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Up Down and Around in the Classroom  
(Guiding questions and answers about using the book in the classroom, compiled with the assistance of
educators at the Family Literacy Center in the Fox Chapel Area School District)
For another online curriculum manual, please visit www.paonebook.org

 Hmmm… what’s this all about?
    Growing – Plants – Directionality
    Positional concepts – Plant growth – Color words – Counting – Vocabulary – Insects – Rhyming – Patterns in word choices/phrasing
    Look at the art perspective!
    Kids could “own” this text—a perfect feature for repetitive, frequent retellings
What information am I getting from this book as I browse?
    Movement – New Information – How vegetables grow – Vocabulary Expansion – Process—from seeds to plants
    Book is factual, but imaginative.  Much information. Insects, Nature, Working together, so many ways we use veggies
    Lots of illustrations—see something new with every reading!
What standards or curricular areas does this book address?
    Science:  characteristics of living things, seasons, growth, seeds, plants, plant growth & sequencing
    Health:  healthy things to eat; cooking/methods
    Language arts - writing style, rhythm, rhyme, vocabulary development, colors, categories etc.
    Social Studies & Art—book shows togetherness, responsibility, & playfulness
    Math:  counting, positional words & concepts
How will I read it aloud?  What questions will I ask during an interactive read aloud to promote critical thinking and differentiate the instruction?  What focus (e.g. language concepts like directionality, vegetable or bug vocabulary) will I give to each “read?”
    Personal experience/sharing – What would you plant?  What veggies have you eaten?  What is a tuber/seed, etc.?  What bugs do you see?  What are they doing?
    Opposites, prepositions, vocabulary (“okra,” “vine” as a verb, “climb,” “twirl,” “vine,” etc.)
    Handwriting—down-strokes related to veggies that grow down
    Oral Language: Emphasis on rhythm of book
    Directionality is implicit when reading aloud; Read through for enjoyment & story flow (rhyming)
    Use all levels of critical thinking questions (literal and beyond)
What connected projects or media can be introduced? (Read, View, Do — in any order —Learning Triangle)
    Plant own seeds – watch roots grow
    Gardening, bug study, seed diversity, vegetable snacks, and cooking vegetable soup or friendship salad
    Cooking, planting.  Veggie prints, memorized poem, “Best thing they ever ate”/”worst thing they ever ate” as writing prompts, writing recipes
    Is there a computer veggie program? 
    Make a class book:  What Would You Plant In Your Garden?
    Use with a School Garden – Actual seed planting;
    Create Nonfiction Book of Vegetables (Connect with questioning:  What Grows On “Top?”  What Grows On “Bottom?”)
What writing elements does this author’s style highlight for young writers?  How can I encourage its use in my students’ writing?
    Simple poetic text with a culminating event (destination-“LUNCH!”) for closure
    The printed directions of words illustrate the meaning of the prepositions.
    Patterned text, rhythm, rhyme, opposites, alliteration
    Word repetition – Limited print on page - Predictability
Does this book remind me of any others in content or style that could be introduced at the same time?  
    Carrot Seed, Growing Vegetable Soup, Miss Mouse’s Garden, Planting a Rainbow,   
    Tops and Bottoms, Grouchy Ladybug, Stone Soup, Muncha, Muncha, Muncha!
    Highlight elements of writing, making connections with other books also for:
        Content – Tops & Bottoms
        Style – Pumpkin Circle
        Illustrations  – (Peanut Butter and Jelly; Hello Toes, Hello Feet!)
        Any non-fiction vegetable or garden books
How can I provide for re-telling or dramatic re-enactment of the story?
    Props – follow directions, Verse-reading, “Kids up, Kids down and Spin Around”
    Act out with picture cards mounted on Popsicle sticks; Introduce real vegetables
    Spontaneous simple reenactment, Use of body movements
How can I encourage sketching or other graphic representation from the subjects and illustrations?
    Taste testing, Details in pictures—point them out and encourage them!
    Vegetable prints, details (there’s a garden pest on each page)
    Feely bag – Tell about tactile exploration/characteristics using descriptive words; Pull vegetables one at a time from bag—match to same items on a tray or table
How can I connect this book to science and math as integrated content areas (gardening, planting, cooking, making, noticing)?
    Life cycles, sequencing
    Using senses – What would you smell in the garden? Hear? See? Touch? Taste? 
    Math – Counting seeds, matching seeds to plants grown, estimating seeds, counting each piece of husk while shucking corn, matching number of kinds of veggies to number of rows. 
    Graphing the “up, down, and around” veggies. 
    Drawing insects
    Discussing colors - find veggies that start green and turn orange, providing exposure to various new veggies, like okra  
    Differentiating between realistic drawings and pretend drawings, with insects that look real, and those that don’t
    Telling another nonfiction story where things really go “up, down, and around”
    Visit your School Garden.  Sample some of the vegetables growing there that are also pictured/written about in the book. 
    Encourage non-fiction writing (plant growth);
    Create art projects—Vegetable dye, Painted Potato/Pepper prints, Pepper rings, Celery stamping, Corn rolling, Green onion paint “brushes” & “dabbers”
What else? 
    Write another story using same words — up, down, around & around.

 For discounted quantity purchases of Up Down and Around, please contact Candlewick Press