This lesson plan is intended to teach children about the poetry of Jack Prelutsky while engaging them in their own "fun-forms" of rhyming poetry. At the end, the children should have acquired an engaged level of familiarity with biography and poetry. In its entirety, the lesson plan would require about 8 hours (spread over three mornings at home). Alternately, you can choose to forgo certain activities based on your own preferences or needs. In my humble opinion, this is a perfect activity for a home-school co-op-- the diversity of the children will add value to the discussions and poetry-sharing.
All italicized questions or statements are meant to be engaged in depth (for example, by writing the answers down on a paper or chalkboard and discussing them). For those who prefer word documents, I've saved the lesson plan as a pdf document
that you can download and print. You might still need to print the various worksheets, poems, and handouts separately. Most are in PDF format. Hope this is helpful and fun!
- "Biography" vs. "auto-biography" in life of Prelutsky. Critical listening; group discussion.
- Exploring "impressions". Comparing and contrasting impressions worksheet. Critical thinking; compare and contrast.
- Creating our own biographies. Applied learning; creative thinking; compare and contrast; social skills development, including perspective.
- Reading Prelutsky's poems. Critical listening; reading; imaginative representation.
- Writing our own poems. Poetry workshop. Editing.
Part 1: Who Is Jack Prelutsky? Learning About Biographies.
We are going to learn about a very special poet, Jack Prelutsky, who writes very special poems for very special people-- namely, kids like you. Learning about Mr. Prelutsky's life involves the study of what we call "biography". A biography is basically the story of someone's life. It can include information about where they were born, their parents, their siblings, their school, their job, their favorite authors-- any information that sheds light on their lives and development as human beings.
Can you think of anything else that you might include in a biography?
Neato. It sounds like biographies can include a great number of things. The things included will probably depend on who writes the biography, right? You guys all suggested adding different bits of information for the biography. Let's see what Mr. Prelutksy the Poet's biography includes.
First, let's explore the biography of his life from The Academy of American Poets . This is a professional organization for American poets who write poetry for a living-- professional poets. Here is how they describe Mr. Prelutsky:
Jack Prelutsky was born in Brooklyn, in 1940, and attended Hunter College in New York City. Although he claims to have hated poetry through most of his childhood, he rediscovered poetry later in life, and has devoted many years since to writing fresh, humorous poetry aimed specifically at kids. "I realized poetry was a means of communication, that it could be as exciting or as boring as that person or that experience." After stints as a truckdriver, photographer, folksinger, and more, he is now the author of more than thirty collections of original verse and anthologies of children's poetry, including Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant and Other Poems (Greenwillow Books/HarperCollins, 2006),The Beauty of the Beast: Poems from the Animal Kingdom (2006), The Random House Book of Poetry for Children (1983), Nightmares: Poems to Trouble Your Sleep (1978), and The Queen of Eene (1976). In 2006, Prelutsky was named the first Children’s Poet Laureate by the Poetry Foundation. He lives in Washington state, and spends much of his time presenting poems to children in schools and libraries throughout the United States.
What surprises you about Mr. Prelutsky's life from this biography?
What sounds interesting to you?
What question would you like to ask Mr. Prelutsky after reading this biography?
Now let's explore the biography that Mr. Prelutsky himself penned. When someone writes their own biography in their own words, it is called an "auto-biography". I'm going to read a biography to you that he wrote online for a children's book website called KidsReads-- an "auto-biography". Listen carefully as I read this auto-biography for new information that you might not have learned from the previous reading.
"I have always enjoyed playing with words, but I had no idea that I would be a writer. There was a time when I couldn't stand poetry! In grade school, I had a teacher who left me with the impression that poetry was the literary equivalent of liver. I was told that it was good for me, but I wasn't convinced.
When I was a young man, I discovered poetry again and it changed my life. I had spent months drawing several imaginary animals, but one evening I decided to write a little poem to go with each drawing. A friend encouraged me to show the poems to an editor, and when I did, I was astonished to find that the editor -- Susan Hirschman -- thought I had a talent for writing verse. Susan told me I was a natural poet and encouraged me to keep writing. She published my first book and, 30 years later, she's still my editor.
I was born in Brooklyn, New York, on September 8, 1940, and now live in Washington State with my wife, Carolynn. I have a studio in my house, which contains my writing desk, computer, lots of books, and my collection of miniature frogs."
What new information did you learn from Mr. Prelutsky's auto-biography that was not included in his biography?
How did the auto-biography and biography differ?
Part 2: Comparing Our Impressions
Since we are talking about the impressions we have gotten from each biography, let's explore these impressions a bit further with a worksheet exercise. Impressions are the thoughts, feelings, pictures, images, words, or ideas that come to mind. Reading often gives us different impressions about life, people, and the world around us. For example, when we read about how a tornado is made, we might be impressed by the power of nature, the shape of a funnel cloud, or the sound of fast wind. We might imagine a big, gray tornado cloud. We might hear the sound of a siren. We might even imagine what it would feel like to be in a tornado. All of these words, thoughts, images, and feelings are the impressions we received when reading about the tornado.
