1993, p. 217) • [mosquito limerick] by P.L. Mannock (in Rosen, 1985/1993, p. 228) • “The Mosquitos” by Douglas Florian (Florian, 1998, p. 32) • [mosquito haiku] by Kobayashi Issa (in Sword & McCarthy, 1995, p. 131) • “Moth” by D.M. Thomas (in Rosen, 1985/1993, p. 197) • “The Io Moth” by Douglas Florian (Florian, 1998, p. 20) • “The Ticks” by Douglas Florian (Florian, 1998, p. 44) • “The Treehoppers” by Douglas Florian (Florian, 1998, p. 30) • “The Walkingstick” by Douglas Florian (Florian, 1998, p. 26) • “The Giant Water Bug” by Douglas Florian (Florian, 1998, p. 36) • “Waterbugs” by Kristine O’Connell George (George, 1997, p. 10) • “The Weevils” by Douglas Florian (Florian, 1998, p. 24) • Other insects – see also Carle, 1989: Ant, Bee, Butterfly, Caterpillar, Cricket, Dragonfly, Firefly Animals: Spiders • “The Spider” by A.P. Herbert (in Rosen, 1985/1993, p. 94) • “Spider Dawn” by Lawrence Ferlinghetti (Ferlinghetti, 1978) • “The Black Widow Spider” by Douglas Florian (Florian, 1998, p. 18) • [spider haiku] by Issa (in Sword & MacCarthy, 1995, p. 129-131) • “The Daddy Longlegs” by Douglas Florian (Florian, 1998, p. 10) Animals: Invertebrates – Miscellaneous • “The Worm” by Ralph Bergengren (in Westcott, 1994, p. 19; Berry, 1995, p. 24) • “A Little Worm” by Spike Milligan (in Rosen, 1985/1993, p. 138) • “The Inchworm” by Douglas Florian (Florian, 1998, p. 14) • “Inch by Inch” by Douglas Florian (Florian, 1994, p. 96) • “The Early Bird” by John Ciardi (in Lansky, 1991, p. 96; why the worm is smart to sleep in late and avoid the early bird) • “Centerpedestrian” by Douglas Florian (Florian, 1994, p. 63) • [snail haiku] by Kobayashi Issa (in Sword & McCarthy, 1995, p. 129) • [snail haiku] by Kobayashi Issa (in Sword & McCarthy, 1995, p. 130) • “Snail” by John Drinkwater (in de Regniers, 1969, p. 54) • “Little Snail” by Hilda Conkling (in de Regniers, 1969, p. 54) • See also Carle, 1989: Snail In addition, numerous animal poems may be found in Lewis (compiler, 1965), as well as Behn (trans., 1971); Clithero (compiler, 1967), Hill (ill., 1960), and Janeczko (1981, 1983, 1985). Appendix C: Animal Books Although you are certain to have no trouble at all finding delightful books about animals, following are just a few books your students may enjoy: • Barrett, Judi. (1970). Animals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothing. New York: Aladdin, Atheneum. • Barton, Byron. (1989). Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs. New York: HarperCollins. • Bornstein, Ruth. (1976). Little Gorilla. New York: Scholastic Book Services. (Spanish edition: Gorilita.) • Boynton, Sandra. (1993). Barnyard Dance. New York: Workman Publishing. • Boynton, Sandra. (1984). Moo, Baa, La La La. New York: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster. • Brown, Margaret Wise. (1947/1971). The Golden Egg Book. New York: Golden Press; Racine, WI: Western Publishing Company. • Capucilli, Alyssa Satin. (1995). Inside a Barn in the Country: a Rebus Read-Along Story. New York: Scholastic. • Carle, Eric. (1969). The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Other Stories. Burbank, CA: Buena Vista Home Video, Scholastic Productions, Inc. (Carle also wrote The Very Quiet Cricket and The Very Busy Spider.) • DePaula, Tomie. (1973). Charlie Needs a Cloak. New York: Aladdin, Scholastic. • Dewey, Jennifer Owings. (1998). Poison Dart Frogs. New York: Scholastic, by arrangement with Boyds Mills Press. • Eastman, P.D. (1968). The Best Nest. New York: Random House. • Ets, Marie Hall. (1965). Just Me. New York: Puffin Books, Viking Penguin; Scholastic. (Ets also wrote Talking without Words.) • Flack, Marjorie. (1931/1977). Angus and the Cat. New York: Doubleday. (Spanish edition: Angus y el Gato.) (Flack also wrote Angus and the Duck and other Angus stories. • Fleming, Denise. (1993). In the Small, Small Pond. New York: Henry Holt and Company; Scholastic. (Fleming also wrote In the Tall, Tall Grass and Lunch.) • Frasier, Debra. (1991). On The Day You Were Born. San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. • Gomi, Taro. (1977/1993). Everyone Poops. La Jolla, CA: Kane/Miller Publishers. (Gomi has also written books about farts, snot, and other fascinating topics.) • Greenberg, David T. (1997). Bugs! New York: Scholastic, by arrangement with Little, Brown. • Hartelius, Margaret A. (1975). The Chicken’s Child. New York: Doubleday; Scholastic. • Krauss, Ruth. (1967). The Happy Egg. New York: Scholastic. • Lionni, Leo. (1994). An Extraordinary Egg. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Scholastic. • Lionni, Leo. (1960). Inch by Inch. New York: Scholastic. (Spanish version: 1960/1995, Pulgada a Pulgada.) (Lionni has also written numerous other books about animals such as chameleons, fish, and mice.) • McCloskey, Robert. (1941/1969/1975). Make Way for Ducklings. New York: Viking, Puffin/Penguin. (McCloskey also wrote Blueberries for Sal, about a little bear and his mother and little Sal and her mother, hunting for blueberries.) • Numeroff, Laura Joffe. (1993). Dogs Don’t Wear Sneakers. New York: Simon & Schuster; Scholastic. • Pandell, Karen. (1994). I Love You, Sun; I Love You, Moon. