IT'S CLASS BOOK TIME!

I know about this time in the school year many classes create a class book. I know because--to my total delight--many of you produce a brand new WHAT IF YOU HAD?! book and kindly send me a copy. 

Jen Rusin's 2nd graders
(Homestead Elementary School,Aurora , IL)with their class 
WHAT IF YOU HAD?! books

So I thought this year I'd jump in with some behind-my-book tips on how I write one of my WHAT IF YOU HAD?! books. You and your students are welcome to jump in and join me in creating WHAT IF YOU HAD ANIMAL TEETH 2?!

Here's the original.

The process can be boiled down to the 4--RRRRs!

1-R is REVV UP! This is where everyone fires up their brain cells and comes up with ideas.

Okay, we already have the book's title and thus it's subject matter. The challenge now is to come up with 11 animals with interesting teeth. Yes, every WHAT IF YOU HAD?! book introduces 11 (count them) animals. And NO-- you can not repeat any of the animals in the first WHAT IF YOU HAD ANIMAL TEETH?! book. Those have already been featured So these animals are out--new animals deserve a turn. 

• Beaver
• Great White Shark
• Narwhale
• Elephant
• Rattlesnake
• Naked Mole Rat
• Vampire Bat
• Hippopotamus
• Bengal Tiger
• Crocodile
• Camel 

The REVV UP step is a great time for a little brainstorming. Try these Google searches: 

Animals with Interesting teeth.

Animals with weird teeth.

Animals with special teeth for self-defense.

Animals with special teeth for digging.

Animals with special teeth to build home.

For best results, you'll want to try for an interesting mix. Remember, there are special kinds of teeth that can be included here, such as tusks and fangs. Could probably stretch it to include mandibles (tooth-like parts in some insects).

Try for 12 to 14 "maybe" animals for this list in case one or more doesn't pan out during the next step.

AT THIS POINT--kids can divide up into partner pairs or small groups to share steps 2, 3, and 4.

2-R is RESEARCH! Sure it may have seemed like research was already happening during the REVV UP! step (and it was). Now, it's time for REAL research.

                 

LEFT  LEFT                                                      RIGHT                                                    

Every spread--lefthand and righthand set of pages--has one page with bursts of information about the featured animal's teeth. And one page that shares how it could be fun to actually have that kind of animal part. 

So this is where the class can vote on 11 animals they'd like to include. Set the extras aside as back up if one of the selected animals doesn't work out. That happens when there isn't enough information on its teeth and how they're used. Or no one can come up with how it would be cool to have those teeth that isn't being used for some other animal in your class book.

Check back in the original WHAT IF YOU HAD ANIMAL TEETH?! to see what kinds of information to include on the INFO PAGE--the lefthand page in the spread.

You'll see there is brief info about the shape, structure and even color of the teeth. Plus a sentence or two on the key way those teeth are the perfect adaptation for letting the animal survive and be healthy in its home habitat. 

FACT--And every INFO PAGE has one other fun bit of information about that animal's teeth.

Now for the IMAGINE PAGE. What one totally cool, absolutely fun thing would you be able to do in your world (home habitat) with that animal's teeth? 

If possible, I like my RESEARCH step to include one or both of the following:
1. Check out the animal in person. If I ever visit or Skype visit, be sure an ask me about my personal experience with one boa constrictor named Rosie. :-)

This can be a trip to a zoo or nature center. It can even be a video of the living animal in action. I've had a great time getting up close and personal with some amazing wild animals. I do have fun writing my books! 

                  Me in Antarctica with Adelie Penguins

Me with Baby Mike, an Asian Elephant

2. Talk to an expert. Ask them to visit and talk about an animal they are studying. Or arrange a Skype visit to connect with an expert somewhere else in the world. Many are VERY willing to share. 

Time to reassess your list of 11 animals for your WHAT IF YOU HAD ANIMAL TEETH 2?! book. Kick out and replace any that don't WOW you. Any you can't find enough about to make a good INFO PAGE. Any that just don't lend themselves to a good IMAGINE PAGE.