- Complete WORKSHEET A
comparing the impressions given by the biography and auto-biography of Prelutsky's life.
Part 3: Creating Our Own Biographies
Every poet-- and every person-- has a biography. We're going to participate in four different biography-creating activities to perfect our understanding of biographies before learning more about Mr. Prelutsky's poems.
- Biography-Writing Activity: You will need a sheet of paper and writing utensils. Pick a person in the room (or parents assign a person) and write a brief biography about that person. Try to use just two or three sentences. (Younger children can write just words or pictures.) Remember that a biography tells you the story of someone's life-- it tries to provide impressions about a person to someone who may not know this person. You have about 10 minutes to write your biography. If you have any questions about this activity, now would be the only time to ask them.
Great! Everyone should have a biography. Before we share our biographies, we are going to do one more activity-- we are going to write our own auto-biographies. Then, when we are finished, we will read all our biographies and auto-biographies aloud and compare them.
- Auto-biography-Writing Activity: Use another sheet of paper to write an auto-biography. This is the story of your own life in your own words. Since you can't write down everything, choose just a few important things to emphasize. Try to keep limit your auto-biography to two or three good sentences. You will have 10 minutes to write your auto-biography. If you have any questions, please ask them now.
Now we are ready for the reading! As we take turns reading our biographies about other people aloud, wait until the reader is finished before sharing your comments or impressions. We will read a biography for a person and then that person will be allowed to read their auto-biography. After each biography and auto-biography is read, we will compare the information given by the two. We will discuss the following questions:
How is the biography different from the auto-biography?
What impressions did you receive from the biography?
What impressions did you receive from the auto-biography?
Did anything in the biography or auto-biography surprise you? If so, why?
Now let's turn to the web for an entirely different exercise in biography-writing. This time, we are going to use a "Biography Maker" on the internet to write our biography.
- Complete the "Biography Maker" online biography for each child. You might have to print the results if more than one child is present.
How different are the online biographies from your own?
Which one is your favorite?
Which one do you think provides a stranger with the best picture or impression of you?
Cool beans. I wonder if our biography should also tell us more about the world we lived in-- how our environments, families, friends, histories, governments, and geographies shaped our lives and our selves. Let's see if we can learn more about our "big picture biographies", the biographies of our lives as told by the events in the world surrounding us.
What did you learn about about the big picture into which you were born?
Did any of the things you learned help you to understand your life better? If so, what and how?
Part 4: The poetry of Jack Prelutsky.
Now that we are a little more familiar with Mr. Prelutsky, let's see what his poetry sounds like. We are going to read a few poems by Mr. Prelutsky. First, I will read them to you. When I am reading, I want you to try to close your eyes and imagine the stuff he describes in your head. Then, when I have finished reading the poems, I will give you a copy of the poem so you can read it again on your own.
Which poem did you like more? Why?
Which poem sounded more like a song to you?
Let's snuggle a little closer to these poems so we can get to know them better. I'm going to give you your own copy of these two poems now and we are going to participate in an activity that will give you the opportunity to do some serious snuggling with a poem.
- Snuggling with A Poem Activity - For this activity, you will need some writing utensils, crayons, markers, watercolors, or various drawing tools. Pick your favorite. You will also need to select which Prelutsky poem you loved the most-- the poem you want to pull a little closer. After you have selected this poem, read it aloud a few times. Then read it to yourself a few more times. Think about what Prelutsky is trying to say in the poem. Then take your drawing and coloring tools and draw your impressions of the poem on the paper with the poem itself. You can get as creative as you want with this activity. For example, you can draw a cartoon of the poem. Or you can draw a background scene for the poem. Or you can write word impressions around the poem. Whatever you feel. Just try to represent what is so snuggle-worthy about this poem in your drawings. You have 30 minutes. Any questions?
Now let's display our poems for everyone to see. We'll look at each picture and answer a few questions.
What does your drawing represent?
What did you like most about this poem?
How did you feel while you were snuggling with the poem?
Did the biographies you read about Mr. Prelutsky help you understand his poems in a better or different way?
Part 5: Writing Our Own Poetry.
Now that we've learned a little about Mr. Prelutsky and his poetry, we are going to learn a little about writing poetry from the poet himself. Everyone can be a poet. And everyone can be a good poet-- a poet that tells a story or provides a glimpse of what he or she sees or imagines.
So we are going to take part in a poetry-writing workshop with Mr. Prelutsky. He is going to guide us through the process of writing a poem with tips and ideas. When we have finished, he will publish a final version of our poem online for all to see. Then we can read the poetry of other kids who have finished his workshop! By the time we are finished, all our biographies might need to be updated to show that we, too, are poets. Though we may not be professional poets, we are poets nonetheless.
Optional Activity: A Prelutsky Poetry Party
If you have more time to spend on poetry and Prelutsky, then try the following optional activity as a grand finale for your study of Prelutsky.
- Throw a Prelutsky Poetry Party-- invite other home-schooled children to read Prelutksy
poems and act them out. Then award prizes for funniest poems, funniest
acting, etc. You can also make use of the fun and engaging poetry activities generated by Mr. Prelutsky himself.
