I had never really thought about a sock as a pocket for your toes before and was very intrigued with this thinking. I participated in Poetry Friday last week hosted by Liz in Ink. As I was getting ready to post and connect with our host I discovered Liz in Ink is Liz Garton Scanlon, children's author. I explored her site further and found out her words were the foundation for a Caldecott Honor Medal just last week. Needless to say, I wanted to get her books and look at them further.
Who has something to share?, is a question we start our morning meetings with in my classroom. Last Friday before the children could start sharing their thoughts I said, "I do!" I then shared with the students about this blog and how the author of these two books (held in my hand) left me a comment about my thinking about The Swing poem.
For reading workshop that day I read A Sock Is a Pocket for Your Toes by Liz Garton Scanlon. This book is thoughtful and encourages the reader to look at normal every day things in a new way. Thinking outside of the box and I loved it but I wasn't sure how my kindergarten students would react to such thinking. Would they be able to generate some of their own pocket thinking? I knew third graders would be able to easily. As I read the story, they sat intently following along and listening but I couldn't read any facial expressions to know if they were thinking on their own. When I finished, I thought we read it for enjoyment and that's alright...until Z said, "the air is a pocket for birds." I could start to feel the bubbles of excitement in my body and then those bubbles burst right out when G said, "glasses are a pocket for your eyes." That's all it took and the ball was rolling. 20 out of 24 students generated their own ideas for pockets and 4 friends were willing to share their thinking with those 4 friends. We are now illustrating our pocket thinking and making a display for the hallway. Here are a few others I thought were just delightful from five and six year olds.
-a chair is a pocket for you
-your ponytail is a pocket for your hair
-a plate is a pocket for food
-your teeth are a pocket for cavities
-a swing is a pocket for your body
-a tv is a pocket for shows
-a zoo is a pocket for animals
-the Earth is a pocket for people