Marco Polo

October 3, 2017August 24, 2017 / diana cruchley / Leave a comment

The story of Marco Polo and his trip from Venice to Beijing starting in 1271 and his return 24 years later. The illustrations are in an eastern 13th century style, with gilding and gorgeous elaborate borders all using Chinese inks. Be selective in your choices of what you read – it is a long picture book.

Here is a three-minute summary of Marco Polo’s travels …without the amazing things that he saw and reported. It could be a quick introduction before you start your selected readings.

The Life Lessons of Marco Polo

Try giving the students a set of potential life lessons we could learn from Marco Polo before you read excerpts from the book. Ask them to listen and select four potential lessons. Tell them they can also draw lessons of their own from your readings. For each of them, they are to write one paragraph explaining how Marco Polo exemplifies that lesson. Discuss their opinions in small groups and as the class.

Go outside your comfort zone.
Always record your travels.
Taste many different types of food.
Stick to your guns.
Be prepared to take risks.
Build a network of connections and friends.
Work hard for your money.
Learn other languages.
Be charming.

Why You Wouldn’t Want to Take A Trip with Marco Polo

An opposite point of view could be taken of Marco Polo’s travels…and that is, all of the privations and dangers he encountered. Ask students to listen as you read, and make a list of things that were difficult on his journey…then to write a letter, or an essay, or a rant about “Why I Wouldn’t Want to Take a Trip with Marco Polo.”

Zentangles

While Demi’s used patterns and designs common in the Middle East in the 1200’s, those are difficult for students to imitate. On the other hand, elaboration of design within an outline can be easily achieved using zentangles. There are many websites and YouTube videos dedicated to zentangle, a popular contemporary “doodle” students can use to create a frame or illustration for a piece of their own writing. Start with a simple outline drawing, and then pattern the inside. This particular YouTube not only demonstrates fitting designs into an outline, it also provides many different patterns students can imitate. Have a set of patterns available on a single sheet of paper for each student as well.

For 10 creative writing ideas, click Marco Polo to download.

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

March 1, 2017July 28, 2016 / diana cruchley / Leave a comment

The true story of a boy living in Malawi who created a windmill to generate electricity and pump water for his village.

Science of Corn

As a science study, you could bring in jeweller’s loupes and enough corn so that each pair of students can have a slice. Use the loupes to have students ask themselves, “What does this look like? What does it remind me of?” They should think of 5-10. Some examples are:

tiny pats of butter
little yellow pillows
coated pills
colourful pool toys
little balloons

The science question is, “If it looks like a tiny pat of butter, is there any way it could act like a tiny pat of butter?” Of course, corn oil, is very high calorie and often used as a replacement for butter, so that isn’t too hard.

What about “If it looks like a little yellow pillow, is there any way it could be acting like a little yellow pillow?”

A good Inquiry series of questions can come out of these, and often a little experiment can be constructed to test whether it is indeed acting like what it looks like. For example, could we extract a kernel carefully and see if it floats, like a pool toy?

Remind students that 95% of nature is function over form. That is, it doesn’t look beautiful just to look beautiful; there is a reason for it.

An Inquiry into Crops of the Americas

Historically, corn was one of the North American crops exported around the world, so it is interesting that it is the major crop of Malawai. Students may be interested in investigating what other foods originated in the Americas, including chocolate, tobacco, potatoes, vanilla, tomatoes, peanuts, avocado, chili peppers, papaya, pineapple, maple syrup, sunflower, wild rice, turkey, cranberry, sweet potato, quinoa, brazil nuts, cashews.

Art

The Internet has lessons for how to draw nearly anything—in this case, an ear of corn. You could start students with a cartoon corn:

Followed by a more sophisticated drawing:

For 9 creative writing ideas, click The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind to download.

Who Put the B in Ballyhoo

January 1, 2017July 28, 2016 / diana cruchley / Leave a comment

A delightful ABC book of circus anecdotes principally focusing on the most famous acts of Barnum and Bailey. It is all done in the style of the big circus posters of the 30’s advertising the next circus to come to town. Visually gorgeous.

Circus Words

There are many common words and expressions that come from the circus world. Here are a few to explore with your students. They have been taken from the circus and theatre episode of America’s Secret Slang, a worthwhile TV series:

Circus: from the Circus Maximus in Rome (circo=-circle, maximus = biggest).
Float: because they started out as decorated floating barges.
Carnival: from carne = meat, and val = removal. A celebration to eat all the food before the month of Lent in the Catholic faith
Mardi Gras: mardi= Tuesday, gras= fat. Fat Tuesday. Again, the day to eat all the meat before Lent when meat may not be eaten.
Dog and Pony Show: from a cheap circus that only had a trained dog and a pony. Now used to mean any pair of speakers—like politicians—with a simple “act.
Jumping through hoops: from tricks done by trained dogs, to mean anyone who will do anything to get the deal.
Jumbo: from Jumbo the elephant, but now meaning large, as in jumbo popcorn.
Gimmick: a trick used by a carnie to cheat suckers at a carnival skill game.
Close but no cigar: a prize at a carnival skill game was often a cigar.