Then roll on to the next R.

3-R is READY TO WRITE!

Start with the INFO PAGE. Do what I call "Get the clay out." Roughly write sentences about the key information to be shared. Next, "Work the clay." That means work on squeezing the information down to just two or three fact-packed sentences. 

Then write the FACT in one fun sentence.

NOTE:  I always date each version of my text. This is what I wrote for my "Get the clay out" stage of the Beaver INFO PAGE.

LR pp 4-5

You could have beaver front teeth.

Chisel-shaped and very sharp.

Just right for eating bark and branches

And cutting down trees to build a lodge in a stream.

Beaver front teeth never stop growing.

So you could gnaw from morning to night,

day after day, for all of your life.

Your front teeth would never wear out

if you had beaver teeth.

FACT

A beavers lips are behind its front teeth.

That way it can gnaw branches in a pond

and not get a mouthful of water.

Finish by writing one sentence that shares the fun idea for the IMAGINE PAGE.

And on to the next R.

4-R is REVISE AND ROLL OUT.

Good writing is as finely chiseled as a perfect diamond--as polished as gleaming silver. So this is the step where the clay that was roughly worked in step 3 is made publication quality and just right for your class book. 

This requires writing. Reading aloud to listen to the rhythm of the text. 

Thinking about just the right words to use and revising. Reading aloud to listen to the beats of the text. 

Trimming the text so it's as tight and to the point as possible. Reading aloud to listen for anything that makes you stumble. Anything you just naturally slip in so it's missing and needs adding. Or anything you just naturally leave out that clearly can be cut. 

For me--after years of practice--I reach the point where what I've written feels just right when I hear it. 

NOTE: This is one stage along the way of revising. Read the "Get the clay out" version out loud. Next read this one out loud. Then read the final published version. See how they've changed. 

Trust me when I tell you there were lots of versions in-between as I tweaked and tweaked and tweaked.

A beaver’s front teeth are 

chisel-shaped and very sharp.

Teeth like that are perfect for biting off bark 

and cutting down trees.

A beaver’s front teeth never stop growing.

So you could gnaw from morning to night,

day after day, for all of your life.

Your front teeth would never wear out,

if you had beaver teeth.

FACT

A beaver’s front teeth are orange. That’s because they have a coating that contains iron. The iron colors the teeth and makes them very strong.

When the text is right, it's time to illustrate. Photos or art can illustrate the INFO PAGE. But, of course, art will be the only way to bring the IMAGINE PAGE to life.

Now, it's time for the partners and small groups to put their work together. Take a class vote on what order the animals should appear in the book. OR arrange them alphabetically. 

• The very beginning: Page 2 needs a dedication. So dedicate the book to someone as a class. Or let each child add their own personal dedication. 
• Page 3 can be exactly like Page 3 in the original book. Or create one as a class. 

At the end of the book: Take one spread (lefthand and righthand page) to remember some of the ways it would be cool to have the animal teeth featured in your class book.

On a second spread, share ways it's good to have people teeth instead of animal teeth. Use the ones in the original book to start you thinking but come up with new ways it's good to have people teeth for your class book. 

And then there is what's called back matter. In the original book, it's one spread that shares information about teeth and tooth care. What other information about teeth could your class share for the back matter of your class book? 

REVV UP the brain cells to come up with new information for this spread. Here's a couple of ideas to get you started:
1. How is toothpaste made and how does it clean teeth. You could include a brief history of tooth brushes and toothpaste.
2. What is tooth decay? What causes it?
3. How do fillings help teeth. 

As a personal note, I usually write the back matter after the RESEARCH step and before I "Get the clay out." That seems to start my writer juices flowing and launches me into writing the book's spreads.

My cat Beau likes to check out my books. In fact, if I don't watch out he checks out how they taste.

I also, almost always, rearrange the order the book's spreads at least once after they're all written. I do this when I see one that have things in common and should be grouped together. Or one just seems to natually follow another. 

Here I am getting in the mood to work on my next WHAT IF YOU HAD?! book. Can you guess what it's about?

