Category Archives: Self Smart

Dear Hot Dog

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DearHotDog_COVWhen writing poetry with kids, one of the biggest complaints I hear is “I don’t know what to write about.” I can’t blame them. There are plenty of times when I look at a blank sheet of paper and I don’t know what to write about, either.

That’s one reason why Dear Hot Dog by Mordicai Gerstein is so brilliant: he writes poems about the most ordinary of things, like a hot dog, the summer sun, even the air, all the things we love but sometimes overlook.

Take, for instance, Gerstein’s poem about socks (which is still apropos in April in Michigan):

Socks
I never stop
to think about socks,
and if I get them
for a birthday present
from Aunt Adi,
I’m disappointed.
You can’t play
with socks.
But now,
with wind rattling
the icy windows,
putting on these
soft, thick, red ones
makes me happy
all day.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: poetry is meant to be read aloud. During this month of poetry (or any time of the year), read Dear Hot Dog to your students. (You’ll hit the Common Core Standard of Range of Reading, and if you focus on the poet’s choice of interesting words, you’ll teach Craft & Structure as well!)  Talk about how each poem is an ode of gratitude for an everyday object. Take inspiration from Gerstein and brainstorm with the class all the ordinary stuff we love. A few of Gerstein’s poems have to do with food. In lousy-weather months when we can’t get outside, working food into a lesson will light up your Nature Smart Students. Perhaps everyone can bring in a favorite food as inspiration, to savor as they write their own poems about the taste, texture, smell, general wonderfulness of an everyday thing they love.  Your students may find the extraordinary in the ordinary.

Oh, No! Where Are My Pants? and Other Disasters: Poems

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wherearemypantsPoetry doesn’t have to be “roses are red, violets are blue…” As David Lubar wrote in his young adult novel, Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie, “There are as many types of poems as there are types of food. As many flavors, you might say. To claim you don’t like poetry because you hate ‘mushy stuff’ or things you don’t immediately understand is like saying you hate food because you don’t like asparagus.”

April is National Poetry Month, but don’t relegate poems to just one month – share all kinds of poetry all year long! (If you do, you can check Range of Reading off your Common Core Standards list!) One of my go-to poetry books is Oh, No! Where Are My Pants? and Other Disasters: Poems edited by Lee Bennett Hopkins with pictures by Wolf Erlbruch. These “disaster” poems range from funny to poignant, and your kids will find at least one to which they can totally relate.

For example, here’s one titled “Oh, No!” by Katie McAllaster Weaver:
“Hello apple!
Shiny red.

CHOMP. CHOMP.

Hello worm.
Where’s your head?”

and here’s part of one called “My Friend is Gone” by Lillian M. Fisher:
“A hug, a tear, and you are gone.
Your swing is missing from the lawn.
Your house is silent, dark and lone.
Your window says no one is home.”

Poetry is meant to be read aloud, so read Oh, No! Where Are My Pants? and Other Disasters: Poems to your class and then choose one or two of your favorite poems to read aloud again. Talk with your students about why you liked that particular poem. Encourage your students either to choose a poem to practice reading or to write a disaster poem of their own. Then, have a disaster poetry slam where you and each of your students read a poem aloud expressively to the class. You can bring a stool for kids to sit on, and a beret to wear, and students can snap for each other instead of clap (I like to teach them phrases like “cool cat” and groovy, man” because it makes me giggle.) Your students will build their reading fluency (another Common Core Standard checked off!) and find that poetry isn’t just mushy love stuff.

 

 

Ellie McDoodle: Have Pen, Will Travel

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ellieIt’s officially the first day of spring, and yes, we have snow in Michigan. *sigh* I need a good book to lift my spirits, and I’ve found the perfect one: Ellie McDoodle: Have Pen, Will Travel written and illustrated by Ruth McNally Barshaw.

Usually I blog about picture books to use with students in preschool through third grade. This book is different; it’s what I call a “highly illustrated novel”, ideal for your second and third graders (also appropriate for those first grade super readers). If you’ve had kids clamoring for Diary of a Wimpy Kid books, give them Ellie. The Wimpy Kid is in middle school, and he’s not a particularly great role model (part of his appeal to the older crowd). Ellie McDoodle has all the cool doodles throughout the book like the Wimpy Kid books, but Ellie is an awesome chick. She’s into nature and drawing so she appeals to boys and girls, and she’s a good kid. This first book in the Ellie McDoodle series has Ellie off on a camping trip with her cousins and her little brother, Ben-Ben. She journals the ups and downs of it all in this book.

