"The Poem That Will Not End" by Joan Bransfield Graham illustrated by Kyrsten Brooker

THE BOOK:
Joan Bransfield Graham has created a gem of a book--a perfect book for ANY classroom! The main character, Ryan O'Brian, creates poetry everywhere he goes. He just can't stop; he writes a couplet with his french fries and scribbles a sonnet on the staircase. It seems he can't stop, until the climax when his teacher assigns him to write a poem about spring... Go figure, he draws a blank.

The book is a solid narrative with an added one of Ryan's poem scribbled across every page--it is set up similar to many science picture books where you can read the narrative or stop and read the additional facts.

Along with Kyrsten Brooker's fun illustration, this book can reach from Kindergarten all the way up to sixth grade (maybe even high school).  Well crafted, and oozing with potential to use in the classroom, this is a must-have for any teacher of poetry.

The Poem That Landed On Top of My Head

USE THE BOOK:
Like I said, this can be used with almost any age group. I think the interest level comes in around second to fourth grade, but older kids may get a few chuckles from it. Here are a few ideas to steal for your lessons...

1. Stop Freaking Out About Uniformity and Give the Kids Some Space to Be Creative:

This book has a good lesson for us teachers. Did you catch it? I love that the teacher's direction to write a poem on a particular topic stifles Ryan's creativity; it is true to life and hysterical. So rather than assigning a particular topic or style to a child, just spend time enjoying and exposing them to the different forms of poetry. Avoid what the great Billy Collins says happens to to poetry in schools:

Introduction to Poetry

BY BILLY COLLINS courtesy of The POETRY FOUNDATION

I ask them to take a poem   

and hold it up to the light   

like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem   

and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem’s room   

and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski   

across the surface of a poem

waving at the author’s name on the shore.

But all they want to do

is tie the poem to a chair with rope   

and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose   

to find out what it really means.

Let them see there are endless options, and then give them something to write on and with (French Fries work, but markers, pens, and pencils are slightly better). And then let them do it. Let them take moments to stop and write ideas during class. Sure, make it an assignment. But don't squish it into one day or week. Give them a month to start a poem. Some may take a year to get something they actually like, but give them time... And stop squelching their creativity with these uniform poems! (OK... in a week or two I will tell you to squelch their creativity with some ideas for poetry, but for now, let's all be free to be you and me.) Seriously, click that link.

2. Poetic Forms Detective Work:

This book contains a potpourri of poetic forms. I have it on my shelf to use this January when I teach my high schoolers about poetic forms. This would be a good one to use in centers or rotations, and it can be used with grades 3-12. (Yes, I do centers in high school... the students enjoy them and there is a ton of learning that can happen during this time.)

Make a copy of the last double-page spread AKA "Ryan O'Brian's Guide to Poetic Forms". Then, cut out each poetic form listed in "Ryan's" guide. (Some of you who reuse items year-after-year may want to post them on index cards to keep them sturdy.) On each form, cut out or white out the part that lists the example title and page number. Be sure to do this as it is the part that makes this more than just a numbers matching game!

Next, have the book, a piece of blank paper, and writing tool on a table with the cut up guide/index cards. Have the student(s) look through the book to find the poems that match the description from the guide. For instance, on the card it would read: "COUPLET: Two lines that usually rhyme." The students would then read through the book and discover on page 10, "Couplet for French Fries" is the match in the book. The student(s) would then write down the definition of couplet, then cite the example. You may want them to write the full couplet, or just cite the page number. (I prefer the full example--this way the paper becomes a superior study guide and reference sheet.)

The "Couplet for French Fries", clearly, would be one of the easier examples; however, the forms cinquain, triolet, limerick, and tanka have a little more detective work to do.

Ryan shows off by making a french fry couplet.

3. Creative Writing Brainstorming with Parts of Speech:

As I finished this book, I thought it would be cool to see a series of books like this on the different forms of writing. I suppose it would be a little boring reading "The Research Paper That Will Not End"... So then I realized, it would probably be best to do a sequel using parts of speech.

Have kids form groups based on the different parts of speech--I suggest you go with the four teams: Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, and Adverbs. Give them the narrative that Ryan O'Brian has a new dilemma, he can't stop noticing all of the nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs around him. Because of this, Ryan goes around and observes, names, and writes out the different things he sees.

Have kids think about places they think Ryan might go--the bowling alley, to a best friend's house, the beach, Disneyland... you name it. Once the group picks a location, and every group should have a different place, give them the table below and ask them to write their location in the blank at the top.