Most of all, I have fun discovering and imagining as I work on these books. So I know you will too. ENJOY both the process and the finished books!

Did you guess?!

I'M SHARING THE LONG, LONG JOURNEY

Enjoy my reading THE LONG, LONG JOURNEY to you. Then discover more about this book.

THE LONG, LONG JOURNEY

Every year godwits make the long migration from their summer home in Alaska to their winter home in New Zealand. This bird's story is very special to me. For almost fourteen years, I lived near Christchurch, New Zealand.  Along with other New Zealanders, I eagerly awaited the godwits arrival each year in September.

Here I am one day when the godwits arrived.
Check out the headline--"Godwits Are Back!"

That always signified winter was over and spring had arrived.  

So, when scientists tracking the birds reported they were nearing land, bird watchers rushed to the shores.  Then as soon as the first group of godwits were spotted, the news was broadcast on the radio and television.  The big cathedral in Christchurch also rang its bells.  Everywhere banners were raised and crowds rushed to the estuaries to cheer the arriving birds.

Now, think about how you would travel from Kipnuk Airport, the closet airport to Cape Avinof, Alaska to Christchurch, New Zealand, one of godwits destinations in New Zealand.  

Check airline websites to answer the following questions:

• Can you fly non-stop, the way the godwits do?  If not, how many stops will you have to make along the way?
• How much will it cost you to fly between Alaska and New Zealand?
• The trip isn't free for the godwits, either.  However, what it costs the birds isn't money.  It costs these birds a lot of energy to make such a long flight.

So you learned what it costs the godwits is energy--what they get from eating and storing body fat.  Adult godwits have to double their weight between June and September.  Chicks have to both grow up and put on weight.

Just for fun, figure out what you would weigh if you doubled your weight to make this long trip.

Look at the godwit's long legs.
Such long legs help it wade in the mud to find food.

Now, try this activity to find out how the godwit uses its long beak to find and pick up food.

First, cut the top off an empty gallon-sized milk jug. Fill it nearly full of wet sand. Next, have an adult partner bury five pennies in the sand and smooth the top flat to hide the coins.  Then use chopsticks or two pencils held like chopsticks to probe the sand for the pennies. Once you find them, use the chopsticks to pluck the pennies out of the sand.

Take a close look at this picture of godwits in flight.  Look at how they hold their wings and head.

How do you think holding their head and wings this way helps them fly?

Check out what the godwits are doing with their long legs while they fly.  Why do you think the birds hold their legs in this position rather than just letting them hang down below their body.

Now, spend some time watching your local birds take off and fly. Draw a picture of one of these birds in flight.  Be sure to show how they stretch out their wings, how they hold their head, and what they do with their legs.

Just for fun, play this game to find out how godwits stay together in a flock even while flying through thick clouds and heavy rain.  

1. Ask six of your friends to stand in a circle around you. 
2. Close your eyes and ask them to make noises one at a time.  
3. Try pointing to each person as they sound off.  Have your friends score a point for you each time you point at the person making the sound.  
4. Now you know that being noisy helps birds keep track of each other and fly together.

The godwits take advantage of the fact that earth's northern and southern hemisphere's have summer at opposite times of the year. They always live where it's comfortably summer and there's plenty to eat year round.  To do that, though, means the godwits have to make a Long, Long Journey.

GOOD GOLLY it's Autumn!

GOOD GOLLY it's Autumn!

I love this season! Whether you live where autumn brings lots of changes or only a few, it's still a great time for seasonal fun. So let's jump in and get started.

CHOMP!

There are thousands of kinds of apples. However, only the most popular are grown and harvested. Even that changes as new varieties emerge. Today, the top ten are most often listed as the following:
Pink Lady 
Honeycrisp
Fuji
Golden Delicious
McIntosh
Cox's Orange Pippin
Red Delicious
Gala
Jonasgold
Cortland



Collect samples of any three then compare. 
Do the apples look different? 

Check color. 
Shape. 
Size.

Now wash and slice. Then taste one sample. Rate it from 1 to 4 on crispness with 1 being the softest and 4 being the crispest.
Also rate it on sweetness with 1 being the least sweet and 4 being the sweetest.