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons. • Young, Caroline. (1994). The Great Animal Search. New York: Scholastic, by arrangement with Usborne. (Sort of a text-enhanced “I Spy” book.) Appendix D: Poetic Verse Books Many children’s picture books highlight rhythm and rhyme. Some smile-makers – and perhaps chuckle-makers – are listed here. • Arnold, Tedd. (Ill.). (1993). Green Wilma. New York: Scholastic. • Bemelmans, Ludwig. (1939). Madeline. New York: Scholastic Book Services. (Translation is 1993.) • Boynton, Sandra. (1993) Barnyard Dance. New York: Workman Publishing. • Boynton, Sandra. (1993). Oh My Oh My Oh Dinosaurs. New York: Workman Publishing. (Also available: One, Two, Three! Birthday Monsters.) • Capucilli, Alyssa Satin. (1995). Inside a Barn in the Country: A Rebus Read-Along Story. New York: Scholastic. • Charlip, Remy, & Burton Supree. (1964). Mother Mother I Feel Sick, Send for the Doctor Quick Quick Quick. New York: Parents’ Magazine Press. • Christelow, Eileen. (1989). Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed. New York: Clarion Books, Houghton Mifflin. • Degen, Bruce. (1993). Jamberry. New York: HarperCollins. • Hennessy, B.G. (1990). Jake Baked the Cake. New York: Scholastic, with Viking Penguin Books. • Lindbergh, Reeve. (1993). There’s a Cow in the Road! New York: Scholastic, with Dial Books for Young Readers, Penguin Books. • MacDonald, Amy. (1990). Rachel Fister’s Blister. New York: Scholastic, with Houghton Mifflin. • Martin, Bill, Jr. (1989). Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. New York: Simon & Schuster (Scholastic). • Martin, Bill, Jr. (1967/1983) Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Did You See? New York: Henry Holt & Company. • Martin, Bill, Jr. (1970/1994). The Maestro Plays. New York: Scholastic, with Henry Holt. • Martin, Bill, Jr. (1991). Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Did You Hear? New York: Scholastic, with Henry Holt. • McGovern, Ann. (1969). Black Is Beautiful. New York: Scholastic, with Four Winds Press, StarLine Edition. • Neitzel, Shirley. (1995). The Bag I’m Taking to Grandma’s. New York: Scholastic, with Greenwillow Books, William Morrow. • Paparone, Pamela (Ill.). (1995). Five Little Ducks: An Old Rhyme. New York: Scholastic. • Parton, Dolly. (1994). Coat of Many Colors. New York: Scholastic, with Byron Preiss, HarperCollins. • Perkins, Al. (1969). Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb. New York: Random House. • Sendak, Maurice. (1962). Chicken Soup with Rice: A book of Months. New York: Harper & Row. • Sendak, Maurice. (1962). One Was Johnny: A Counting Book. New York: Harper & Row. • Giesel, Theodor (Dr. Seuss). (1974). Great Day for Up! New York: Random House. • Geisel, Theodor (Dr. Seuss). (1960/1988). Green Eggs and Ham. New York: Random House. • Stone, Rosetta (pseud., Dr. Seuss, AKA Theodor Geisel), & A.S. Geisel. (1975/1989). A Little Bug Went Ka-Choo! New York: Random House. • Wolcott, Patty. (1974). The Marvelous Mud Washing Machine. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. • Wolcott, Patty. (1975). Pickle, Pickle, Pickle Juice. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. • Wood, Audrey. (1984). The Napping House. San Diego, CA: Harcourt & Brace. • Wood, Audrey. (1992). Silly Sally. San Diego, CA: Harcourt & Brace. Appendix E: Types of Poetry Only the human imagination can limit the number of types of poetry, so the poem types given here are just the more common forms, which you and your students may enjoy. • Acrostic poem (see the Science chapter): a few types of acrostic poems are alphabet poems; name acrostics; object, animal, or other word acrostics; number acrostics (e.g., using the child’s phone number); address acrostics (e.g., using the child’s street address); city and/or state acrostics. • ABC poem: poem in which the first word begins with a particular alphabet letter, such as the child’s first initial, and the next word begins with the next consecutive letter in the alphabet, and the poem proceeds for as many words as desired; the words may make sense as a phrase or sentence, or they may name a sequence of related items (e.g., fruits). • Approximation poem: a new poem based on an old poem, modifying the existing verses to suit your interests; almost every child has crated an approximation poem starting with the base poem, “Roses are red, violets are blue,…” • Ballad: (see the Creative Arts chapter) • Biography poem: five-line poem, with line 1 – the subject person’s name; line 2 – two adjectives about the subject; line 3 – adverb, verb; line 4 – simile phrase; line 5 – wishful or thoughtful pondering (e.g., “I wish I were…” “If only…,” “I’ll always…,” “I’d never…”) • Blank verse: (see Math chapter) • Cento: a six-line poem, drawing phrases or lines from six different other poets; may be rhyming, in aabbcc pattern. • Cinquain: (see Creative Arts chapter) • Clerihew: (see the Creative Arts chapter) • Concrete poem: (see the Math chapter) • Counting poem: poem of five or more lines, in which the poet starts out with a set number of objects (usually animals or alien creatures), and verse by