Extreme Writing

A springboard from a picture book to personal writing should provide at least three topics if possible. Here are some ideas:

Stories of going to any tent show—a circus, Bard on the Beach, Children’s Festival, Cirque du Soleil, Cavalia, etc.
Stories of being fooled by something or someone: a magic show, an optical illusion, a friend.
The ABC’s of school words, with an explanation for each.
A is for alphabet.
B is for brush.
C is for classroom, and so on.

Hoaxes Inquiry

Parts of the midway were often interesting hoaxes for fairgoers— the Fiji Mermaid perhaps being the most famous. There is a detailed list of hoaxes for a student inquiry in the pdf. Why do people create a hoax? What is the difference between fraud and a hoax? Why do people believe in hoaxes? How do we define a hoax?

For 7 creative writing ideas, click Who Put the B in Ballyhoo to download.

Wabi Sabi

December 1, 2016August 19, 2021 / diana cruchley / Leave a comment

Wabi Sabi, the cat, goes on a journey to find the meaning of her name. She asks a cat friend, a dog, a bird, and finally a monkey. Each says, “That’s hard to explain”—the catch phrase of the book. Slowly she discovers that it is a kind of humble beauty, you will be exploring with student.

Extreme Writing

A springboard from a picture book to personal writing should provide at least three topics if possible. Here are some ideas:

Wabi Sabi wants to know what his name means. What does your name mean? Tell a story about how you got your name(s), or nickname.
Wabi Sabi goes on a journey to find the answer to her question. Write about any journeys you have been on.
This story is set in Japan. Either write “Everything I know about Japan” or “Everything I know about Canada, B.C., or my home town.”
Wabi Sabi asks for an explanation. Explain how to do a few things that were hard for you to do at first.

The Author

There is a nice YouTube video of how Mark Reibstein came to write the book based on what he learned about Wabi-sabi while teaching in Japan, and his adoption of his cat. Then Ed Young explains how he illustrated it, how the illustrations were actually lost or stolen, and how he came to use ordinary materials to create the next version. Rather nice.

Incidental Geography

Three Japanese locations are mentioned as Wabi Sabi conducts his search for the meaning of his name: Tokyo, Mount Hiei, and Ginkakuji. Put them on a simple map of Japan. Ask the students to think about how to calculate the distance of the journey, round trip from Tokyo to Mount Hiei to Ginkakuji and back to Tokyo. The fastest way will be Google. Just search “Distance from Tokyo to Mount Hiei” etc. and add the numbers which will turn out to be over 900 km—a long distance for a cat.

For 9 creative writing ideas, click Wabi Sabi to download.

Dog vs. Cat

July 27, 2016August 19, 2021 / diana cruchley / Leave a comment

Mr. Button buys a dog; Mrs. Button buys a cat. The two have conflicting habits and fight constantly until their owners bring home – a baby. The problem is solved when the cat and dog reconcile and build a home for themselves in the backyard.

If Your Friends Acted Like Your Dog and Cat

There is a terrific YouTube video using two human actors who are acting like the disdainful cat or the needy dog. Lots of fun. Talk about what characteristics of these animals the video is making fun of—and incidentally also making fun of us for loving them anyway.

Drawing the Dog or the Cat

Using quick cartoon drawings of a cat and a dog—maybe only the head—students illustrate a dog vs. cat story of their own. Students can see that just by squinting the eyes, and making the “smile” mouth fold down (and perhaps making the ears a little more pointed), the cat, for example, can look angry.

For 9 creative writing ideas, click Dog vs. Cat to download.

The Lion’s Share

February 1, 2016August 19, 2021 / diana cruchley / Leave a comment

The ant is invited to the lion’s dinner party and is shocked at the manners of the other guests as they greedily “share” the cake. When she herself is accused of being greedy, the ant turns the tables on the other guests.

McCelligott’s Math

On his website, McCelligott has an interesting step-by-step explanation of geometric progression, which is what this book represents. It culminates in explaining why we get I-POD in 2,4,8,16, or 32 GB and not other numbers. For your older students.

Math – Geometric Progression

Give students a list of the animals and ask them to create a chart of the values in each division of the cake. Walk them through the first three, then explore the math pattern for solving the rest of progression and the equivalencies.

For 9 creative writing ideas, click The Lion’s Share to download.

The Lost Horse

October 1, 2015August 19, 2021 / diana cruchley / Leave a comment

A classic Chinese folktale, of a man who owned a horse and at each turn of fate believed that things were neither as good, nor as bad, as they might seem.

Oral Language: The Unfortunately Game
Ask students to stand in a large circle. Start with a line such as “James went to the library.” Continue from there with the next student saying, “Fortunately…”. Students alternate a fortunate, unfortunate circumstance as they go around the circle. This requires students to be a little inventive, and warms them up to the idea of writing their own book. Once students understand the system, playing in smaller groups creates more participation for each individual.

Write Your Own “Perhaps It Might Not Be A Good Thing” Story…

Create a scenario and then write a story in which a character repeats your catch phrase—each time saying “It might not be so great” or “It might not be so bad”. This can involve something simple like forgetting your homework, lunch, library book, etc. It could even be set somewhere such as the middle east, with the issue involving a camel.