Have a swig of water. Next, repeat these two tests with the second apple. Then with the third. 

Now create an advertisement for your favorite kind of apple. Tell why that's the best kind to buy, eat, and enjoy. Share something that will make people who've never tasted that kind of apple really want to try it.

If you can, share your findings on sweet taste with at least five friends and build a bar graph to compare the kinds of apples. 

It's estimated that each person in the United States eats about 50 apples a year. So while your investigating, you'll be on your way to eating your fair share of this year's crop.

RIDDLE: What kind of fruit do ghosts like?
Boo-berries. 







SHRINK A HEAD

In pioneering times, apples were carved and allowed to shrink and dry to make heads for dolls. You can carve an apple head to create a spooky shrunken head. Just follow the easy steps.

1.  First, peel the apple. Leave some peel on top for "hair". 

2.  Plan what you want the face to look like.

3.  Pour 4 cups of water into a bowl and stir in a teaspoon of salt.  Place the carved apple in this for about two hours.
That soften's the apple's flesh. 

4.  Next, use an unsharpened pencil or a popsicle stick to push in eye sockets. Also carve the shape for a nose and mouth.

5.  Push raisins into the eye sockets for eyes. You may also want to poke unpopped popcorn kernels into the mouth for teeth.

6.  Set your complete apple head on a plate. Check daily to see how the face changes as the apple dries.

The dried apple head usually won't mold. That's why people used to preserve food, like apples, for winter by drying it.  The lower water content helps prevent bacteria and mold growth.

Now, create a doll body for your apple head. It could be made out of poster board. It could be made out of paint stirring stick and have cloth clothes. Or something else. Whatever you make, make a list of the steps to follow. That way, others can make an apple head doll just the way you did.

RIDDLE: What's a vampire's favorite fruit?
Neck-tarines.














SNAP IT UP

In ancient times, Celts and Romans thought apples were magical fruit. So a popular tradition in Great Britain was apple-snapping. In those long ago times, a rope was tied to the center of a stick that was hung from the ceiling. Next, an apple was stuck on one end of the stick. A candle was attached to the other end. Once the candle was lit the stick was started twirling. Contestants then tried to snatch the apple without getting burned. This was a very dangerous game. Later, it was turned into bobbing for apples.

To bob for apples, fill a large plastic storage tub or child's plastic wading pool nearly full of water. Wash the apples--one for each contestant. Set these afloat. To play each person, in turn, bends over the tub with their hands behind their back. Have someone time each person working to snatch an apple in their teeth. The fastest snatcher wins. Only each person wins a tasty apple snack. 

Write a short story about a bobbing-for-apples contest.

RIDDLE: What kind of horses do ghosts ride?
Nightmares.












MORE FUN!

You're not done yet.

Twist and Shout--Find an apple with a stem. Twist it around and around saying a letter of the alphabet with each complete turn. How many letter can you say before the stem separates?

Cut and Print--Apples make great print blocks. Cut a nice firm apple in half. Use a sturdy plastic knife or popsicle stick to cut away parts of flesh. Pour tempera or finger paint on a sturdy paper plate. Touch the cut apple to this to coat. Then press firmly on paper. Repeat to "stamp" your design all over the paper. If you want more than one color, wash off the apple and pat dry with a paper towel. Then keep on stamping with a new color of paint.

Johnny Did It--Look up Johnny Appleseed on-line. Then make up a short play about his real life (at least what people think may be real). Or let children work together to make up a short play about something that Johnny Appleseed could have done--maybe even in your home town. Then invite visitors to see them act out this play.

EYE SPY WHAT IF YOU HAD ANIMAL EYES?!

The newest member of the 

WHAT IF YOU HAD?! family is here!

THIS SERIES IS NOW AVAILABLE IN LIBRARY BINDING AS WELL AS PAPERBACK

I've been delighted to read Tweets and Face Book posts sharing how the books in this series are going beyond being fun informational texts. I'm hearing from teachers, librarians and media specialists that the WHAT IF YOU HAD?! books are favorite mentoring text for writing experiences. 

