August is often the hottest month of the year. Escape the heat and sun by “coming inside” and discovering an illuminating new world with Where the Sidewalk Ends.
Where the Sidewalk Ends by
Shel Silvertein
Scholastic.com puts it best by stating,
“If you are a dreamer, come in,
If you are a dreamer,
A wisher, a liar,
A hope-er, a pray-er,
A magic bean buyer…”
Come in…for where the sidewalk ends, Shel Silverstein’s world begins. You” ll meet a boy who turns into a TV set, and a girl who eats a whale. The Unicorn and the Bloath live there, and so does Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout who will not take the garbage out. It is a place where you wash your shadow and plant diamond gardens, a place where shoes fly, sisters are auctioned off, and crocodiles go to the dentist.
From the outrageously funny to the quietly affecting, here are poems and drawings that illuminate the remarkable world of the well-known singer, songwriter, humorist, and creator of The Giving Tree.”
This book is best for:
Third to Fifth grade levels
DRA Level: 40
Lexile Measure: NP
To find more information and explore the world of Shel Silverstein, stop by http://www.shelsilverstein.com
Please let us know how you used these materials with your class. We would love to hear your stories and experiences!
Where the Sidewalk Ends Lesson Plan Ideas
Click below for the link to resources available in the Instructional Resources Center!
Need some inspiration? Help with narration? Ideas on formation? Below are ideas found to help you out!
Literacy:
Classroom Discussion on specific poems:
After reading “Invitation” (p. 9), discuss the overall meaning of the poem. Focus
especially on “come in” and the way it provides rhythm to the poem. Also, focus on what the author might mean by “come in” with regard to both the literal and figurative aspects. Is a book like a doorway, a room, a world? How do your students understand the words “come in” as they relate to books and stories?
Read “Sick” (pp. 58–59) with your class, and talk about Peggy Ann McKay.
What do your students know about her personality from the poem? What might they infer about her feelings? What traits would they say she has, and how do these traits cause her to behave? In what ways are they similar to her, and in what ways are they different?
With your class, read “Lester” (p. 69) and “Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out” (pp. 70–71). Discuss the unique characters described in each poem, and then discuss the events described.
What traits do these characters have? How do they affect the characters’ choices? Once you’ve explored the answers to these questions, ask your class to identify the central messages, lessons, and themes in the poems.
Help your class compare and contrast the two poems “Boa Constrictor” (pp. 44–45) and “Hector the Collector” (pp. 46–47). Potential areas you might explore with your students: story structure, including beginning, middle, and end; rhyme schemes; use of dialogue; tone; and point of view. Also, ask them what they like about each poem and why.
Read “The Farmer and the Queen” (p. 32–33). This silly story plays with words like “nay” and “cheap” that are onomatopoeic words for animal sounds as well as words with other meanings. Help students identify all the meanings. Then have them create a poster of the words and all the words’ meanings, along with companion sentences that show the uses of the words in context. They might also illustrate the poster with imaginative,
accurate drawings.
Writing Activities:
After reading the preposterous “Who” (p. 63), help your class invent outrageous lies about itself. You could either map the rhyme scheme and use a similar pattern as a guide, or you could use the lines “I can!” “I did!” “I will!” in the same way Shel Silverstein uses them and adopt the poem’s rhyme scheme. You also might encourage
your class to use the poem’s final lines “Who can sit and tell lies all night? / I might!” or you could aid your class to develop alternative, yet equally silly, ending lines. Publish your “Lying Poem” in the class or school newsletter to give parents and schoolmates a laugh.
Help each student to choose a favorite poem in Where the Sidewalk Ends. Explain what
a great review should contain: an opinion along with examples and reasons that support the opinion. Guide the students through the process of writing reviews for their favorite poems, and encourage them to write about the illustrations as well as the words, phrases, lines, characters, or events. Display these excellent Official Poem Reviews for all to read.
Present your students with biographical information on the remarkable life of Shel
Silverstein. For a good resource, go to http://www.shelsilverstein.com. Help your students identify key facts about his life and his work. As part of the process, they might want to collect some of the information they’ve gathered from reading Where the Sidewalk Ends and his other work. For example, they might relay what topics he often wrote about, or they might describe his humor. Assist them in writing, revising, and polishing these thoughtful “An Artist’s Life” biographies.
The Story of Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me Too. The three very silly characters Ickle Me, Pickle Me, and Tickle Me “never returned to the world they knew” (pp. 16–17), so where did they go? Did they land or continue flying? What sights did they see? What was their next adventure? Help students create a letter home from Ickle Me, Pickle Me, and Tickle Me that relates the story of where they went after the end of the poem and what they did.