verse, one of the objects leaves by some means; for instance, line 1 – “There were [number] [noun pl.] [doing something]”; line 2 – “one [or “The first] [left in some way]”; line 3 – “One” [or “The second] [left in some way]”; etc. (optional final line: have all recover or return) • Couplet variation (see the Math chapter for an intro to couplets): - Two-word couplets (e.g., “What’s fat? My cat!”; “Food hog: My dog”; “Birds sing, take wing”) - Parallelism synonyms or antonyms: Lines 1 and 2 are parallel and synonymous, or they are parallel and antonymous - Rhyming series of couplets (1 line/item or 1 couplet/item, e.g., rhyming months poems, rhyming seasons poems, rhyming color couplets) • Diamante: (see the Creative Arts chapter) • Epigram: concise, witty couplet or quatrain on a theme • Epitaph: short poem pithily commemorating, epitomizing, or summarizing a deceased person, meant for a tombstone inscription • Exaggeration and hyperbole poem: poem highlighting and exaggerating the characteristics of the subject of the poem (e.g., “My mom’s so strong / She lifted a van / With one hand, / To get a ball / that bounced off the wall”) • Found poem: poetic phrases or sentences the poet finds in newspapers, magazines, or other written material, an into which the poet inserts suitable line breaks to highlight the poetry; an alternative: the poet pulls together poetic phrases from various places in an article or from various sources, and creates a poem from those phrases. • Free verse: (see the Math chapter, the Creative Arts chapter) • Haiku: (see Appendix A) • Hexuadad: 12-line (6-couplet) poem • Interview poem: poetic interview with the subject of a poem (usually a person, but may also be an animal, an imaginary character, or an object.) • Jingle: a highly memorable short poem, with rhymes, alliteration, or other ear-pleasing aspects • Lai verse: three stanzas of three-line poems (with the lines of each stanza comprising 5 syllables, 5 syllables, then 2 syllables), with a rhyme scheme of aab (the rhymes from one stanza to the next may be near-rhymes, rather than perfect rhymes, making the pattern more or less aab ccb ddb in which b even varies slightly from one stanza to the next, e.g., dream/seems/serene) • Lantern poem: (see the Creative Arts chapter) • Limerick: (see the Science chapter) • List poem variants (see the Social Studies chapter): • Definition poems (e.g., begin with naming a topic, e.g., famous person or event or shape, or asking “What is [topic]?” and then write a series of concise statements or phrases – descriptions, definitions, and/or examples – then conclude with the topic’s name or a final statement about the topic) • Personification “giving” poems – name something, then tell what it gives (usually, to people) • Person poems – name someone (or some ones), write a series of “who” (or “someone who” or “people who”) statements or phrases. • “I am not” listings • Sampling of list poems: - “Irritating Sayings” by javid Jackson (pp. 104-105 in Rosen’s The Kingfisher Book of Children’s Poetry) - “The Song of Snohomish” by William S. Wallace (pp. 204-205 in Rosen’s The Kingfisher Book of Children’s Poetry) - “Bleezer’s Ice Cream” by Jack Prelutsky (pp. 48-49 in his New Kid on the Block) - “No” by Shel Silverstein (p. 117 in his Falling Up) - “I’m Making a List” by Shel Silverstein (p. 37 in his Where the Sidewalk Ends) • Lune: (see Appendix A) • Lyric poem: (see the Creative Arts chapter) • Narrative poem: (see the Creative Arts chapter) • Nonsense verse: (see the Math chapter) • Noun and verb poems: concrete poems (see the Math chapter) made with verb participles (e.g., “prancing,” “tumbling,” “rolling”) or nouns (e.g., “airplane”) or with both (e.g., “soaring airplanes”) • Ode: (see the Creative Arts chapter) • Pantoum: a 28-line Malayan poem, invented in the 1400s – lines 5 and 7 repeat lines 2 and 4; lines 9 and 11 repeat lines 6 and 8; lines 13 and 15 repeat lines 10 and 12; lines 17 and 19 repeat lines 14 and 16; lines 21 and 23 repeat lines 18 and 20; lines 25 and 27 repeat lines 22 and 24; and line 28 repeats line 1; works well as a narrative or a description. • Parody: verse that pokes fun at familiar poems, often also mocking a public figure, event, or issue; works well when parodying familiar nursery rhymes or songs • Proverbs: pithy sayings that concisely state a truism • Pyramid poem: (see the Creative Arts chapter) • Puns, knock-knock jokes, and other homophones and homographs: (see the Creative Arts chapter) • Quatrain variations (see the Math chapter for an introduction to quatrains): - Changes quatrain: lines 1-2 state or describe changes, lines 3-4 thoughtfully reflect on them. - Growth and development quatrains: lines 1-2 – “I used to …”; lines 3-4 – “but now…”; alternative – “I am… but I wish I were…” - Inside/outside quatrains: compare and contrast what others see of me and what I see of myself. - Question quatrains: ask questions for each line, centered on one topic or theme • Riddle: (see the Creative Arts chapter) • Senryu: (see Appendix A) • Sentence poem: A poem made up of a series of sentences, rather than phrases or lines. • Sestina: Greta Lipson