I LOVE knowing these books are inspiring children to write and be creative! 

Jen Rusin's class at Homestead Elementary in Aurora, Illinois

sharing WHAT IF YOU HAD ANIMAL EARS?! 

So I thought I'd jump in and share some ways to let WHAT IF YOU HAD ANIMAL EYES?! launch young writers. Here goes...

FAVORITE EYES

I have a favorite animal in each and every WHAT IF YOU HAD?! book. And my very favorite animal eyes are found on pages 14 through 15. Yes, I have my reasons why this animal's eyes especially appeal to me. It includes both the real facts about those eyes and the way Howard McWilliam, my super illustrator, brought my imagined use of those eyes to life with his art.

So now your challenge is to find your very favorite animal eyes in this book.  Write a convincing argument for why those animal eyes are truly the coolest in WHAT IF YOU HAD ANIMAL EYES?! And why you could enjoy claiming them as your own.





You might also want to write about which animal eyes you'd least like to have of all the examples in WHAT IF YOU HAD ANIMAL EYES?!

Teachers: Why not wrap this activity up by building a class bar graph for favorite animal eyes.  You could color in bars on paper. Or have everyone line up and physically be part of a favorite animal eye graph. 

I'd love to see your student-graph photos!

By the way... Here's a peek at an early stage of the book when the illustration is still a sketch. At this stage, I'm checking to be sure it's both fun and scientifically correct.




BLINK AND SWITCH



What if one kind of animal could claim another animal's 
eyes?! 


Imagine a dragonfly having colossal squid eyes? How might that help it hunt insects? How might having colossal squid eyes cause problems for a dragonfly?

Now imagine a tarsier having dragonfly eyes? How might that help it be an even better insect hunter? How might having dragonfly eyes cause problems for a tarsier?








Are there any animal eyes in WHAT IF YOU HAD ANIMAL EYES?! that might be even better for the llama than its very own eyes? Suggest an animal eye switch. Then come up with three reasons to make a strong case for that switch.

OUT TAKES

I start working on every book by brainstorming a long list of animal possibilities to include. Then, as I research, I weed out the maybes to come up with the very best candidates--ones that are both interesting, if possible haven't appeared in other books, and that readers will have fun imagining having themselves. 

In WHAT IF YOU HAD ANIMAL EYES?! there were three animals that stayed in the running right up to the final cut. 

Here are the three Eye Runner Ups:

Jumping Spider

Hippopotamus

Giant Panda

Read books and search on-line to find out more about each of these "Eye Runner Ups". Then pick one and create your own two-page spread for your choice. 

On the lefthand page, you'll need to briefly tell about that animal's eyes and what makes them special. Be sure to include a FACT. That's one extra bit of information about a way that animal's eyes are just right for it. 

On the righthand page, come up with a way it would be fun for you to have that animal's eyes. For extra fun, add a drawing of yourself doing whatever you imagined possible thanks to having that animal's eyes.


EYE HAD AN ADVENTURE!

It's story time! Children can either pick their own animal from WHAT IF YOU HAD ANIMAL EYES?! or pick the name of one of those animals from slips of paper in a hat.

The challenge is to imagine waking up one day and having that animal's eyes for one whole day. 

What adventure did you have? 

Did your animal eyes  help you solve a mystery? 

Did they help you be a hero? 

Did those animal eyes cause you any problems?

Write your story in three short paragraphs: 
1. One to launch what happens. 
2. One for the action in the middle.
3. One for the conclusion. 

Of course, illustrations are a nice touch. 

Teachers: Be sure to allow time for young writers to read their stories aloud. After all, WHAT IF YOU HAD ANIMAL EYES?! is meant to be read aloud so everyone can share the fun. These EYE HAD AN ADVENTURE stories are best shared read aloud too.

GOOD NEWS!! 

All of the books in the WHAT IF YOU HAD?! Series--even ANIMAL EYES--are now available in Library Binding. So they're ready to be read, and read, and read, and read, and READ....