Falling Up

Title: Falling Up

Author: Shel Silverstein
# of Pages: 184

Published by: HarperCollins Publishers
Age Range: 6-8
Grade levels: 1-3

This book is a great collection of poetry by Shel Silverstein. This collection features 144 wonderful poems. All of the pictures and poems in this book are in black and white and use Shel Silverstein's unique style The poems are visually appealing and easy for the readers to relate to. The poems vary in style and are various lengths. The poems throughout this collection use a lot of word play and other literary devices too enhance the poems. Nonsense words and silly vocabulary are used to make children laugh, This kind of book could be used to get more students to enjoy reading. The poems are short, simple and enjoyable to read. I would have this book in my classroom library someday! 

Classroom activities and lesson ideas: 

• Read poems during transitions
• Use for a Shel Silverstein poetry unit
• Have students sketch their own image to a poem
• Have students look at an image then write a poem to go with it
• Explore Shel Silverstein's website
• Teach about poetry elements