describes the sestina in this way on page 83 of her (1998) Poetry Writing Handbook: Definitions, Examples, Lessons (Carthage, IL: Teaching & Learning Company): In “this six-stanza form (unrhymed),… The writer decides on a theme with six key words which appear six times at the end of all sentences. Each stanza is constructed according to a given pattern. The poem is finished with a … tercet … which also includes the key words, this time in a different place” (i.e., in the middle of the lines, not just at the ends); the word pattern she gives is 1: A/B/C/D/E/F; 2: F/A/E/B/D/C; 3: C/F/D/A/B/E; 4: E/C/B/F/A/D; 5: D/E/A/C/F/B; 6: B/D/F/E/C/A; tercet: AB/CD/EF) • Skeltronic verse: a series of short rhyming lines (usually 2-5 lines), usually humorous, always light; also called “tumbling verse”; may lead from one tumbling series to another (e.g., aaaaabbbbbccddee) • Sneaky Metaphor poems: (see the Creative Arts chapter) • Sonnet: (see the Creative Arts chapter) • Spoonerism: (see the Creative Arts chapter) • Stair poem: four-line poem, written as a series of stair steps (like a concrete poem), with the topic on the first (bottom) step, three descriptive adjectives about it on the next step, a context-setting place or time on the third step, and a surprising fact about it (or something else) on the fourth step • Tanka: (see Appendix A) • Tercet: (see the Creative Arts chapter) • Terse verse: (see the Creative Arts chapter) • Tom Swiftlys: (see the Creative Arts chapter) • Tongue twister: (see the Creative Arts chapter) • Triolet: (see the Creative Arts chapter) • Villanelle: a six-stanza poem in which stanzas 1-5 are aba tercets, and stanza 6 is an abaa quatrain – but there is a further complication: lines 6, 12, and 18 (the penultimate line) repeat line 1; and lines 9, 15, and 19 (the last line) repeat line 3 • Word-pairs poem: a six-line poem (or stanza of a longer poem), with two words per line, in which the first line introduces the topic. Resources with Poems for Children A-MBM Adoff, Arnold. (Ed.). (1974/1994). My Black Me: A Beginning Book of Black Poetry. New York: Puffin, Penguin. A-UCS Amery, Heather (compiler). (1988). The Usborne Children’s Songbook. London: Usborne. B-CPRA Berry, James. (Ed.). (1995). Classic Poems to Read Aloud. New York: Kingfisher. B-PBOS Brown, Calef. (1998). Polka-Bats and Octopus Slacks: 14 Stories. New York: Houghton Mifflin. B-AAAP Bryan, Ashley (compiler). (1997). Ashley Bryan’s ABC of African American Poetry. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, Simon & Schuster. B-BTTBW Brandeth, Gyles. (1978). The Biggest Tongue Twister Book in the World. New York: Sterling Publishing. B-MCS Behn, Harry (trans.) (1971). More Cricket Songs. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. C-AA Carle, Eric (compiler). (1989). Eric Carle’s Animals Animals. New York: Scholastic. C-AFTS Chase, Richard (compiler). (1956). American Folk Tales and Songs: A Treasure of Lively, Old-Time English-American Lore. New York: New American Library. C-THT Ciardi, John. (1989). The Hopeful Trout and Other Limericks. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. C-YRM Ciardi, John. (1962). You Read to Me, I’ll Read to You. New York: HarperCollins. C-ITSA Clinton, Catherine. (1998). I, Too, Sing America: Three Centuries of African American Poetry. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. C-BRP Clithero, Sally (compiler). (1967). Beginning-to-Read Poetry: Selected from Original Sources. Chicago: Follett. C-ABIJRR Cole, Joanna (compiler). (1989). Anna-Banana: 101 Jump-Rope Rhymes. New York: Scholastic, by arrangement with William Morrow. CC-MMMOC Cole, Joanna, & Stephanie Calmenson (compiler). (1990). Miss Mary Mack and Other Children’s Street Rhymes. New York: A Beech Tree Paperback Book. CC-WDCCR Cole, Joanna, & Stephanie Calmenson (compiler). (1994). Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road? And Other Riddles Old and New. New York: Scholastic, by arrangement with William Morrow. C-AJTS Cullinan, Bernice E. (Ed.). (1996). A Jar of Tiny Stars: Poems by NCTE Award-Winning Poets. Honesdale, PA: Wordsong, Boyds Mills Press. D-AcL Delacre, Lulu. (Ed./Ill.). (1989). Arroz con Leche: Popular Songs and Rhymes from Latin America. New York: Scholastic. d-BP dePaola, Tomie (compiler). (1988). Tomie dePaola’s Book of Poems. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons. d-PCWSS de Regniers, Beatrice Schenk (compiler). (1969). Poems Children Will Sit Still for: A Selection for the Primary Grades. New York: Scholastic Book Services. d-SSP de Regniers, Beatrice Schenk (compiler). (1988). Sing a Song of Popcorn: Every Child’s Book of Poems. New York: Scholastic. E-MSOSP Evans, Dilys (compiler). (1992). Monster Soup and Other Spooky Poems. New York: Scholastic Book Services. F-BBB Florian, Douglas. (1994). Bing Bang Boing. New York: Puffin Penguin. F-I Florian, Douglas. (1998). Insectlopedia. San Diego: Harcourt Brace & Company. F-MG Fujikawa, Gyo (Ill.). (1968). Mother Goose. New York: Platt & Munk, Grosset & Dunlap. G-GFR George, Kristine O’Connell. (1997). The Great Frog Race and Other Poems. New York: Scholastic, by arrangement with Clarion Books, Houghton Mifflin. G-BAFT&S Goode, Diane (compiler). (1989/1996). The Diane Goode Book of American Folk Tales & Songs. New York: Dutton, Puffin/Penguin. H-CB Hill, Jeff. (ill.). (1960). Cherry Blossoms: Japanese Haiku Series III. Translations of poems by Basho, Buson, Issa, Shiki, and others. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. H-OBCVA Hall, Donald (compiler). (1985). The Oxford Book of Children’s Verse in America. New York: Oxford University Press. HH-HSS Hudson, Wade and Cheryl (compiler). (1995). How Sweet the Sound: African-American Songs for Children. New York: Scholastic. H-PIo Hudson, wade (compiler). (1993). Pass It On: African-American Poetry for Children. New York: Scholastic. (cassette available from Scholastic) J-DFF Janeczko, Paul (Ed.). (1981). Don’t Forget to Fly: A Cycle of Modern Poems. Scarsdale, NY: Bradbury Press. J-PPSJ Janeczko, Paul B. (Ed.). (1985). Pocket Poems Selected for a Journey. New York: Bradbury Press. J-PiTW Janeczko, Paul B. (Ed.). (1983). Poetspeak: In Their Work, About Their Work. New York: Bradbury Press. L-10SRS Lyne, Sandford (compiler). (1996). Ten-Second Rain Showers: Poems by Young People. New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. L-ISG Lewis, Richard (compiler). (1965). In a Spring Garden. New York: Dial Press. (haiku) L-KPFP Lansky, Bruce (Ed.). (1991). Kids Pick the Funniest Poems. New York: Meadowbrook Press, Simon & Schuster. L-NMH! Lansky, Bruce (Ed.). (1997). No More homework! No More Tests! Kids’ Favorite Funny School Poems. New York: Meadowbrook Press, Simon & Schuster. L-P&G Lederer, Richard. (1996). Puns and Games: Jokes, Riddles, Tairy Fales, Rhymes, and More Word Play for Kids. Chicago: Chicago Review Press. L-R-i Lewis, J. Patrick. (1996). Riddle-icious. New York: Scholastic, by arrangement with Random House. M-BP Moss, Jeff. (1997). Bone Poems. New York: American museum of Natural History, Workman Publishing, by arrangement with Scholastic. (dinosaur and paleontology poems for young readers) M-NWA6 Milne, A.A. (1927). Now We Are Six. New York: E.P. Dutton. M-TBS Mora, Pat. (1998). This Big Sky. New York: Scholastic. M-WWW Milne, A.A. (1924). When We Were Very Young. New York: E.P. Dutton P-DAST Prelutsky, Jack. (1993). The Dragons Are Singing Tonight. New York: Scholastic. P-FloL Prelutsky, Jack (compiler). (1991). For Laughing Out Loud: Poems to Tickle Your Funnybone. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. P-IH Prelutsky, Jack. (1977). It’s Halloween. New York: Scholastic and Greenwillow Books, William Morrow. P-FloL Prelutsky, Jack (compiler). (1991). For Laughing Out Loud: Poems to Tickle Your Funnybone. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. P-IH Prelutsky, Jack. (1977). It’s Halloween. New York: Scholastic and Greenwillow Books, William Morrow. P-IT Prelutsky, Jack. (1982). It’s Thanksgiving. New York: Scholastic and Greenwillow Books, William Morrow. P-NKB Prelutsky, Jack. (1984). The New Kid on the Block. New York: Greenwillow Books, William Morrow. P-RHBPC Prelutsky, Jack (compiler.) (1983). The Random House Book of Poetry for Children. New York: Random House. R-KBCP Rosen, Michael (compiler). (1985/1993). The Kingfisher Book of Children’s Poetry. New York: Kingfisher Books, Grisewood & Dempsey. R-PVY Rosen, Michael (compiler). (1993). Poems for the Very Young. New York: Kingfisher Books, Grisewood & Dempsey. S-AA Sierra, Judy. (1998). Antarctic Antics: A Book of Penguin Poems. San Diego: Harcourt Brace & Company. S-DBOHN Schon, Isabel (compiler). (1983). Dona Blanca and Other Hispanic Nursery Rhymes and Games. Minneapolis, MN: T.S. Denison. S-AGGGAA Schwartz, Alvin. (1992). And the Green Grass Grew All Around: Folk Poetry from Everyone. New York: HarperTrophy, HarperCollins. S-WSE Silverstein, Shel. (1974). Where the Sidewalk Ends: Poems and Drawings of Shel Silverstein. New York: Harper & Row. S-LA Silverstein, Shel. (1981). A Light in the Attic: Poems and Drawings of Shel Silverstein. New York: Harper & Row. S-FU Silverstein, Shel. (1996). Falling Up: Poems and Drawings of Shel Silverstein. New York: HarperCollins. SM-CAP Sword, Elizabeth Hauge, & Victoria Flournoy McCarthy (compilers). (1995). A Child’s Anthology of Poetry. Hopewell, MJ: Ecco Press. (e.g., Sandburg’s “Fog” and other classics) S-MOS Strickland, Michael R (compiler). (1997). My Own Song and Other Poems to Groove to. Honesdale, PA: Wordsong, Boyds Mills Press. S-PTSY Strickland, Michael R (compiler). (1997). Poems That Sing to You. Honesdale, PA: Wordsong, Boyds Mills Press. SS-F:PC Strickland, Dorothy S., & Michael R. Strickland (compiler). (1994). Families: Poems That Celebrate the African American Experience. Honesdale, PA: Wordsong, Boyds Mills Press. T-1R&F Totline Staff. (1994). 1001 Rhymes and Fingerplays. Torrance, CA: Totline Publications, Frank Schaffer Publications. T-EP Thompson, Eileen (compiler). Experiencing Poetry. New York: Globe Book Company, Inc. V-IIWCW Viorst, Judith. (1981). If I Were in Charge of the World and Other Worries: Poems for Children and Their Parents. New York: Aladdin Books, Macmillan. V-SU Viorst, Judith. (1995). Sad Underwear and Other Complications: More Poems for Children and Their Parents. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers. W-NTPL Westcott, Nadine Bernard (Ed., Ill.). (1994). Never Take a Pig to Lunch and Other Poems about the Fun of Eating. New York: Orchard Books. Additional Resources: How-to-Teach-Poetry Books A-TBR Allen, Cindi Nolen. (1989). Take a Bite out of Rhyme: A Poetry Unit. Hawthorne, NJ: Educational Impressions. B-RWP Backus, Maria. (1997). Reading and Writing Poetry: Poem Selections and Activities. Torrance, CA: Good Apple, Frank Schaffer Publications. C-PC Cheyney, Arnold. (1982). The Poetry Corner. Glenview, IL: Good Year Books. CSS:3V Cullinan, Bernice E., Marilyn C. Scala, & Virginia C. Schroder. (1995). Three Voices: An Invitation to Poetry across the Curriculum. York, Maine: Stenhouse Publishers. F-PP Fisk, Sally. (1996). Poetry Plus: Pre- and Postwriting Activities, Hands-on Activities, Evaluation Guidelines (Primary). Grand Rapids, MI: Instructional Fair, TS Denison. FKF-RTBL Fry, Edward Bernard, Jacqueline E. Kress, & Dona Lee Fountoukidis. (1993). The Reading Teacher’s Book of Lists (3rd ed.). West Nyack, NY: The Center for Applied Research in Education, Prentice Hall, Simon & Schuster. J-FPL Janeczko, Paul B. (1998). Favorite Poetry Lessons. New York: Scholastic Professional Books. K-LML Kolakowski, Jane Steffen. (1992). Linking Math with Literature: Math Activities to Accompany 51 Pieces of Children’s Literature. Greensboro, NC: Carson-Dellosa Art. K-PJU Katz, Bobbi. (1996). Poems Just for Us: 50 Read-Aloud Poems with Cross-Curricular Activities for Young Learners. New York: Scholastic Professional Books. L-PWH Lipson, Greta Barclay. (1998). Poetry Writing Handbook: Definitions, Examples, Lessons. Carthage, IL: Teaching & Learning Company. L-P-M Livingston, Myra Cohn. (1991). Poem-Making: Ways to Begin Writing Poetry. New York: HarperCollins, a Charlotte Zolotow Book. M-APaD Moore, Helen m. (1997). A Poem a Day: 180 Thematic Poems and Activities that Teach and Delight All Year Long. New York: Scholastic Professional Books. O-APH Oliver, Mary. (1994). A Poetry Handbook: A Prose Guide to Understanding and Writing Poetry. New York: Harcourt Brace & Company. O-PP Orndoff, Eleanor. (1990). Poetry Patterns. Monterey, CA: Evan-Moor. O-RD Oliver, Mary. (1998). Rules for the Dance: A Handbook for Writing and Reading Metrical Verse. Boston: Mariner Books, a Mariner Original, Houghton Mifflin. P-SP Pinsky, Robert. (1998). The Sounds of Poetry: A Brief Guide. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. S-DP Simpson, Carol. (1995). Daily Poetry. New York: GoodYear Books, Scott Foresman, HarperCollins. S-GM Shushan, Ronnie (Ed.) 1978/1985 book, Games Magazine: The Book of Sense and Nonsense Puzzles. New York: Workman Publishing. S-TP: YYC Sweeney, Jacqueline. (1993). Teaching Poetry: Yes you Can! New York: Scholastic. T-IF Terban, Marvin. (1993). It Figures! Fun Figures of Speech. New York: Clarion Books. T-SDI Terban, Marvin. (1996). Scholastic Dictionary of Idioms. New York: Scholastic. W-PC Wooldridge, Susan Goldsmith. (1996). Poemcrazy: Freeing Your Life with Words. New York: Three Rivers Press. (See also Oxford Companion to the English Language and Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language.) Additional Resources: Prose Poetry and Literature Collections B-BTTBW Brandreth, Gyles. (1978). The Biggest Tongue Twister Book in the World. New York: Sterling Publishing. B-MCS Behn, Harry (trans.) (1971). More Cricket Songs. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. C-AIP Cronyn, George W. (editor). (1934/1962). American Indian Poetry. New York: Liveright. C-TAAF Courlander, Harold. (1976/1996). A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore: The Oral Literature, Traditions, Recollections, Legends, Tales, Songs, Religious Beliefs, Customs, Sayings, and Humor of Peoples of African Descent in the Americas. New York: Marlowe & Company. F-NARFP Frost, Robert. (1916/1971). New Enlarged Anthology of Robert Frost’s Poems. (Louis Untermeyer, Ed.). New York: Washington Square Press. F-NE Ferlinghetti, Lawrence. (1978). Northwest Ecolog. San Francisco: City Lights Books. H-SP Hughes, Langston. (1959/1974). Selected Poems. New York: Vintage Books, Random House. H-PNA Hughes, Langston. (1976). In Gonzalez, Jose Luis, & Monica Mansour. Poesia Negra de America. Mexico, D.F.: Ediciones Era, S.A. K-SP Kerouac, Jack. (1945/1971). Scattered Poems. San Francisco: City Lights Books. M-SAC Martin, Bill, Jr. (1966). Sounds around the Clock. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. M-SDD Martin, Bill, Jr. (1967). Sounds of A Distant Drum. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. M-SoL Martin, Bill, Jr. (1966). Sounds of Laughter. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. M-TA!10 Milord, Susan. (1995). Tales Alive! Ten Multicultural Folktales with Activities. Charlotte, VT: Williamson Publishing. N-PBON Nash, ogden. (1931-1956/1962). The Pocket Book of Ogden Nash (with an introduction by Louis Untermeyer). New York: Washington Square Press, Pocket Books. S-AAP Seeley, Virginia (Exec. Ed.). (1993). African American Poetry. Paramus, NJ: Globe Book Company. S-CGV Stevenson, Robert Louis. (1885/1962). A Child’s Garden of Verses. New York: Golden Press. T-TR Tagore, Rabindranath. (1961). A Tagore Reader. (Amiya Chakravarty, Ed.). Boston: Beacon Press. WP-AAL Worley, Demetrice A., & Jesse Perry, Jr. (1993). African American Literature: An Anthology of Nonfiction, Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Lincolnwood, IL: National Textbook Company. Additional resources available but not in this collection: • Goldish, Meish. (1996). 101 Science Poems and Songs for Young Learners, with Hands-on Activities (Grades 1-3). New York: Scholastic Professional Books. • Kepler, Lynne (1995). Quick-and-Easy Learning Centers, Science (Grades 1-3). New York: Scholastic Professional Books. • Weiner, Esther. (1994). 25 Science Mini-Books, Reproducible, Easy-to-Make, Easy-to-Read (Grades 1-3). New York: Scholastic Professional Books. • Terban, Marvin. (1988). Guppies in Tuxedos: Funny Eponyms. New York: Clarion Books. • Terban, Marvin. (1987). Mad as a Wet Hen! And Other Funny Idioms. New York: Clarion Books. • Terban, Marvin. (1987). Punching the Clock: Funny Action Idioms. New York: Clarion Books. • Terban, Marvin. (1987). Time to Rhyme: A Rhyming Dictionary. Honesdale, PA: Wordsong, Boyds Mills Press. Other Curriculum Resources • Science - Bath, John B., & Sally C. Mayberry. (1994). Kitchen Chemistry: Creating Mixtures, Solutions, and Reactions: Mixing and Separating Colors: Growing Crystals (Step-by-Step Science Series, Grades K-3). Greensboro, NC: Carson-Dellosa Publishing. - Charner, Kathy (Ed.). (1998). The Giant Encyclopedia of Science Activities for Children 3 to 6: More Than 600 Science Activities Written by Teachers for Teachers. Beltsville, MD: Gryphon House. - Ehrlich, Robert. (1998). What If? Mind-Boggling Science Questions for Kids. New York: John Wiley & Sons. - Hauser, Jill Frankel. (1998). Science Play: Beginning Discoveries for 2- to 6-Year-Olds. Charlotte, VT: Williamson Publishing, a Little Hands Book. - Johmann, Carol A., & Elizabeth J. Rieth. (1996). Gobble up Science: Fun Activities to Complete and Eat for Kids in Grades 1-4. Santa Barbara, CA: The Learning Works. - Schultz, Danielle. (1996). Terrific Topics: Food and Nutrition, Includes Activities in Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Awareness, Arts and Crafts, and music, Grades Pre-K – 1. Greensboro, NC: Carson-Dellosa Publishing. - VanCleve, Janice. (1998). Janice VanCleve’s Insects and Spiders: Mind-Boggling Experiments You Can Turn into Science Fair Projects. New York: Scholastic, by arrangement with John Wiley and Sons. • Cookbooks - Bruno, Janet. (1991). Book-Cooks: Literature-Based Classroom Cooking. 35 Recipes for Favorite Books, Grades K-3. Cypress, CA: Creative Teaching Press. - Cook, Deanna F. (1995). The Kids’ Multicultural Cookbook: Food & Fun around the World. Charlotte, VT: Kids Can! Williamson Publishing. - UNICEF. (199?) The Little Cooks: Recipes from around the World for Boys and Girls (illustrated by jean-Christophe Raufflet and Valerie Pettinari; printed in Italy; product code 92654; ISBN: 0-940065-99-1). New York: United States Committee for UNICEF (333 E. 38th St., 10016; 212-686-5522). - UNICEF. (199?) [untitled] (cited on back cover: Patrick Regout, Belgium; printed in Italy; product code G780MB; UPC 7-611502-120733). New York: United States Committee for UNICEF (333 E. 38th St. 10016; 212-686-5522 [voice]; (212) 779-1679 [fax]). • Geography: - McCarthy, Tara. (1992). Literature-Based Geography Activities: An Integrated Approach. New York: Scholastic Professional Books. • Cross-cultural and multicultural music - Emilio Delgado’s Fiesta Musical: A Musical Adventure through Latin America for Children, in English and Spanish (1994, Music for Little People) - Ella Jenkins’s albums I Know the Colors in the Rainbow and Multicultural Children’s Songs (Ages 3-8) (available from Smithsonian/Folkways, 1995)  Ella Jenkins performed two versions of the Mary Mack song on her You’ll Sing a Song and I’ll Sing a Song album (also available on cassette tape or CD, available from Smithsonian/Folkways Records or from Educational Activities). - Jose-Luis Orozco’s albums (published by Arco iris Records), De Colores and Other Latin-American Folk Songs for Children (1995) and Fiestas, Holidays: Canciones Para Todo el Ano (1995) (available on cassette or CD) - Family Folk Festival: A Multi-Cultural Sing Along (Music for Little People; includes Pete Seeger and many other singers and songwriters; available on tape or CD) - Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Gift of the Tortoise: A Musical Journey through Southern Africa (Music for Little People; available on tape or CD) - Tom Wasinger, The World Sings Goodnight: World Lullabies Sung in Native Voices (1993, Silver Waves Records and Amnesty International) • Art: - Ritter, Darlene (1993). Multicultural Art Activities from the Cultures of Africa, Asia and North America, Grades 2-5. Cypress, CA: Creative Teaching Press. • Bibliographies: - Rand, Donna, Toni Trent Parker, & Sheila Foster. (1998). Black Books Galore! Guide to Great African American Children’s Books. New York: Wiley. Verse narrative books: Many children’s picture books that highlight rhythm and rhyme. • Traditional - Aliki [Ill.]