Curated OER
Classroom Community
Learners read the book The Giving Tree and discuss the sense of community the book talks about. In this community lesson plan, students discuss how they can help one another and they can treat each other nicely.
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Giving Cheer
Students explore kind behavior. For this values development and literacy lesson, students listen to The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein, then generate a class list of ways the tree helped the boy and ways in which the boy helped the...
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Shel Silverstein Poetry Math
Fifth graders explore the connection between poetry and math by reading poems that involve numbers. For this Shel Silverstein poetry math lesson, 5th graders listen to 5 poems read aloud and discuss how math was used in the poems. ...
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Saving the Trees
Students identify why trees are important. In this environmental lesson, students read the book The Giving Tree and list reasons why humans need trees. Students create a storybook to explain why other natural resources are important to...
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Hug O' War
Students discuss philanthropic behavior. In this philanthropy lesson, students read Shel Silverstein's Hug O' War and brainstorm ways of working together.
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Trash or Treasure?
Students identify things that can be reused. In this environmental lesson, students read the poem "Hector the Collector" and discuss the difference between junk and treasure. Students complete a reflection about what they read by...
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There Is No Away
Students identify how trash is disposed of. In this environmental instructional activity, students read and discuss the poem "Sarah Sylvia Stout" by Shel Silverstein and discuss the ways people treated the items in the poem. Students...
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Cool School Poetry
Young scholars generate a word bank drawing on vocabulary from fifteen school related topics. They use the word bank to write poetry in the styles of Shel Silverstein and Jack Prelutsky.
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Let the Bugs do the Rhyming
Students listen to limericks and write their own about a favorite insect.
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Making Inferences and Drawing Conclusions
Second graders make several inferences based on the reading of Shel Silverstein poems. They write their own poetry and complete an assessment in which they differentiate between sentences that are stated or inferred.
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Compassion
Students discuss respect, responsibility, and honesty, and participate in a project that reaches beyond the classroom.
Curated OER
Syber-Silverstein: Poetry in Motion
Sixth graders explore the writing of Shel Silverstein. They listen to the story, The Giving Tree, explore the Shel Silverstein website, read poems, and create and write a humorous poem.
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement: Writing Poetry Like Pros
By looking to examples of popular poetry in a variety of forms, students learn to analyze, appreciate, and synthesize poetry in the classroom. "Writing Poetry Like Pros" provides several links to poetry texts and suggestions for creating...
Chase Young, PhD
Dr. Chase Young, Ph D: Reader's Theater Script: The Giving Tree [Pdf]
A reader's theater script for Shel Silverstein's narrative poem, The Giving Tree, is provided on these pages. Thirteen character roles are needed in this activity.
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Choosing One Word Summarizing Shel Silverstein?s ?Sick?
Contains plans for two 50-minute lessons that ask students to identify the most important word in a piece of writing. Shel Silverstein?s poem ?Sick? is used as an example. In addition to student objectives and standards, this...
Academy of American Poets
Poets.org: Shel Silverstein
This webpage focuses on Shel Silverstein, cartoonist, poet, playwrite. It provides biographical information about Silverstein, a list of his works, and links to two of his poems.
CommonLit
Common Lit: "Where the Sidewalk Ends" by Shel Silverstein
CommonLit.org is a wonderful resource to use in a Language Arts classroom. Each story or poem is accompanied by guided reading questions, assessment questions, and discussion questions. In addition, students can click on words to see the...
Academy of American Poets
Poets.org: Shel Silverstein
Biographical site about Shel Silverstein's life. You can also click on the titles of his poems to read them in full.
CommonLit
Common Lit: "Growing Down" by Shel Silverstein
In this poem by Shel Silverstein, a speaker tells an adult that he should try "growing down" rather than growing up. A specific purpose for reading and vocabulary notes are provided. This site offers links to paired texts, questions and...
The Book Report
Kids reads.com: Authors
Click on the children's author link to view an article with biographical information, book titles, and the like.
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Shel Silverstein Classroom Activity
As part of a unit on Shel Silverstein and his poetry (specifically "Where the Sidewalk Ends"), this classroom activity provides a brief classroom project and includes lesson plan ideas, web links, and additional texts.
Read Works
Read Works: Voice 3rd Grade Unit
[Free Registration/Login Required] A series of two lesson plans designed to teach students to recognize words and phrases that support the author's voice in poetry. Lessons are based on the books Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel...
CommonLit
Common Lit: Yesees and Noees
A learning module that begins with "Yesees and Noees" by Shel Silverstein, accompanied by guided reading questions, assessment questions, and discussion questions. The text can be printed as a PDF or assigned online through free teacher...
CommonLit
Common Lit: Growing Down
A learning module that begins with "Growing Down" by Shel Silverstein, accompanied by guided reading questions, assessment questions, and discussion questions. The text can be printed as a PDF or assigned online through free teacher and...