Art:
SNAKE CRAFT: BOA CONSTRICTOR
Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein can be an escape for your students to imagine the possibilities of literature and also change the way they look at the world. Bring their imagination to the forefront by crafting a snake that correlates to a beloved Shel Silverstein poem.
“Well, what do you know? It’s nibblin’ my toe.” – Shel Silverstein
YOU WILL NEED:
- Playdough
- Sequins or Gems
- Googly Eyes
- Piece of Cardboard (can be from a cereal box)
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Grab your piece of cardboard to work on. You’ll be glad the project is already set up something study to dry on (Translation: No crying kids when the project breaks because you had to pick it up.)
- Roll out the playdough into a long tube. It’s completely up to your student on how fat or thin they want to make their snake.
- Shape the snake into a relaxed S shape so it will be stable when it dries and not roll over.
- Decorate with the sequins or gems. (Make sure the sequins are well-pressed in or they will fall off after the playdough has dried.)
- Add two googly eyes at the top of the snake.
- Let it dry.
Give the snake a rhyming name along with the student’s name and proudly display!
Outside Activity:
Need something to do outside to keep your students’ attention and encourage their creativity? Look no further than the name of the book: SIDEWALK.
Block out sections of sidewalk and have each student draw or write out (with sidewalk chalk) their favorite image or poem from the book.
Math:
“Band-Aids”
Integrate literature, math and writing with Band-Aids! Pass out copies of Shel Silverstein’s “Band-Aids” poem from Where the Sidewalk Ends. Then split kids up into teams of two. Have one kid trace the other on an oversize sheet of butcher paper. Give each team 35 Band-Aids of various shapes or colors.
Using the poem, students stick Band-Aids on the body outline (where Silverstein says they are placed). Next, they do the math! They figure out the total number of Band-Aids in Shel Silverstein’s poem. Have them count up the total number of Band-Aids on the body outline. Then, they must refer back to the poem to figure out the total number of Band-Aids Silverstein used (poem says box of 35 more). Once they have figured out the total, have them write a fraction for each Band-Aid shape (or color).
“One Inch Tall”
Read the poem “One Inch Tall” from Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein. Then pass out the “one inch tall rulers” and try to find something that measures an inch! What could you do around the classroom if you were only 1 inch tall? Kids use the ruler as a guide. What could they do if they were 2, 3, 4, or 5 inches tall?!
“Baloney Belly Billy”
Read the poem “Baloney Belly Billy” from Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein. Then have kids brush up on their money skills! Give them a certain amount of money to feed Billy. They decide what they want him to eat. Have them create a receipt including the cost of each item they fed Billy and the total amount of money they spent.
Optional craft: Create your very own Billy. Have kids make an oversize construction-paper head with a hole cut out where his mouth is. Tape a sandwich bag underneath. Kids can throw the items he eats in his mouth. You could also tape the head to a brown paper lunch bag or tissue box (both with a hole for Billy’s snack items).
Writing: What would you offer Billy for “another 50 cents?” ($1.50)
“Smart”
Read the poem “Smart” from Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein. Next, have students do coin rubbings in the open squares. Then they write the coin amount on the line.
“18 Flavors”
Read the poem “18 Flavors” from Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein. Next, tell kids that they are going to become ice cream inventors! Pass out a template for a scoop of ice cream and lay out different colors of construction paper. Each child decorates his scoop of ice cream to look like the flavor he invented. Then have students cut out their scoops and write their names on the back. Place their scoops of ice cream at the math station, along with a paper cutout cone. Kids go back and measure the ice cream cone with different scoops. How tall is it with one, two, three, four, five and so on.
Optional: Hanging up next to the station, write the price of one scoop. Have kids purchase their scoops of ice cream before measuring them to practice their money skills.
Writing: Have kids write a recipe for the ice cream flavor they invented! What will they call their flavor?
For more fun ideas check out the following blogs:
https://mommyevolution.com/snake-craft-where-the-sidewalk-ends/#_a5y_p=3642409
Where the Sidewalk Ends Classroom Decorations
Great ideas and inspirations
found on Pinterest
Great quotes to incorporate on your classroom door to welcome in your students or to describe the magic of each one of your kids! Shine the light on them!
Need a way to display your class projects? Check out the above bulletin board!
We in the Instructional Resource Center have tools to help you create your own versions!
Check out our Ellison Dies! We have letters in different fonts and sizes.
We also have a large collection of shapes and figures to help make your design unique!
For our guidelines and policies, please stop by http://www.deltastate.edu/library/departments/instructional-resources-center/
We hope to see you soon!
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