Learning to make desert sand paintings provides an opportunity to teach about native cultures and the art of the Southwest. Students enjoy writing group poems on a theme such as, Listen to the Playground. Students can research early musical instruments of the Americas, make their own and use them to accompany the words. Try choral reading with this book. I Am Tall .
Students can create their own theme anthologies and include original work and poems by others.
The books can be illustrated or enhanced by other kinds of student art such as collage. Students can select one of the poems in the collection and write a prose piece on the same theme. Using one of the poems in the book as a model, students can write their own poem using an existing format. Students can collect compelling photographs of mothers and grandmothers and write brief poems as captions. This is a good opportunity for a global photography project.