POETRY CHOICE: DOUGLAS FLORIAN

INSECTLOPEDIA: POEMS AND PAINTINGS
by Douglas Florian

Florian, Douglas. 1998. "The Crickets" from Insectlopedia. New York: Voyager Books.

THE CRICKETS

You don't need tickets

To listen to crickets.

They chirp and cheep for free.

They fiddle and sing

By rubbing each wing,

And never will charge you a fee.

Introduction: Ask students to name some insects they know. List what they say on chart paper. Ask them to tell something about each insect they named. If no one says crickets when you are making the list, guide students with verbal clues so that they can guess which insect you are thinking of. Once cricket has been added to the list, ask students what they know about this insect. Ask if anyone can make a cricket sound? Show them the art work in Florian's book. Read the poem aloud 2 or 3 times.

Language Arts Extension: Follow up the poem by reading Eric Carle's, The Very Quiet Cricket. (1990) At the end of the story the children will hear a surprise.

Science Extension: If age appropriate, have students disect and label parts of a cricket, or for younger age children, have them illustrate an insect of their choosing and make a classs book of insect poems.

Other Douglas Florian works of art:

Beast Feast: Poems and Paintings. 1994. Harcourt.

Bing, Bang, Boing: Poems and Drawings. 1994. Harcourt.

Mammalibilia: Poems and Paintings. 2000. Harcourt.

Laugh-eteria: Poems and Drawings. 1999. Harcourt.