Lines that Wiggle

Title: Lines that Wiggle

Candace Whitman (Author)

Steve Wilson (Illustrator)

Comprehension Strategy: Synthesizing

Art Modality: Creative Movement

Summary:

Here's the gist of this monstrously fun book written by Candace Whitman. Through the book runs a line of rhyming text that reads with a steady beat. A glittery purple line that wiggles, bends, curves, and curls also runs through the book. The illustrator, Steve Wilson, tops the book off with creepy and creepy and creative creatures. Sound inviting? You and your little ones won't be able to take your hands off of it!

Materials: Lines that Wiggle

streamers, colorful scarves or fabric ribbons

painter's masking tape

Lesson:

Lines that Wiggle is a great book for teaching rhyming and for teaching lines in art. But after moving my finger along the glittery purple line that runs through this picture book, I wanted to move more! I can say with a giggle, Lines that Wiggle is a great book for teaching movement, too!

For a sneak peek inside, visit the publisher's site here.

I have three suggestions for using the book to help little learners discover how their own bodies are "lines that can wiggle" through the space around them.

Wiggle Number One:

Simply stop after you read each page. Ask the children to explore how they can make their own bodies wiggle like the line on that page. Can they move just their arms like the line? How about just their legs? Can they move their feet to make an imaginary line on the floor that looks like the line on the page?

Wiggle Number Two:

Provide your listeners with lengths of ribbon or scarves. Again stop after you read each page. Encourage the youngsters to make matching lines with their ribbons on the floor. Can they make the same lines in the air with their ribbons?

Wiggle Number Three:

If you have the space, use painter's masking tape to create all kinds of lines on the floor—wavy, straight, curvy, crisscrossed and more! Encourage the children to move along the lines. How would you move on lines that scurry? How would you move on lines that twist? How would you move on lines that sway? Of course, adding music makes the movement more fun.

So what  does this book have to do with reading and how does it lead to a better understanding of synthesis?! Well, remember that line that runs through the whole book? It changes and represents different things, but it's always there.  

When you read you constantly gain information and so your thinking changes. Every new piece of information changes your understanding and helps you make meaning. In the end, you put it all together to make big conclusions.

When explaining your thinking about this book to your students, you might say, "At first I thought the line would be a snake and then I thought it would be a bridge. Then I saw that the line could be whiskers or even waves. At the end of the book, I realized that lines can change. When lines change they can remind me of different things."

Synthesis combines new information with old information to create new meaning. Your thinking out loud might sound like this, "At first I just looked at the line, but then I looked at the other art around it. When I looked at everything, my thinking changed. The head at the end of this line, made the curvy line a snake."

You can use this book conversation to start your little readers on a path to understanding how to synthesize, or you can use the book with older readers as a simple reminder of how synthesizing works.

All the World

All the World

Liz Garton Scanlon (Author)

Marla Frazee (Illustrator)

Comprehension Strategy:

Synthesizing

Art Modality:

Music

Summary:

All the world is here.

It is there.

It is everywhere.

All the world is right where you are.

Now.

Following a circle of family and friends through the course of a day from morning till night, this book affirms the importance of all things great and small in our world, from the tiniest shell on the beach, to warm family connections, to the widest sunset sky. (Summary from Simon & Schuster.)

Materials:

All the World

Lesson:

Here’s a book to help you welcome spring and celebrate Earth Day. As I recommend this book, I’m sitting on a screened porch, looking at my mother’s garden (“All the world’s a garden bed.”), listening to the birds sing (“Nest, bird, feather, fly. All the world has got its sky.”) and watching my son with his grandparents (“All the world is old and new.”).

Perfect.

“All the world can hold quite still.”

I hope you can find a moment in your busy world to hold still and listen to this book. Just click here for a heartwarming song and view of the book:

To share this book with your class and encourage the thinking work of synthesis, you might want to discuss the book spread by spread. I simply asked, “What is going on here? What do you think it means?” Then I listened and the students listened to each other. When you arrive at the end of the book, ask once more, “Now what does it all mean?” You’ll be amazed at the insight and wisdom that will come out of the mouths of your babes. It’s a simple lesson, but with an effort on listening and thinking, students will have good practice at putting the parts of a text together to make meaning and to find a theme. Since singing together is one sure way to build community, you’ll want to invite the children to sing along with the video for several days. Each day, invite the children to discuss together what they think about the author’s message. How does the illustrator help us find meaning in the poem?

