Archive for the 'poetry' Category

Teaching Geography with Children’s Literature: A World of Wonders

Published by Emma on October 29, 2009 in environment, nonfiction, history, earth science, geography, book review, poetry, diversity, social studies and Uncategorized. 0 Comments

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Geography can be an overwhelming subject to teach. Don’t be alarmed! J.Patrick Lewis’s book of poetry, A World of Wonders, illustrated by Alison Jay, covers a wide variety of geographical concepts through different types of poems that your students will love!

The book opens with an acrostic poem about Christopher Columbus’ discovery in 1492, and takes readers on a voyage all over the world. With fun and engaging illustrations, Lewis writes poems about Marco Polo, Aurora Borealis, the difference between longitude and latitude, the poles, and the five oceans, only to name a few. One of my favorite pages is full of 6 City Riddles, where students must guess where in the world they would be given the clues. I love the riddle for Sydney, Australia: “Where are you if…You see a modern opera house? Come visit here and bring your spouse–Or y’r mate, if you may. Enjoy a barbie shrimp! G’day!” The book concludes with a poem which encourages children to take care of their world, an essential topic to tie into a geography lesson: “Make the Earth your companion. Walk lightly on it, as other creatures do. Let the Sky paint her beauty–she is always watching over you.”

Curriculum Connections

This book could be used in many different areas of geography, and across a number of different grades. Since the topics from poem to poem are so different from each other, I would suggest reading applicable poems at the start of a geography lesson. For example, when beginning a lesson on the five oceans, share with students the poem “Oceans Five.” A World of Wonders could be applied to SOL 2.5, where students must locate the equator, 7 continents and 5 oceans, and 3.5, which further studies the continents, oceans, and the equator, as well as studying the regions discovered by different explorers. Lewis’ book could also be applied to some of the SOLs for Virginia Studies, such as USI.2, which covers different geographic regions of North America, and water features of the United States. The World Geography SOL WG.4 could be taught through this book as well, because it challenges students to analyze and locate physical, economic and cultural characteristics of the world regions.

Additional Resources

  • Allow your students to explore countries all over the world on National Geographic’s kid-friendly site.
  • Play this Message in a Bottle game to teach your students about longitude and latitude.
  • Where in the World? is a great webquest to use in your classroom, where students collect information of a world region to write a postcard home to the states.

General Information
Book: A World of Wonders
Author: J. Patrick Lewis
Illustrator: Alison Jay
Publisher: Dial Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: 2002
Pages: 40
Grade Range: 2-4
ISBN: 0803725795

Teaching Geography with Children’s Literature: Earthshake (Poems from the Ground Up)

Published by Natalie on October 28, 2009 in geography, book review and poetry. 0 Comments

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The book Earthshake, poems from the ground up, is an accumulation of several poems that are related to the earth.

Summary
This book is a fun and interesting way to look at the earth.  Some of the poems are just short little phrases while other ones are about a page long.  The topics span from the earth’s crust, to continents, to wind and fire.  They all have witty, fun names too including “Wyoming Layer Cake”, “Instructions for the Earth’s Dishwasher”, and “Earth Charged in Meteor’s Fiery Death.”  The different titles for the poems make it fun and exciting for the students to read.  It offers a different perspective on how to look at the earth as well.

Curriculum Connection
This book would not me limited to any particular grade considering it is such a general overview and offers such a small introduction to each topic.  It would probably fit well with 1st through 3rd grade.

Additional Resources:
1. This book has such a wide range of topics that it would be easy to make an international connection.  This website offers information on numerous countries all around the world.
2. This link provides a connection to a science activity that deals with a meteorite
3. This is a helpful website that offers several different maps of countries, towns, cities, and more

General Information:
Book: Earthshake (Poems from the Ground Up)
Author: Lisa Westberg Peters
Illustrator: Cathie Felstead
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Publication Date: 2003
Pages: 32
Grade Range: 4-8
ISBN #: 0060292652

Teaching Earth Science with Children’s Literature: Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain.

Published by Cory on September 20, 2009 in environment, earth science, book review, poetry, science and Uncategorized. 0 Comments

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Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain, written by Verna Aardema, is story that tells of an African legend about what makes the sky rain.  This story is a long, repetitive, rhyming poem, much like “In the House that Jack Built”.

A herdsman name Ki-pat stands watching his cows, as well as the other animals of the Serengeti, begin to go hungry as the fields and pastures dried from lack of rain.