We just had Ruth McNally Barshaw come talk to 200 fifth graders who’d studied this book as part of our Battle of the Books. Ruth was phenomenal. Our fifth graders cheered like they were meeting a rock star! They loved this book and are quickly gobbling up the next three books in the series (Ellie McDoodle: New Girl in School, Ellie McDoodle: Best Friends Fur-Ever, Ellie McDoodle: Most Valuable Player – books 5 and 6 are in the works).

So share Ellie McDoodle: Have Pen, Will Travel with your students, especially the author’s note at the end where Ruth describes how to keep a sketch journal. Talking about the information found in the illustrations and how it supports the text is a way to hit the Common Core State Standard of Integrating Knowledge & Ideas. Give the kids paper to make their own mini-journals, and encourage them to doodle, write, and record events from their lives. Even reluctant writers and artists will be drawn in by Ruth’s fun doodle tips also found at the back of the book.

For more information about Ruth McNally Barshaw, please visit: ruthexpress.com.

Let’s Talk About Race

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“It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.” – Maya Angelou.

Next Monday we celebrate the birthday of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. What better way to honor his dream of a nation where our children “will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character” than with a wonderful children’s book celebrating our differences and our similarities.

Let’s Talk About Race is written by Julius Lester and illustrated by Karen Barbour. “I am a story,” Lester writes. “So are you. So is everyone.” Our race is just one part of our stories. “To know my story, you have to put together everything I am.”

How does your story begin? When were you born, and who is in your family? What is your favorite food, your religion, your favorite color, your nationality? All of these things are a part of our stories. But, “some stories are true. Some are not. Those who say ‘MY RACE IS BETTER THAN YOUR RACE’  are telling a story that is not true.”

Lester goes on to tell a story that is true: if you press your fingers gently below your eyes, you can feel the bone beneath your skin. And if you press gently on a friend’s face, no matter what their skin color, you will feel the bone there, too.  “Beneath our skin I look like you and you look like me…” Instead of focusing on the stories we can make up about each other based on eye color, skin color, and hair texture, we can find out the true stories, the rich and complex stories, of each other.

After you read Let’s Talk About Race with your students, talk about race! And talk about all the other wonderful parts of our stories, from favorite foods to hair color to pet peeves. You can make a questionnaire based on all the elements Lester talks about for students to answer. Next, challenge students to find someone else who had the something the same on his or her list. You can integrate this into a math lesson by graphing some of the answers, like eye color, or get out the art supplies and let students make cool representations of themselves. If your students can “identify the main purpose of a text, including what the author wants to answer, explain, or describe”, you’ll hit the Common Core State Standard of Craft and Structure using a book with a truly worthwhile main purpose.

Bones: Skeletons and How They Work

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I could say, “here’s an informational book that will tickle your funny bone” or  “it’s so good it’s scary”, but Bones: Skeletons and How They Work by Steve Jenkins needs no rib-tickling tricks to get kids’ attention. For Halloween or health units, this book is thoroughly engaging.  Using cut paper, Jenkins makes incredible illustrations of all kinds of bones to show how structure aids function. Some of the bones are shown actual size, so it’s easy to compare a human skull to that of a baboon, a dog, a parrot, or an armadillo. Some bones are too large to show in actual size, so Jenkins makes the bones to scale. Kids can compare an adult human’s foot bones to the fossil foot bones of a Tyrannosaurus rex!  Not only is this book visually a treat, it’s chock-full of “who knew?” facts that kids love: “a giraffe’s neck is as long as a man is tall, but giraffes and humans have the same number of neck bones: seven.”

I love sharing informational books like this with students. With Steve Jenkins’ books, I’m squeezing in the Common Core State Standards of Range of Reading and Key Ideas and Details, I can work interesting books into math and science units, I’m immersing my students in nonfiction, and all the while the kids think they’re just enjoying a good book. Because  most of Jenkins’ illustrations are actual size or to scale, you can use Bones: Skeletons and How They Work in a measurement lesson. Kids can estimate how long a bone is and measure it with a ruler. For higher level math, have students measure the to-scale illustrations and multiply to get actual-size measurements.

If you read this book with students around Halloween, it can be a springboard to make some spooky decorations. At enchantedlearning.com, you can print off a human skeleton template for students to cut out and put together with brads to see how all our bones fit. Hang up the skeletons and your decorations are not only scary, they are scientific! For a treat that’s not loaded with sugar, try serving “Bones Dipped in Blood” (pull breadstick dough into bone shapes, bake, and serve with pizza sauce.) To incorporate a bit of technology and to rock it old school, go to YouTube and treat your students to the Schoolhouse Rock video clip of “Them Not-So-Dry Bones”. “Right now there’s a skeleton locked up inside of you!”

For more information, please visit Steve Jenkins’ website: stevejenkinsbooks.com.