. Hush Little Baby: A Folk Lullaby. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. - Charlip, Remy, & Burton Supree. (1964). Mother Mother I Feel Sick, Send for the Doctor Quick Quick Quick. New York: Parents’ Magazine press. - Christelow, Eileen. (1989). Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed. New York: Clarion Books, Houghton Mifflin. - Karas, G. Brian. (1980). I Know an Old Lady. New York: Scholastic.  (see also H-OBCVA, pp. 156-157) - Keats, Ezra Jack [Ill.] and Olive A. Wadsworth [verse]. (1971). Over in the Meadow. New York: Scholastic.  Carter, David A. [Ill.] y Olive A. Wadsworth [verse]. (1992 [1993: Spanish]). En Aquel Prado: Una Antigua Rima de Numeros. New York: Scholastic. • Arnold, Tedd. (ill.). (1993). Green Wilma. New York: Scholastic. • Bemelmans, Ludwig. (1939). Madeline. New York: Scholastic Book Services. (Translation is 1993.) • Bond, Felicia. (1996). Tumble Bumble. New York: Scholastic. • Boynton, Sandra. (1993). Barnyard Dance. New York: Workman Publishing. • Boynton, Sandra. (1984). Moo, Baa, La La La. New York: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster. • Boynton, Sandra. (1993). Oh My Oh My Oh Dinosaurs. New York: Workman Publishing. (Also available: One, Two, Three! Birthday monsters.) • Cameron, Polly. (1961). “I Can’t” Said the Ant. New York: Putnam (Scholastic). (rebus and verse) • Capucilli, Alyssa Satin. (1995). Inside a Barn in the Country: A Rebus Read-Along Story. New York: Scholastic. • Degen, Bruce. (1983). Jamberry. New York: HarperCollins. • Hennessy, B.G. (1990). Jake Baked the Cake. New York: Scholastic and Viking Penguin Books. • Lindbergh, Reeve. (1993). There’s a Cow in the Road! New York: Scholastic and Dial Books for Young Readers, Penguin Books. • MacDonald, Amy. (1990). Rachel Fister’s Blister. New York: Scholastic & Houghton Mifflin. • Martin, Bill, Jr. (1989). Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. New York: Simon & Schuster (Scholastic). • Martin, Bill, Jr. (1967/1983). Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Did You See? New York: Henry Holt & Company. • Martin, Bill, Jr. (1970/1994). The Maestro Plays. New York: Henry Holt (Scholastic). • Martin, Bill, Jr. & John Archambault. (1989). The Braggin’ Dragon. New York: DLM Teaching Resources (Scholastic). • Martin, Bill, Jr. (1991). Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Did You Hear? New York: Henry Holt & Company (Scholastic). • McGovern, Ann. (1969). Black Is Beautiful. New York: Four Winds Press, StarLine Edition, Scholastic. • Miranda, Anne. (1997). To Market, to Market. New York: Scholastic, by arrangement with Harcourt Brace. • Neitzel, Shirley. (1995). The Bag I’m Taking to Grandma’s. New York: Scholastic and Greenwillow Books, William Morrow. • Neitzel, Shirley. (1997). The House I’ll Build for the Wrens. New York: Scholastic and Greenwillow Books, William Morrow. • Paparone, Pamela (Ill.). (1995). Five Little Ducks: An Old Rhyme. New York: Scholastic. • Parton, Dolly. (1994). Coat of Many Colors. New York: Byron Preiss, HarperCollins; Scholastic. • Perkins, Al. (1969). Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb. New York: Random House. • Sendak, Maurice. (1962). Chicken Soup with Rice: A Book of months. New York: Harper & Row. • Sendak, Maurice. (1962). One Was Johnny: A Counting Book. New York: Harper & Row. • Geisel, Theodor (Dr. Seuss). (1974). Great Day for Up! New York: Random House. • Geisel, Theodor (Dr. Seuss). (1960/1988). Green Eggs and Ham. New York: Random House. • Stone, Rosetta (pseud., Dr. Seuss, AKA Theodor Geisel), & A.S. Geisel. (1975). A Little Bug Went ?Ker-choo?! New York: Random House. • Wolcott, Patty. (1974). The Marvelous Mud Washing Machine. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. • Wolcott, Patty. (1975). Pickle, Pickle, Pickle Juice. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. • Wood, Audrey. (1984). The Napping House. San Diego, CA: Harcourt & Brace. • Wood, Audrey. (1992). Silly Sally. San Diego, CA: Harcourt & Brace. • Westcott, Nadine Bernard. (1989). Skip to My Lou. New York: Scholastic, by arrangement with Little, Brown. (Comical adaptation of that delightful folk song, including the musical tune for the chorus.) • Ziefert, Harriet. (Reteller). (1992). When I First Came to This Land. New York: Scholastic, by arrangement with Putnam, Putnam & Grosset Group. Nonfiction verse books: • Benjamin, Cynthia. (1999). Footprints in the Sand. New York: Scholastic. (not really verse, but iterative and simple regarding desert animals fleeing home) • Greenberg, David T. (1997). Bugs! New york: Scholastic, by arrangment with Little, Brown. • Katz, Bobbi. (1996). Germs! Germs! Germs! New York: Scholastic. (Not for the squeamish!) • Myers, Walter Dean. (1997). Harlem: A Poem by Walter Dean Myers. New York: Scholastic. • Oppenheim, Joanne. (1996). Have You Seen Bugs? New York: Scholastic. • Oppenheim, Joanne. (1976). Have You Seen Trees? New York: Scholastic.

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