In Aunt Giraffe's Green Garden

By: Jack Prelutsky
Illustrator: Petra Mathers

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

Copyright: 2007

This giant book of poems, is great for students of any age. In the book there are twenty eight diverse poems, dealing with animals, people, snow, and the presidents. There are catchy rhymes and vivid pictures that show a great vision of each poem. This is a great book for beginning poets.

Vocabulary: Scarcely, summits, chassis, blustery, majestic, galoshes


Suggested Delivery: Read Aloud


Lexile Level: 780L

Web Resources: 

Teachers Guide: This is a guide to help teach the book. http://files.harpercollins.com/PDF/TeachingGuides/0066238692.pdf

Audio: Readings of a couple of the poems http://www.teachingbooks.net/book_reading.cgi?id=2229

Comprehension Strategy:

Before Reading: Students who have no been exposed to poems, need to understand what poetry is? How is poetry written? What makes something poetry?

During Reading: Read one poem, see if students can pick out any characteristics that stand out to them in the poem. First visionally, how there are stanzas, then talk about rhyming words at the end of sentences.

Writing Activity: 

Students will write a poem, based off a poem in the book. Students will have end rhymes in their poem. Students will illustrate a picture that is the visual representation of the poem.