The Giving Tree and more

This week is Young People's Poetry Week and since it is Book Fair week also, we did poetry with first grade last week instead. We focused mainly on Jack Prelutsky and Shel Silverstein and read a selection of poems, The Missing Piece, and The Giving Tree. The kids loved it of course as they are both funny poets and they especially liked The Missing Piece. They also liked seeing the boy in The Giving Tree grow up but I think the main points of that book are lost on kids that young still as they don't appreciate the full message yet. However, I still think it is an important book to read several times over one's life and think about who we give to and who we take from. Sometimes it is something so simple that we can give to make someone's day brighter - a smile, a hug, a card. Just noticing them is sometimes all it takes. We should remember that with our students.