Ryan goes to ________________________

Nouns	Verbs	Adverbs	Adjectives

Next, tell them TO ONLY FOCUS ON THEIR PART OF SPEECH and give them five minutes to come up with as many place-specific parts of speech as possible. For instance if they are in the Verb group and they select baseball it may read something like this:

Ryan goes to the Baseball Field

Nouns	Verbs	Adverbs	Adjectives
	Run Walk Hit Steal Slide

After five minutes, that team passes their paper to the left and the next team has to come up with words that fit their column on this NEW topic. For instance, if the Adverbs group is beside the Verbs group, the Adverbs take the baseball paper and for five minutes they add to the list until it looks like this:

Ryan goes to the Baseball Field

Nouns	Verbs	Adverbs	Adjectives
	Run Walk Hit Steal Slide	Quickly Loudly Boastfully Tensely Bravely

During this time the Verb group gets a new paper, say on the Barber Shop, and they work on theirs. This continues on until all groups have worked on all pages until every group has worked on place-specific parts of speech for all four tables.

The baseball paper might look something like this:

Ryan goes to the Baseball Field

Nouns	Verbs	Adverbs	Adjectives
Baseball Bat Helmet Pitcher’s mound Umpire	Run Walk Hit Steal Slide	Quickly Loudly Boastfully Tensely Bravely	Fast Angry Funny Sluggish Amazing

NOTICE- THE WORDS DO NOT NEED TO MATCH EACH OTHER; the part of speech is hard enough for many kids. In the end, however, the kids will have had a chance to work on four location, focusing on their one part of speech. 

Your job during all of this is to supervise their word choices to ensure all parts of speech are properly placed, and push them to pick the very best terms. If they keep repeating terms, then they haven't done their job. 

I would then suggest you make copies of their pages, and then have kids write narratives with these word banks that have been created so they can figure out what Ryan O'Brian does next.

5. Discussions/Writing Prompts:

Use these prompts to talk about the book with your kids, or you can have them write their responses. Remember, picture books don't need to stop in second grade!

1. Why do you think Ryan was infected with poetry? (Or should I say "blessed" with poetry?)
2. Where was the best place Ryan put his poetry? Why?
3. Should poetry be written on walls and tabletops? Why or why not?
4. What do you think will happen if he gets the poetry bug again?
5. Have you even been consumed by something that you can't stop thinking, writing, or talking about it? What is it? Why do you like it so much?

I hope you enjoy this delightful book narrative with poems included "The Poem That Will Not End"... And I hope you and your classes dive into poetry this year!


Happy learning!

"Chicken Soup with Rice" by Maurice Sendak

THE BOOK:
Maurice Sendak, in the words of my students, is BAE. I love his bizarre sense of humor, and "Chicken Soup with Rice" is no exception. This book follows one of Sendak's boys through all of the months of the year as he eats up chicken soup, no matter the weather or celebration. The book notes many holidays and events in its fun, song-like rhyme scheme.

Mr. Shaw, in the kitchen, with the book.

USE THE BOOK:

This book can reach young preschool all the way up to third grade (It is AR Level 3.2.). I love using it year-round in programs that allow celebration of holidays (or at least studying of holidays). So here are some ideas to use with the book...

1. Sing, Memorize, and Preform:

Awhile back, Psychology Today shared an article (here) that discusses why we should memorize, and I tend to agree. So my belief is we should memorize a new poem, song, or quote at least once a year. That goes for kids, too.

One way to do this is to take Sendak's book and use it month-by-month. What I did in my K-2 class was this:

In August, the first month of school for us, I made a photocopy of page 20, August. I then posted that copy in my Calendar Corner, and each day we sat down to do the calendar, we read the poem (well, we actually sang it, thanks to Carole King).

Each month I would change the photocopy and we would move on to the next part of the poem, leaving the other one up just behind the new one. Every first day of the month we would spend time spiraling back to the old poems. The result?

In June, our last month of school, my Kindergarten, first and second grade class had memorized 11 of the 12 stanzas. I squeezed in one more in the last week, July, and then the kids got up at Open House and sang the entire poem. 

Parents were amazed, and I was happy. It just goes to show how much we can do if we slow down and take it one step at a time.

2. Write the Recipe: 

There are only two ingredients that are mentioned in the book: chicken and rice. But you can do much more. For those of you soup lovers (sadly, I am not a soup man), there are many additions to make a soup flavorful: salt, pepper, carrots, and... well, you get the idea.

