Poetry- Puzzles From Wonderland- From: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and other Stories By: Lewis Carroll

Do you have students who like to think they are just SO much smarter than you? Or maybe you have children who just need a challenge? If you want to give your students a good brain teaser, you should let them try to figure out the riddles to the great Wonderland. Pages 733-736 of this collection feature all of Carroll's riddles found in his Wonderland tales and his answers. My favorite riddle is the second which is about dividing a stick into eight equal pieces. The poem reads: 

"A stick I found that weighed two pound:

I sawed it up one day

In pieces eight of equal weight!

How much did each piece weigh?

(Everybody says 'a quarter of a pound', which is wrong.)"

At this point in my classroom, I would have written this poem on the board, and told my children to give me an answer. To me, the point of this exercise isn't that children find the right answer. My purpose in having them respond is to have them think creatively. I would have them write their answers, and explain how they came to that answer in a couple of sentences. An example of a proper response could be...

" I think they weighed 114 grams each because Lewis Carroll was British and the British use the metric system. He was insulted that people would put the answer in the traditional measurements because he dislikes Americans and finds the base 10 measurement style of the metric system easier to operate in anyway!"

Obviously, this is the wrong answer. During Carroll's day they still used the traditional system of measurement. But I know that my student is thinking hard when they are trying to figure out why a quarter of a pound is the wrong answer. You will see two things when I give you the correct answer. A) you will see that no child, unless they have memorized the books of Lewis Carroll, would come up with exactly the correct answer, and B) that the thoughtful answers that they came up with are more useful to them in daily life and show how intelligent they truly are.

Answer: 

" In Shylock's bargain for the flesh I found

No mention of the blood that flowed around:

So when the stick was sawed in eight,

The sawdust lost diminished from the weight."

Did you answer correctly? I didn't think so. I would use these puzzles to get my kids brains thinking on a high cognitive level. Hopefully, telling them that these puzzles are part of a really great book, they will want to go out and read Carroll's classics as well. Obviously, these puzzles are great examples of poetry as well. 

Poetry- Poetry for Young People By: Carl Sandburg

Carl Sandburg is a famous poet of the 1900s. His work is renown, and I even remember reading some of his poetry in my freshman english course here at NC State. This collection of poems, edited by Frances Schoonmaker Bolin and illustrated by Steven Arcella, is appropriate for children in upper elementary and middle school to understand. Most of them are short in length, and the vocabulary is common. It is very difficult to introduce children to poetry, mainly because we do not understand it as adults ourselves. Poetry isn't bound by the same molds that other modes of literature are restricted by. This book has some very short, simple poems that young children can be introduced to build their understanding of the purpose and intent of poetry. Something that was hard for me to learn about poetry was that not everybody had to rhyme or even have a rhythm scheme. The only poetry I was exposed to as an elementary reader was Dr. Seuss. Good examples to use with elementary age children that are found in this book include "Theme in Yellow" and "We Must Be Polite". It is easy for children to imagine and understand what the speaker, Sandburg, is talking about. "Theme in Yellow" is about the life of a Jack-O-Lantern, while "We Must Be Polite" is about using please and thank you, and other good manners, even around strangers. This is also a good book to use because of some of the nature poems. In the fourth grade, social studies focuses in on North Carolinian history. Sandburg spent the last few years of his life writing poetry in North Carolina. It might be a good idea to have children read such poems as " Between Two Hills", "Sheep", "Landscape", or "October Paint", and have them brainstorm where and when in North Carolina might these poems have been set. The poetry found in this collection is both appropriate for elementary school children, and it has connections to other subjects taught in the upper elementary grades. 

Modern Fantasy- Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger By: Louis Sachar

This is the second installment of Louis Sachar's hilarious tale of the adventures of Wayside School. You can say that the children are coming off of a 243 day long vacation (that's how long it took to get rid of the cows) and are ready to start a new year. With every floor, which is only one classroom, there is a new adventure to be read and enjoyed. The food in the cafeteria can still be confused for toxic waste, make sure to stop by the pet fair on the 30th floor, and be careful when walking under the windows. You don't want to get hit by a coffeepot, and mess up Mrs. Drazil's science experiment. As usual, the real tale of the story begins and ends on Mrs. Jewls floor/room. Mrs. Jewls announces to her class that she is going to have a baby. They try to make the best of this news by brainstorming names for the baby. Which do you like better; Cootie Face or Bucket Head? What her class is not excited about is losing Mrs. Jewls while she is out with the baby. This means a substitute is coming, and you know that that cannot be good...

This is one of my favorite books of ALL time! It doesn't matter if I teach Kindergarten or 6th grade, my children will have this book read to them before they leave my room. It is so funny, and has lots of fun puzzles and mysteries for the children to solve while reading. This is a book that I know my children will get excited about reading, and by reading it, I will hopefully be encouraging them to find books that they enjoy to read. Activities that I would pair with reading this book are prediction worksheets, acting out scenes from the book, and of course letting them complete some of the fun activities (like the gravity experiment mentioned above) that these children do in their classroom. 

