For Educators
I think once you have been a teacher, you see the world differently.
You are a teacher for life.
When I left the classroom to write, I naturally thought of my new job as a writer as just a variation of my old job. With less faculty meetings. And no lunch duty.
So all of my books come from my teaching experiences.
All of my books are meant to educate, inspire, entertain, and challenge.
Here are some ideas and resources for you to use Scieszka books in your classroom, library, or home classroom library.
Twisting Fairy Tales and Fables
The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs
Have your own courtroom trial.
Tell any story from a different point of view.
Learn about an “unreliable narrator”.
The Frog Prince Continued
Continue a different fairy tale.
Tell the story of what happens after “They lived happily ever after.”
The Stinky Cheese Man
Rewrite your own Fairly Stupid Tale variations of original fairy tales.
Learn the parts of a story, and change just one part to change the whole tale.
Learn the parts of a book that are messed up (Title Page, Table of Contents…)
Squids Will Be Squids
Rewrite fables to describe things that happen to you.
Add your own moral.
Memoir / Personal Narrative
Knucklehead
You don’t have to be George Washington or Harriet Tubman to write a memoir.
Write stories about what has happened in your life.
Get stories from your mom and dad and uncles and brothers and sisters.
Illustrate your stories with your own photos.
Math Stories / Science Poems
Math Curse
See if you can answer the questions posed (solutions are on the back!).
Make up your own day of being cursed by math problems.
Science Verse
Look up original poems that these are based on.
Use any of these poems, or any other poem you know, to write your Science parody.
Remixing / Copyright / Fair Use
Battle Bunny
Go to the mybirthdaybunny.com website.
Check out other kids’ Bunny variations.
Discuss the changing issues of copyright and fair use.
Download the sweet Birthday Bunny cover, art, or whole book to make your own.
Check out the Curriculum Guide by Alie Jane Bruce, a children’s librarian at Bank Street College Library, 2013
Translations
Baloney
Use context clues to discover meanings of unknown words.
Use online translators to make your own Baloney story.
Climate Change / The Future of All Human Life
AstroNuts Series
Real science of climate change, alternative energy.
Real science of space and planetary exploration.
Real science of human history.
Have kids write their own AstroNut adventure.
AstroNut Educator’s guides:
Guys Read Library of Great Reading
Genre reading.
Audio of stories available.