I start this project by showing kids real recipes from cookbooks or online--like Martha Stewart or Rachael Ray. I remind them someone, Ms. Stewart or Ms. Ray perhaps, has written it. This is real writing! We make a list of what elements make a typical recipe. The kids note they list ingredients, amounts of each ingredient, step-by-step instructions, numbers organizing the instructions, and a photo of the finished dish are all commonly noted elements.

Once they have seen recipes, I show them ones to make soup. We talk about the process and common tasks: boiling, simmering, chopping, and such. I write these terms on a word wall. After assembling this list, I talk to kids about what they like to eat, and we imagine which of those ingredients would make the best soup--a soup so good you'd want to eat it every month of the year. The only two required ingredients are chicken and rice--and even those can be thrown out since I will deal with kids who are vegan/vegetarian or those who don't eat rice (I don't know who that would be, but I assume there are some out there).  We list the ingredients on the word wall, and then I give the official task:

Write a recipe to make a "slurp-it-up-every-month-of-the-year" kind of soup. With all of the prep work, the kids should now be well prepared to construct their own recipes. Have the kids mimic the format studied and even use a book, online source, or a printout as a guide.

Once finished, have the kids illustrate a picture of their perfect soup.

The above mentioned starting page for my class to learn the poem.

3. Quick Watercolor Project:

Above, I mentioned I copy the pages of this book; I also make additional black and white copies and have students watercolor them. Regular printer paper works great, but if you have watercolor paper I suggest printing the pages on that--the quality is great. Either way, I adore the kids' color choices, and the project is really short and, more or less, open ended fun. Simple and fun.

4. Sequence and Reading Game:

I continue to make copies of the book (EEK! I am suddenly concerned with copyright laws), and I have a page for each kid (if you have more than 12 as most teachers do, have kids form pairs and work together on a page or divide the class in half and make it a competition between the two sides). Give a page to each child and have the kids read them to themselves. Then, after all have read their pages, have each child get out of his/her chair and try to get organized in the proper month order--January, February, March, etc. To test if they got the order correct, have the kids read/sing their pages aloud. You can do the game a second time by having kids trade papers.

The game is fun and is a way for kids to practice sequencing the months, get a chance to practice reading, and to work in a team. The same project can be duplicated with a child on his/her own and you can time him/her to keep the excitement alive.

5. Discussions/Writing Prompts:

Use these prompts to talk about the book with your kids, or you can have them write their responses. Remember, picture books don't need to stop in second grade!

1. Which month of the year offers the best time for eating Chicken Soup with Rice? Why?
2. If you could convince the author to change the food from soup to another dish, what would you like? What makes that dish so good?
3. When you look at the poem, what do you notice about its structure? Are there the same amount of lines? Do any repeat? Why does the author/poet do this?
4. We don't know much about the boy in the book, other than his love for Chicken Soup with Rice. Write a story that tells how he came to fall in love with his soup.
5. If you wanted to convince someone to eat your favorite food, how would you convince them?

I hope you enjoy this catchy classic, "Chicken Soup with Rice"... And I hope you and your kids are inspired to cook up some fun together.

Happy learning!

"animals everywhere" words by Lillian Pluta pictures by Jillian Phillips

THE BOOK:
My wife and I picked up this book in San Jose, California at "Happy Hollow Park and Zoo"--BTW it is a great place to take kids ages 6 months up to 6 years. Back to the book... It is an eco-friendly book following a hodgepodge of animals in their varying habitats around the world. With a nice rhyme and adorable illustrations, this one is a great animal lovers book to add to your library. At the back of the book, it has two pages of mini-descriptions of animal needs, ideas to preserve nature, and an activity to build a bird house and a diorama.

"animals everywhere" and me, in a rare hat-less moment.

USE THE BOOK:

While it is a smaller book, it is a good one to read aloud in a group or share one-on-one with a kid ages 2-8.  Here are some ideas for you to steal...

1. Verb Hunt:
One night while reading this book to my preschool-aged son, I discovered it was chock-full of great verbs. Phrases like:

"Up in the Arctic, where the cold winds blow, polar  bears tussle in the soft white snow. Reindeer prance as a walrus floats by, and furry little foxes stay warm and dry."

(Adorable, right?)

So I decided to read it aloud to my high school English students to help them deal with parts of speech (because as high school students they still have trouble with it), but this can be done with kids as young as first or second grade.