Modern Fantasy-Matilda By: Roald Dahl

          The parents of five-and-a-half-year-old Matilda Wormwood have no interest in their daughter, but if they did, they would discover that she is incredibly gifted. Matilda learned to read at age 3, though the only actual book in the house was a cookbook and magazines. When she asks for a real book for herself, her father rudely turns her down and tells her to watch television instead. In spite of this, Matilda looks up the address of the local library, where she finishes all the children's books within a short time. Matilda resolves to teach her parents a lesson every time they do something wrong, carrying out a variety of pranks. Miss Honey, the closest thing that Matilda has to a parental figure, appeals to Miss Trunchbull to have Matilda moved up into an advanced class, but the child-hating headmistress refuses. Miss Honey also tries, in vain, to reason with Mrs. Wormwood, but she is not welcomed, and both parents make it clear that they are not interested either in Matilda or the value of education and learning. Matilda quickly learns of Trunchbull's capacity for punishing children, as she carries out cruelties for minor reasons. When Matilda's friend Lavender places a newt in Trunchbull's glass of water, Matilda is blamed and Trunchbull refuses to listen to her. Mad about her friend's punishment, Matilda soon discovers she has psychokinetic powers, as she focuses on the glass with her eyes, and surprises everyone by tipping it over right on to Miss Trunchbull. This is the first of Matilda's exciting adventures due to her mysterious mind powers. 

         I would read this book with my children when doing a unit on modern fantasy texts. Matilda is a child that is misunderstood and underestimated (which is something that I know ALL of my students can relate to). While reading the book, I will have children keep a chart where they write events that happen to Matilda and the other characters that they think could happen in real life, and things that could not. By doing this, my children will be able to more easily separate events in a book that are considered fantasy over reality. Surprisingly, I have learned that kids in upper elementary have a hard time with this. 

Modern Fantasy- Abel's Island By: William Steig

          As the book begins, Abel, a mouse, is enjoying a picnic with his wife Amanda, but they are interrupted by a fierce rainstorm and are forced to take shelter in a cave nearby. The two are separated when Abel braves the storm to retrieve Amanda's scarf, blown away by a gust of wind. The storm washes Abel into a river and he is swept downstream until he is stranded on an island. Abel attempts to escape the island many times, but fails, and finally realizes that he must survive on the island by himself. He finds a log and makes it his home in the winter. To ease his loneliness, he creates his family out of clay and talks to them. Poor Abel has to live through the most hardest times, including battling an owl and surviving through a harsh winter. Later in the novel, another stranded victim from the river, a frog named Gower, comes and befriends Abel. Later, he leaves promising that he will send for help when he gets back home. However, weeks pass and no one comes. Gower either forgot (due to his lack of memory), or he never made it back. Abel then decides to swim against the fierce river after the water level has dropped sufficiently. Abel eventually makes the hard trip back and returns to Mossville, where he is reunited with his beloved Amanda.

           I love this story because it is an easy and exciting read. It is a great example of a fantasy with animals as characters. I have just gotten around to reading this book myself, but it was very popular to read when the movie "Castaway" with Tom Hanks was in the theaters. A lot of things that happened to Tom Hank's character also happen to Abel when he is stranded on the island. Upon completion of this book, I would have my kids write a funny instruction manual on how to survive being stranded on an island. I would then have them compare manuals and we would create a class survival manual every year. Of course I would finish up our time with this book by allowing my students to watch the clip from "Castaway" where the main character has created his friend Wilson, like Abel creates his family out of clay. 

Realistic Fiction-Sixth Grade Secrets By: Louis Sachar

         Laura's is a sixth grade girl surrounded by secrets. She decides that she will no longer by the victim of  this situation, so she creates her own club. She names it after Pig City, the funny hat she wears that she often gets picked on about wearing. To keep her club exclusive Laura makes her members tell her each an embarrassing story about themselves that she keeps as collateral if they betray the secret club. She promises to keep each members "collateral" secret if and only if they keep their mouth shut about "Pig City". Laura decides to recruit a quiet kid named Gabriel to the group. She thinks this is a good idea because he obviously knows how to keep his mouth shut. However, upon being asked, Gabriel decides to form his own secret society "Monkey Town". How will two secret societies manage to survive one year of sixth grade? 

      This book is very much like Andrew Clements book No Talking in the sense that it is another Boys vs. Girls battle gone overboard. I would read this book as a fun read aloud when their is spare time in the classroom. I think it is important to read this text because students need to understand that reading is supposed to be about enjoyment just as much about learning. Activities that could go along with this book are creative writing exercises. I would read the book and stop at a "cliff hanger". Once I stopped, I would have my children predict what they think is going to happen next and I would have them write evidence from what we have read already to support this prediction. 

Non-fiction Horses: Smithsonian Handbook By:Elwyn Hartley Edwards

        This non-fictional book is done in an informational style format. It tells the reader everything they need to know about equine. It starts out by introducing relatives to the horse like donkeys, mules, and zebras, then goes into the breeds of horses. This book is great for a child who is interested in horses, but has no science background knowledge on them. It has great pictures and supports to help a chid read through the book with little frustration. It also uses language that is appropriate for an upper elementary student to understand. 

         I would use this book in my classroom when we are doing a science unit on animal classification. This book does a great job of showing how horses are classified scientifically. Most kids are interested in horses, but they don't know a lot about the different breeds and sizes like they do domesticated animals like cats and dogs. This book does a good job at showing the diversity of one species in the animal kingdom. After reading this book, I would have my students pick one breed of horse and do a glogster on what they learned about them from web searches. This book is a great way of introducing non-fiction literature in an non-intimidating way to young students.