“These are the cows, all hungry and dry,
Who mooed for the rain to fall from the sky;
To green-up the grass, all brown and dead,
That needed the rain from the cloud overhead -
The big black cloud, all heavy with rain,
That shadowed the ground on Kapiti Plain.”

Ki-pat worries about the pastures and animals drying up and becoming ill, and wants to make the rain fall out of the cloud.  A feather falls from an eagle soaring above, and gives Ki-pat an idea - he will shoot the cloud to make the rain pour out!

“This was the shot that pierced the could
And loosed the rain with thunder LOUD!
A shot from the bow, so long and strong,
And strung with a string, a leather thong;
A bow for the arrow Ki-pat put together
With a slender stick and an eagle feather;
From the eagle who happened to drop a feather,
A feather that helped to change the weather.”

The rain finally falls on Ki-pat’s field, which greens the grass, helping to feed and water his starving animals.

“So the grass grew green, and the cattle fat!
And Ki-pat got a wife and a little Ki-pat -
Who tends the cows now, and shoots down the rain,
When black clouds shadow Kapiti Plain.”

Curriculum Connections:

 This book will help teach children the relationship of seasonal change and weather patterns to life processes of plants and animals, as well as the importance of the water cycle for the life of living things, as suggested by VA Science SOLs 1.7abc, as well as 3.9c.

Additional Resources:

Teacherlink has an extension geography lesson for this book that highlights the different regions and wildlife of Africa, as well as point out that people who live far away from each other can be similar, as well as have big differences in the way they live.

Scholastic’s website provides guided reading questions to help children make predictions and tell their feelings about the story, as well as gives a guide for “choral reading” of the repetitious sections of the poem.

Kids Econ Posters provides an economics lesson plan for this book highlighting the topic of scarcity.

General Information:

Book:  Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain
Author:  Verna Aardema
Illustrator:  Beatriz Vidal
Publisher:  Scholastic
Publication Date:  2001
Pages:  32 pages
Grade Range:  1-3
ISBN-13: 978-0140546163

Teaching Physical Science with Children’s Literature: Who Sank the Boat?

Published by Cory on September 7, 2009 in physical science, book review, poetry, science and Uncategorized. 0 Comments

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Who Sank the Boat? by Pamela Allen is a short, repetitive, and slightly rhyming story that helps children learn about sinking and floating, as well as making assumptions and hypotheses.  Who Sank the Boat? begins with several barnyard animals who decide that they would like to go for a short row in a boat, and follows them as they try to fit all the animals in the boat without it tipping over.

“Was it the cow who almost fell in, when she tilted the boat and made such a din?  No, it wasn’t the cow who almost fell in.  Do you know who sank the boat?

The story continues as the smaller animals begin to enter the boat, and the it gets lower in the water.

“Was it the pig as fat as butter, who stepped in at the side and caused a great flutter?  No, it wasn’t the pig as fat as butter.  Do you know who sank the boat?

The end has a surprise twist, that very few readers are likely to predict.

“Was it the little mouse, the last to get in, who was the lightest of all?  Could it be him? You DO know who sank the boat.”

This book teaches that something’s ability to float or sink can depend on the removal or addition of even a very small item, such as a mouse, as well as where items are placed inside a boat to keep the weight evenly distributed to help balance the boat.

Curriculum Connections:

This book can help children become familiar with water and its properties, and is able to support some materials, ie: allowing them to float, and its inability to support others, ie: sinking.  Through follow up lessons and assignments this book also assists students in understanding that water and its properties can be observed, tested, and recorded, as is reflected in VA Science SOL K.5c.

Additional Resources:

The Science NetLinks site has a good lesson plan involving an online sinking and floating activity as well as using aluminum foil to make miniature boats to practice making them float and sink.

The Athens State University website reccommends using this book to connect to measuring scales and units such as a pound, and figuring out which things are likely to weigh more and less than a pound.

The SEDL website has a good lesson plan for helping students make predictions about which objects will float or sink, as well as help them record data in graphic organizers.

