Ring in spring with Shel Silverstein

Instructor, May-June, 2004 by Liza Charlesworth

The time is ripe to put a little spring in your students' steps with the zany, exhilarating verse of Shel Silverstein. Although he died in 1999, Silverstein's spirit lives on in his many creative works--folk songs, movie scores, screenplays, illustrations, stories, and, of course, several collections of beloved children's poetry.

Introducing the Poem

Place the poetry poster on an easel, gathering students around you so everyone can see it. Before you get started, position a sheet of paper over the body of the poem so that only the title--"Oops!"--is visible. To build prediction skills and get creative juices flowing, invite students to use the title to guess what the poem is about. Does a girl spill grape juice on her cocker spaniel? Does a piglet bolt out of an open barn door? (Jot down ideas to use later as instant story starters.) Now remove the paper and read the poem, pausing to emphasize each delicious word. What do kids notice? They may respond that only one word appears per line and that the language seems somewhat nonsensical.

Next, share this secret with them: "Oops" is a two-way poem that can also be read upside down! Read the poem each way. Your effort will likely be greeted with laughter and "a-has." When you're done, build oral fluency by asking pairs of students to do their own upside-down readings. After that, offer this fun fact: Silverstein, an avid cartoonist, penned the picture to go with the verse. How does the illustration enhance his whimsical writing? Finally, challenge the class to locate the poem's two sets of rhyming words (Down, Found, Around and My, I), which open and close each stanza. Explain that they add a sense of musicality to the poem.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Extending Learning

Build language-arts skills with one or more of these activities:

* CUT-UP POEMS: Write each word of the poem on an index card and place all of the cards in a pocket chart. Next, give small groups two minutes to re-sequence the words any way they choose, and then share their mixed-up renditions with classmates!

* UPSIDE-DOWN CLASSICS: Foster a love of language and have a good giggle by enjoying a few end-to-beginning readings of your favorite nursery rhymes, such as "Dumpty Humpty" or "Muffet Miss Little."

* PART-OF-SPEECH SEARCH: For older children, make grammar relevant by challenging them to identify parts of speech for each word in "Oops!" It's an impressive mix of nouns, verbs, adverbs, pronouns, and prepositions. Do some words fall into more than one category? (Write answers on sticky notes and attach to the poetry poster for a handy reference chart.)

RELATED ARTICLE: Poem Hints

OOPS!

Down

Upside

Out

Come

All

Poems

My

Found

I

Can't

But

Try

Do

I

Around

All

Them

Turn

Not

Can

I

Down

Upside

Out

Come

All

Poems

My

* INTRIGUING TITLE: The compelling title draws readers in and keeps them guessing.

* NO PUNCTUATION, PLEASE!: Silverstein used only one piece of punctuation. Can kids find it?

* TWO-WAY READING: This poem can be read from top to bottom or bottom to top. Which way does your class prefer?

* RHYME TIME: "Oops!" is extra musical because the first word in every stanza rhymes as does the last word in every stanza.

* SUPER SIMPLICITY: Silverstein proves that powerful poems can be constructed from the simplest of sight words.

* BOOKEND STANZAS: The first and last stanzas are exactly the same. Kids can think of them as "bookends."