Hoop Kings

Flexible Thinking, Imagination, Poetry, , ,

“Hoop Kings”

In this book, Hoop Kings, poet Charles R. Smith Jr. captures the essence of each basketball player with metaphoric analogies that shoot readers straight into the game.  

This story promotes creative components of imagination, flexible thinking, and passion.

WHY I LIKE THIS BOOK: I like this book because these fast-paced poems inject readers into the game through word choice, poem line set up, and passion for the game while introducing the reader to each player’s style of play, skill set, and court personality.

TITLE:Hoop Kings

POEMS by: Charles R. Smith Jr.

PUBLISHER: Candlewick Press, 2004

AGE GROUP: 8-12

TOPIC(S): poetry, basketball, word choice and analogies

CREATIVE COMPONENTS: imagination, flexible thinking, passion

LEARNING EXTENSIONS:

1) Things that interest you so much that you want to learn more and more about them through reading, doing, and experimenting are called passions. What are some of your interests/passions? Create an independent study on one of your passions to learn more about it with the goal of producing an end product. Use your end product to teach others about your passion.

2) Who is one of your favorite sports players? It can be a famous athlete or someone you know. Jot down a list of adjectives that describe how this person plays her/his sport. Read your list and visualize that player, what does s/he remind you of? Next incorporate that into a metaphor to write a poem about your player.

EXTENDING CONNECTIONS:

To learn more about poet Charles R. Smith Jr., visit:

Home
http://charlesrsmithjr.com

Listen to Charles R. Smith Jr., read some of his poems from Hoop Kingsin this Follow the Poems Series:

For additional classroom exercises, visit:

Teacher’s Lounge
http://charlesrsmithjr.com/?page_id=12178

Poetree

Flexible Thinking, Imagination, Nature, Originality, Picture Books, Poetry, ,

“Poetree”

Each season is introduced with a rhyming couplet. 

Followed by acrostic poems that inspire wonder about the seasons.

Illustrations bring readers into this seasonal world. 

This story promotes creative components of imagination, originality, nature, and flexible thinking.

WHY I LIKE THIS BOOK: I like this book because the poems are written in kid-friendly language that shows originality about a commonly written topic. 

TITLE:Poetree

POEMS by: Caroline Pignat

ILLUSTRATOR: Francois Thisdale

PUBLISHER: Red Deer Press, 2018

AGE GROUP: 5-7

TOPIC(S): changing seasons, poetry

CREATIVE COMPONENTS: imagination, flexible thinking, originality, nature

LEARNING EXTENSIONS:

1) What is your favorite season? Using your senses, make a table-list of things that show that season. 

SEASON: Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer

TasteSmellSightTouchHear
     
     
     
     
     

From your table-list, pick words to create an image of your season by drawing a picture and “hiding” your words in your picture.

2) Seasons change and so do you. Think about what new things you learned or did during the last year. What new thing(s) did you learn or do in Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall? 

3) An acrostic poem is where the first, last or other letters in a line spell out a word. Pick a seasonal word to write an acrostic poem.

EXTENDING CONNECTIONS:

To learn more about poet Caroline Pignat, visit:

https://www.carolinepignat.com/caroline.html

To learn more about illustrator Francois Thisdale, visit:

https://www.thisdale.com/bio_e.htm

Trees

Flexible Thinking, Imagination, Perspective, Picture Books, Poetry, , , ,

“Trees”

Poet Verlie Hutchens has a gift for words that bring trees to life in such a way that readers can truly relate to.  

Read these lines: “Little Red Bud plays hide-and-seek,” “pink-purple giggles,” “Sycamore, the fashion queen, wears a jigsaw-puzzle gown…” and “White Pine, unruly uncle…”

Each tree’s unique personality and character is perfectly described, sometimes humorously.

Each tree is illustrated in its natural environment. Jing Jing Tsong’s illustrative technique combines traditional printmaking and digital collage.

This story promotes creative components of imagination, flexible thinking, and perspective.

WHY I LIKE THIS BOOK: I like this book because I enjoy picturing the trees as the characters that the poet describes. I appreciate that the illustrations depict the trees as they would be found in nature, including animals and people. 

TITLE:Trees

POEMS by: Verlie Hutchens

ILLUSTRATOR: Jing Jing Tsong

PUBLISHER: Beach Lane Books, 2019

AGE GROUP: 5-8

TOPIC(S): trees, poetry, personification

CREATIVE COMPONENTS: imagination, perspective, flexible thinking

LEARNING EXTENSIONS:

1) Take a nature walk in your community. Observe the trees that you find along the way. Write a poem about one of the trees you found.

2) Practice your creative flexible thinking. Think up at least five answers to each of the following questions. How is a tree like a blanket? How is a tree like a bicycle? How is a tree like a star?

EXTENDING CONNECTIONS:

To learn more about author Verlie Hutchens, visit:

https://www.simonandschuster.com/authors/Verlie-Hutchens/502006236

To learn more about illustrator Jing Jing Tsong, visit:

https://www.jingjingtsong.com/about