General Resources:
Book: Who Sank the Boat?
Author/Illustrator: Pamela Allen
Publisher: Putnam Juvenile
Publication Date: April 16, 1996
Pages: 32 pages
Grade Range: Kindergarten-1st
ISBN: 978-0698113732

Teaching Earth Science with Children’s Literature: Comets, Stars, the Moon and Mars

Published by Allison on September 24, 2008 in space science, book review and poetry. 0 Comments

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Comets, Stars the Moon, and Mars is book of space paintings and poetry written and beautifully illustrated by artist, Douglas Florian. The book includes clever little poems about all eight planets, the sky, galaxies, and even a sad poem about how Pluto was demoted as a planet. This particular poem starts off as “Pluto was a planet. But now it doesn’t pass…” and goes on before concluding that Pluto was officially fired as a legitimate planet in out solar system. All the poems are easy to read and understand, making it a perfect book for kids to work on reading themselves. The scientific facts about the planets and space objects are neatly folded into the stanza, it never seems forced or cheesy. For example, one poem about black holes includes lines like, “some are small, some are quite wide. Gravity pulls, all things inside,” which subtly gives basic facts about black holes while still presenting a strong piece of poetry.Another helpful resource that the book offers is a glossary in the back with written paragraphs about each planet and space object mentioned in the poems. This is a great resource to help answer questions that arise while reading the poems as you introduce kids to the new topics. I really enjoy the paintings in the book that accompany each poem. I think the book can appeal to many kids because it combines both artistic and scientific thinking.

Curriculum Connections
The book can be used to get kids interested in science and the topic of the universe by letting them read about it in a non-traditional way, through poetry and art. It satisfies the Virginia SOL for earth science 4.7 by talking about sizing, positioning and mass make-up of the earth, moon and sun. I think it could be appropriate for any grade between 3rd and 6th to give kids an alternative and maybe more fun way of looking at earth science.

Additional Resources

  • For some extra detailed information and facts about the planets and the solar system, check out this site by NASA
  • Retreat back to a more traditional science book with this universe encyclopedia.
  • Have students illustrate their own astronomy terms with some ideas here, you could even add in a poetry workshop and have each student create their own poem defining the terms just like in the book.

Book: Comets, Stars, the Moon and Mars
Author: Douglas Florian
Publisher: Harcourt Children’s Books
Publication Date: 2007
Pages: 56 pages
Grades: 3-6
ISBN:  0152053727

Teaching Physical Science with Children’s Literature: Scien-Trickery

Published by Elvira on September 10, 2008 in physical science, book review and poetry. 0 Comments

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Helping children develop critical thinking skills is essential, and Scien-Trickery by J. Patrick Lewis is a great book for the job. J. Patrick Lewis uses riddles to explore various science topics making learning fun and unique.

This creative book shows a different approach for children reviewing main points in science. The fascinating book is a cluster of 16 different riddles of appealing topics. Each riddle has its own creative title such as “Push Me, Pull Me,” for magnets and “SHHHHHHHH!” for sound. Both the titles and the illustrations on each page give clues to the reader as to what the answer to the riddle is. On page 14 the riddle titled “The Old Switcheroo” states

My father’s the arc,
My mother’s the spark.
Without them you would
Be left in the dark.

Answer: Electricity

All the riddles are similar to this one and demonstrate critical thinking for the student. The student is able to think outside of the regular text book and apply the information that he or she has learned to solve interesting riddles. The main topics discussed in the book are: Magnets, Humidity, Sound, Electricity, Gravity, Germs, Rust and Dinosaurs. These riddles not only focus on scientific terms but also on everyday situations that they can relate the riddle to. The book relates to the everyday life of students and ignores the schema that science is not applicable to real-world situation.

Curriculum Connections
Scien-Trickery, does not introduce new topics to students. The riddles are more of a review of what the student already knows making the reader population older. The riddles that focus on magnets, electricity, and sound review topics considered in physical Science. If teaching in Virginia this book would be great to review SOL’s 4.3d and 4.3f which are focused on understanding electricity. This could also help reinforce topics similar to K.3 focused on magnets and push pull, as well as 1.2 b focusing on sound production.

Additional Information

  • Kids Science Experiments focuses on easy experiments that explain more complicated ideas. This experiment shows student how to create and see electricity with tissue paper. This activity would be great to us as a reinforcement of the reading.
  • Lesson Plan: Exploring Magnets and Magnetism is an entire day projects that focuses on teaching magnets and how they work. Students will participate in an experiment and follow through with all the processes. This activity is recommended for students to apply what they have learned in their reading and to further extend their knowledge on magnets and scientific experiments.

Book: Scien-Trickery
Author: J. Patrick Lewis
Illustrator: Frank Remkiewicz
Publisher: Silver Whistle
Publication Date: 2004
Pages: 32 pages
Grade: K-5
ISBN: 978-0152166816

Teaching Physical Science with Children’s Literature: Spectacular Science

Published by Cara on September 9, 2008 in physical science, book review and poetry. 0 Comments

Do you like to read poetry and like learning about science? Here’s a fun and colorful book that allows you to enjoy both at the same time.