The Lost Horse is written in only 207 words in total, and 17 sentences, so it is not a huge challenge.

Create Your Own Wisdom

What do you think the “moral” of the story is? Discuss with the students.

Talk about using the idea of “what I learned from this was…” when they write their own personal writing anecdotes. We take away a lesson from a lot of the things we do in life…that’s how we avoid making the same mistakes over and over again.

For 8 creative writing ideas, click The Lost Horse to download.

Alfred Nobel: The Man Behind the Peace Prize

July 31, 2015August 19, 2021 / diana cruchley / Leave a comment

Alfred Nobel invented dynamite and became very wealthy. Saddened by its us in war he left his entire fortune to a yearly prize for those “who have rendered the greatest services to mankind.”

Famous Winners of the Nobel Prize

Divide the class into 4 giving you approximately 8 groups. Further divide them until there are 8 groups of 4. Give each group 4 names from the Prize Winners Page to search at NobelPrize.org. As they click each name, they will find a picture of the winner and the biography will give them a description of what the person did that made them a worthy winner of the prize.

Each chooses one of their 4 names and writes from 50-100 words describing their winner. These can be turned into oral presentations if you wish. Have students with the same winner work together.

Nobel Prize Games

NobelPrize.org has more than 10 great games you can play to learn more about the Nobel Prize winners, about science and medicine, as well as a nice “doves game” which would fit in well with the theme of this book. Games include: Laser Challenge, blood typing, Pavlov’s dog, double helix, electrocardiogram, peace doves, split brain, and the immune system. They are really fun to play, and demanding. Click here to visit the Nobel Prize Games.

Origami: The Crane

Because the crane is a symbol of peace in Japan, this can also be a time to introduce the book Sadako and the Thousand Cranes by Eleanor Coerr. This is the story of the little survivor of Hiroshima who succumbs to leukemia—“the atom bomb disease”—and makes a thousand origami cranes in order to wish for peace.

There are several YouTube sites with more information on Sadako—as well as this being a good time to teach students how to make the origami crane.

For 8 creative writing ideas, click Alfred Nobel: The Man Behind the Peace Prize to download.

The Quiltmaker’s Gift

February 1, 2015August 19, 2021 / diana cruchley / Leave a comment

This book is not new, but has been recently re-issued, so I am including it because it is great for writing ideas. The Quiltmaker makes quilts only for the poor. When the king covets one she refuses, but will make one square for each gift he gives away. After several threats, he gives in, and finds that giving to others is where he find happiness.

The Pattern Story

The quilting patterns shown on the 32 pages of the book have been chosen to echo the part of story told on each page. Give each student a page and a copy of the patterns in the book (on the inside covers.) First they find their pattern, and its name. Then they develop an explanation of why that pattern has been chosen for that page. Create a quick PowerPoint showing each of pages and a close-up of each of the patterns in order. Finally, you read the story (or students read the story), page by page. As each page is read, show the pattern. At the end of that page, a student explains the pattern and why he/she feels it was chosen for the page. There are 23 patterns in total, so some of the students will need to “double up” if you have a larger class. (The key to the match of the pattern to the page is included in the PDF you can download for this book.)

Vocabulary of Shimmer

In describing the king’s storehouse of gifts, the author says they “shimmer”. Ask students to brainstorm words that mean to reflect or give off light. Some words they may come up with are: shimmer, glitter, sparkle, glow, flash, shine, twinkle, scintillate, radiate, dazzle, glint, glisten, beam, emit, gleam, glare, etc. Give students a pair of words and ask them to tell you the difference—ie. shimmer vs glare or twinkle vs. gleam. Then ask them to arrange the words from least amount of light to most amount of light. In general, playing with the words solidifies the vocabulary.

For 10 creative writing ideas, click The Quilt Maker’s Gift to download.

The Matchbox Diary

December 1, 2014August 19, 2021 / diana cruchley / Leave a comment

Grandfather has a room full of treasures, each with a story attached. She asks for the story of the cigar box filed with matchbooks, each with a tiny symbol of a story from grandfather’s life.

Mining a Picture

In one of the matchboxes is a picture of grandfather’s father. The author writes 151 words about that photo – and this is in a picture book where words are at a premium. Ask students to bring a picture to class. You could then show how you can “mine a picture” to write.

When was this photo taken? Why do you think it was taken?
Who is the person in the picture? Why is the person in that pose?
Who took the picture? Talk about the picture taker.
What is being worn in the picture? Talk about the clothes.
What other things are in the picture?
What is the mood of the picture?
What smells, sights, sounds, do you associate with the picture?

Now students have enough to easily write about 200 words about the photo.

Making Small Boxes

This story uses as a “prop” a matchbox. The House Baba Built, by Ed Young, mentions that the children would gather silkworms and put them in little origami boxes that they built, and feed them mulberry leaves. There are many YouTube videos of simple instructions for making your own origami boxes. This is the easiest one that I found.

To make the “inside” of the box – just take about .5 cm off two sides of the square to make a smaller square.

For 10 creative writing ideas, click The Matchbox Diary to download.

Diana Cruchley

Speaker and Author

Art