After reading the book aloud, they were then asked to jot down as many verbs as they could remember from the text. For instance from the above phrases they could have noted: blow, tussle, and prance, to name a few.

At the end of the book they had long lists, and with those lists we played a Scattergories-esk game. One student read out his list, and the others would raise their hands if they caught the same verb. Verbs that were caught by another listener earned zero points. Those that were caught by only one listener earned one point.

What do they win? They rarely win something tangible; I typically shout out, "Good job! Five life points for you." A few students said they were keeping track of life points... but I digress.

From this I then give them sentences from the book. I have the class circle the verbs, and then I ask them to try changing the verbs around to say something new with the verb choice. We can take the phrase  "Up in the Arctic, where the cold winds blow, polar  bears tussle in the soft white snow" and change it to "Up in the Arctic, where the cold winds sings, polar  bears dance in the soft white snow".  (You'll notice I didn't worry about the rhyme scheme or the meter when I changed my verbs; it is less cumbersome to deal with if you are free to play with the words.)

I then play the same Scattergories-esk game with the class. We see who has repeats, and the same scoring of zero points for a repeat and one point for a unique word apply. Life points are given, and the students squeal with delight... well, maybe they just grin politely.

This activity illuminates the importance of word choice, especially with the ever-important vivid verb. After this lesson I have found vivid verb usage skyrockets.

2. Technical Writing to Avoid the Artsy and Costly Diorama: 
I actually love making dioramas with kids. Kids love them too... mostly. There can be a point, however, where there are too many bank-breaking or dumpster-diving projects. Solution? Have kids imagine they are setting up the perfect zoo for one of the animals in the book. (Ideally, each child will select a different animal.) Have each child research what that animal needs to survive and thrive. Then have the child write a letter to the zoo proposing what the animal needs. Clearly this will need to be based in research. I suggest subscribing to great magazines like Ranger Rick or using websites like these. 

When they finally have their research, have the kids think about their audience. They need to realize they are "sending" these to the owners of a zoo, so their language should reflect that.

One page featuring animals of the rainforest. 

3. "I am" Personification Poem:

After reading the book together, have each child select an animal they enjoy (ideally, each child will select a different animal). Once each child has an animal, have the child brainstorm how she would describe it.

1. Is it big? Big as compared to what?
2. Is it loud? Loud as compared to a chainsaw or a buzzing refrigerator?
3. What type of covering does it have? Fur? Scales? Feathers?
4. What does it eat? Bugs or pizza?
5. To what habitat does it belong?

And so on...

Once the child knows the animal, have her begin to create a personification poem where she gradually reveals the identity of the animal. For instance, a child might write:

I am tall, taller than some of the trees at your house.
I am big, bigger than the car you rode in this morning.
I am loud and quiet.
  I can be as loud a trumpet in a 4th of July Parade!
  But I can be as soft as a fan in a classroom during a test.
I am covered with gray skin, but I also have hair.
I am an eater. I eat lots of food. At the circus they give me peanuts.
I am a resident of Africa and Asia, but you can see me at the zoo.
I am an elephant. 

A fun part of this activity is having kids pair up in teams to do "detective work" to discover which animal their friends have written about.

This makes a good bulletin board for Back to School Night or Open House as each student will have a unique piece of poetry, plus you can add an art project to the writing. Have each student draw a picture of the animal and its habitat and tack it to the wall. Then on top of that drawing, tack the child's poem with tacks only at the top. Visitors can then lift up the poem to see the art work. Nifty, eh?

4. Discussions/Writing Prompts:

Use these prompts to talk about the book with your kids, or you can have them write their responses. Remember, picture books don't need to stop in second grade!

1. If you were to select a habitat in which to reside, which would you pick and why?
2. Which of these habitats do you believe to be the most important? Why?
3. If you were to add an additional page to one of these habitat descriptions, what would it say? (Ask kids to elaborate on one page, such as on the page above: The daddy jaguar tucks his cub in for the night, while crickets start to chirp and sing with delight.)
4. Many of these habitats are far away, while some are in our backyard. Make a list of five things we can do to ensure these habitats are protected for the animals that call them home.
5. Choose one of the animals mentioned in the book. Describe the animal with vivid verbs, specific nouns, and thought-provoking adjectives. You may even wish to write about it in rhyme.


I hope you enjoy "animals everywhere"... And I hope you and your kids enjoy the delightful eco-awareness book!


Happy learning!