Spectacular Science is a book of poems selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins which incorporates the beauty of poetry with the fascination of science. From describing the essence of science in terms a child can understand to identifying specific topics in science, this book covers many different interests a child may have in the broad science field.  Hopkins has chosen specific poems about images and ideas that children are familiar with. In entitling his poems, ”Snowflakes” and “Dinosaur Bone”, Hopkins invites children to begin to see that the things they encounter in everyday life, the things they love, are all a part of science. The poems also describe instruments which are used in conducting scientific experiments and how they are employed. While using rhyme and rhythm, this excerpt from the poem entitled “Under the Microscope” written by Hopkins himself, provides an insight into the world that is too small to view without this tool.

Unseen with
an unaided eye
amoebas
glide
on a small
glass slide.

Along with the beautiful language and the scientific overtones, the illustrations jump off the page in strange and bright ways. The drawings coincide with the poems in that they depict the main idea or topic of the poems but they are also somewhat abstract. Children will love to wonder at the bizarre interpretations of the creatures that fill the pages along with the thought-provoking poems.

Curriculum Connections
This book may help a child understand the way in which magnets attract (K.3) and the concept of its poles. Water’s phases are alluded to in a poem about ice and water.(K.5) (2.3)Also, a child may learn the way a prism works and how it produces a rainbow.(5.3)

Additional Resources

Book: Spectacular Science
Author:  Lee Bennett Hopkins
Illustrator:Virginia Halstead
Publisher: Aladdin Paperbacks
Publication Date: 1999
Pages: 37 pages
Grades: K-2
ISBN: 0-689-85120-0

Teaching Physical Science with Children’s Literature: In the Spin of Things

Published by Lexi on September 8, 2008 in physical science, book review and poetry. 0 Comments

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Unfortunately there are not many stories for teachers to read relating to motion, but there are a few out there. In the Spin of Things would be one of those few books. Rebecca Kai Dotlich and Karen Dugan once again have gotten together to create a book of poems to get kids interested in the concept of motion.

The book consists of twenty-three poems about different objects and the movements they make. From a rubber band to waterfalls, In the Spin of Things covers a wide variety of objects that have some type of motion, providing the perfect opportunity for teachers to connect their science lesson to the world. Good imagery fills every poem, such as in part of the following poem, Jump Rope.

“Swings up,
whirls around,
brushes ground
beneath quick feet.”

Since some of Dotlich’s poems pertain to simple everyday items, teachers can actually demonstrate what these poems are talking about to their students after they finish reading it. But by also writing poems about larger, not so everyday items, Dotlich opens students’ eyes to the much larger scale of motion as well. While Dotlich provides great work in her poems, Dugan contributes to an even better enjoyment of the poems with her wonderful illustrations. The bright colors on every page that correlate with each poem provide even more enjoyment for the students, and what can be better than getting students to start off liking a subject?

Curriculum Connections
It is difficult to find a book that focuses on presenting the lessons of motion to children in more ways than just an explanation or activity. Dotlich and Dugan did an excellent job of presenting this difficult lesson with a fun new approach, while also opening students up to more poetry, covering both science and some English at once! For Virginia first grade teachers, this book provides a great introduction to fulfilling the Science SOL 1.2, dealing with different kinds of motion created by different objects. Teachers can also take this opportunity to discuss poems with their students, perhaps even having them write their own poems incorporating moving objects in the classroom.

Additional Resources

Book: In the Spin of Things
Author: Rebecca Kai Dotlich
Illustrator: Karen Dugan
Publisher: Wordsong
Publication Date: 2003
Pages: 32 pages
Grades: K-3
ISBN: 1-56397-145-3

Teaching Physical Science with Children’s Literature: Flicker Flash

Published by Kim on September 8, 2008 in physical science, book review and poetry. 0 Comments

Many children associate the concept of light with the simple action of flicking a light switch and are unaware of the various forms of light that are used everyday. Joan Bransfield Graham and illustrator Nancy Davis compiled a series of poems, that illustrates and explains the different types of light, in the book Flicker Flash which can help broaden a young child’s idea of light or to reinforce ideas before the start of an unit.

In Flicker Flash, Graham describes various forms of light used in household appliances (such as a light bulb, porch light, television, and a refrigerator light), light in the night sky (including fireworks, lighthouses, a lightening bolt, and the moon), and light used during special occasions (such as birthday candles, camera light and a spotlight). The  poems explain how light is used in many aspects of the day and helps to broaden a child’s idea of light.