"Hope and peace and love and trust. 
All the world is all of us."

Blessings,

Jayne

A world-wide-web of information....

For a simply lovely teacher’s guide, click this cover:

To listen to Marla Frazee talk about her illustrations, click on this scene:

Beautiful Blackbird

Title:  Beautiful Blackbird

Ashley Bryan (Author and Illustrator)

Click the Amazon link to purchase: 

Beautiful Blackbird (Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award Winner)

Comprehension Strategy:          Synthesizing              
Art Modalities: Creative Movement, Visual Art

Summary: In a story of the Ila people, the colorful birds of Africa ask Blackbird, whom they think is the most beautiful of birds, to decorate them with some of his “blackening brew.” (Summary from the book.)

Materials:

Beautiful Blackbird

black tempera paint

feathers

various colors of construction paper

simple bird pattern

Lesson:

Synthesis takes place when readers’ thinking changes. Their thinking evolves. They infer meanings beyond the story line. They recognize themes.

Read aloud Beautiful Blackbird. To help your students recognize the themes, you might want to discuss the following lines from the story:

“Color on the outside is not what’s on the inside. You don’t act like me. You don’t eat like me. You don’t get down in the groove and move your feet like me.”

“We’ll see the difference a touch of black can make. Just remember, whatever I do, I’ll be me and you’ll be you.”

Extend the students’ understanding of the story by encouraging creative movement. Gather students in an open space such a gym. Reread the story. Have students move “with a flip flop flapping of their wings” and a “stirring, whirring of the air” as you read the description of the “Beak and Wing Dance” and the “Show Claws Slide.”

To prepare for a visual-art extension, mix some “blackening brew” (black paint) in a “medicine gourd.”

To make a bird, each child traces and then cuts out a simple bird shape from construction paper. She then uses a feather to paint on black accents. Display the birds on a yellow background along with the following poem from the story.

“Our colors sport a brand-new look,

A touch of black was all it took.

Oh beautiful black, uh-huh, uh-huh

Black is beautiful, UH-HUH!”

 "Meet" Ashley Bryan at Reading Rockets.

http://www.readingrockets.org/books/interviews/bryan

More from Ashley Bryan, Uh-huh!

Little Mama Forgets

Title:  Little Mama Forgets

Robin Cruise (author), Stacey Dressen-McQueen (Illustrator)

Comprehension Strategy: Synthesizing                                   

Art Modality:  Poetry

Summary:

Although her Mexican-American grandmother now forgets many things, Lucy finds that she still remembers the things that are important to the two of them. (Summary from the book.)

Materials:

Little Mama Forgets

chart paper, markers

Lesson:

Your students are sure to remember this poetry lessons that is a follow-up for Little Mama Forgets. After reading the story aloud, invite the students to think about the things that Mama forgets and the things that she remembers. On a chart, list the things that Lucy, the granddaughter who tells the story, says that Mama forgets. Then list the things that Lucy says that Mama remembers. What do the things have in common? What types of things are on the "forgets" list as compared to the types of things on the "remembers" list? You may wish to lead students in a discussion about the relationship between Lucy and her grandmother. In addition, you might also want to discuss the things that Mama remembers from her youth and about her culture.

To prepare your students for a poetry follow-up, ask them to think about what they might remember when they grow old. Who are the people that are most important to them? What things do they do with those special people? What celebrations are important to their families? What are their favorite things to do? Is it easier to remember things that you have strong feelings about? Provide the following poetry frame to assist your students in writing free-verse poetry.

I might forget…

I could forget…

but I'll always remember…


Here are some sweet poems that my second graders wrote!


Mom        (by James, age 8)
I might forget what she wore.
I could forget when she fell down the steps.
But I'll always remember how she makes me cinnamon rolls.


Great Grandpa    (by Madeline, age 8)
I might forget how he sounded.
I could forget how he used to play the piano.
But I'll always remember when he held me in the hospital.


My Sister, Stella    (by Marlie, age 8)
I might forget that she slaps me in the eye.
I could forget when she first punched me.
But I'll always remember her smile and when she was born.


Grandma      (by Jake, age 8)
I might forget what she wore.
I might forget what she sounded like.
But I'll always remember that it may have been the loveliest voice anyone heard.


Learn more about the author: http://robincruise.com