Light Oh, Light
Captain of the midnight sky,
You stretch your arms and flash your eye across the waves and churning foam to steer me,
Guide me,
Safely Home.
Light House

Along with the text, Davis’ pictures helps to clarify the distinctions between the types of light by organizing the text to support how the light is used. For example, in the poem above, Davis supports the text by arranging the words into a lighthouse with some of the words extending away from the light house text simulating the search lights on the top of lighthouses. Between the content of Graham’s writing in addition to the reinforcement provided through Davis’ pictures, children will expand their knowledge on the multiple sources of light.

Curriculum Connections
This book can be used to help expand young students’ knowledge to recognize different sources of light. For older grades Flicker Flash can be used to remind students of various light sources as an introduction before moving onto addressing additional characteristics of electricity (In Virginia this corresponds with standard 4.3).

Additional Resources

  • Joan Graham’s website provides extension activities for language arts, music, social studies, art, science, and math to further investigate how light plays a role in our lives.
  • Star Light, Star Bright has activities and additional information for students explaining the relationship between light and stars. This site also provides lesson plans and ideas for teachers.
  • This site provides opportunities for additional exploration on light with demonstrations of making lightening, along with interactive sites for kids, worksheets, and lesson plans for teachers.

Title: Flicker Flash
Author: Joan Bransfield Graham
Illustrator: Nancy Davis
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Publication Date: 2003
Pages: 32 pages
Grades: K-4
ISBN: 0618311025

Nonfiction Monday - I, Matthew Henson: Polar Explorer

Published by Tricia on January 28, 2008 in nonfiction, biography, African American, book review and poetry. 2 Comments

I am always on the lookout for strong biographies to add to my teaching collection. I stumbled across I, Matthew Henson shortly after the new year and after reading just a few pages, knew I had to have it. Here’s how it begins.

I did not walk forty miles
from the nation’s capital
to Baltimore’s busy harbor to eye
ships from a dock. Though just thirteen
I yearned for a taste of the adventures
that I had heard old sailors speak of,
to explore the seven seas
and somehow find my calling.

I did not start as a cabin boy, climb
the ranks to able-bodied seaman,
sail five continents, and learn
trades and foreign tongues to be shunned
by white crews who thought blacks
were not seaworthy. I did not chart
this course to drift in humdrum jobs
ashore. My dreams had sails.

And what dreams they were. In language that is lyrical and poetic, accompanied by vibrant pastels, readers learn how Henson serendipitously met Robert Peary while working as a clerk. Once he signed on with Peary, his life was never the same. In haunting words and images, we are taken north again and again with Henson. The images are stark and help us to understand how arduous these trips were. Henson made this trip seven times between 1891 and 1909. A trip like this would be difficult today, with all our advanced technologies. Knowing this makes the feat accomplished by Henson that much more extraordinary.

In his time with Peary, Henson sailed to Greenland, where he befriended the native peoples, learned the Inuit language, learned to hunt and track on ice, and honed many more skills that would help him eventually reach the North Pole. On April 6, 1909, six men reached the North Pole. One was black, one was white, and fur were native. The text ends here, but the Author’s Note explains that when the explorers returned, they were greeted with controversy. Dr. Frederick Cook, who sailed on an earlier expedition with Henson and Peary, claimed he reached the Pole in 1908. But this was not the only difficulty Henson faced. America was not willing to accept an African American hero in 1909.

It took years for Henson to achieve the recognition he deserved. In 1944 he was finally awarded duplicate of the Congressional silver medal given to Peary. In 1988 he was moved to Arlington National Cemetery, where he is buried beside Peary.

This book works on many levels, not only because of the beauty of the writing, but also the strength of the illustrations. I can’t say enough about how lovely this book is. I highly recommend it.

Book: I, Matthew Henson: Polar Explorer
Author: Carole Boston Weatherford
Illustrator: Eric Velasquez
Publisher: Walker Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: 2008
Pages: 32
Grades: K-5
ISBN-10: 0802796885
ISBN-13: 978-0802796882
Source of Book: Personal copy purchased at a local independent bookstore

To learn more about the author, be sure to visit The Brown Bookshelf. As part of their 28 Days Later project, Carole Boston Weatherford will be featured on February 20th. And if you didn’t know it, Weatherford’s book Birmingham, 1963 was just awarded the 2008 Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award.

This review was written for Nonfiction Monday. Head on over to Anastasia Suen’s blog and check out the round-up of posts.