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Celebrate Poetry Month with the

Nation’s First Children’s Poet Laureate,

JACK PRELUTSKY

Event Activity Suggestions

Dear Children’s Event Coordinator,

Welcome to the colorful world of Jack Prelutsky, where dogs are geniuses, pigs wear bathing suits,

and humor is everywhere. In his first poetry collection since being named the nation’s first

Children’s Poet Laureate, Jack Prelutsky shares more than 100 hilarious, brand-new poems.

Filled with inventive wordplay, eye-catching line art, and side-splittingly funny situations, My Dog

May Be a Genius will capture children’s imaginations as they laugh over, memorize, and recite the

entertaining verses. What child wouldn’t want his dragon to burn his homework? Or her elephants

to dance with her?

Jack Prelutsky’s irresistible poetry often inspires children to try their

own hand at writing. To share the tips he’s garnered from years of

writing experience, he has written Pizza, Pigs, and Poetry: How to Write

a Poem, which is publishing simultaneously with My Dog May Be a

Genius. Filled with Jack Prelutsky’s thoughts, tips, and theories on

writing, this is the perfect companion book for all future writers!

This package contains everything you’ll need to delve into Jack’s

one-of-a-kind world for a little while:

•A Jack Prelutsky poster

•Reproducible and group activities featuring themes

from My Dog May Be a Genius and Pizza, Pigs, and Poetry

•A My Dog May Be a Genius Poetry Wheel

You can also use Pizza, Pigs, and Poetry to help your guests create some

of their own poems and stories! We hope you’ll enjoy your new poster

and find the activities and giveaways helpful at your storytime event.

Sincerely,

The Greenwillow Books Marketing Department

www.harpercollinschildrens.com

May Be a Genius (Name)

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Reproducible Name Tags (Use Avery #5163) Permission to reproduce and distribute this page has been granted by the copyright holder, HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.


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Permission to reproduce and distribute this page has been granted by the copyright holder, HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.

REPRODUCIBLE ACTIVITY • www.harpercoll inschildrens.com

There are lots of wacky characters doing all kinds of crazy things in Jack Prelutsky’s poems! From the grumpy Crumbo Crumme to the preposterous Wosstrus, these characters are totally unique. Match each character with his/her/its correct description, if you can!

CHARACTERS

Dog

Crumbo Crumme

Beezil B. Bone

Ozzie Snozzer

Winterwood

Luffer

Snoober

Probble

Bupple

Preposterous Wosstrus

Flaky Corn Brigade

Gooboo

DESCRIPTIONS

A . Always glum

B . A wizard steeped in necromantic lore; enjoys changing children into chickens

C . A positively impolite creature with enormous feet that you should probably avoid

D . Lives in a weird machine and bonks all passersby

E . A genius

F . Has a laugh that is lively and lilting and long

G . I nvisible and sleeps in the back of your mind

H . His sneeze is an unendurable sound— and he sneezes every day

I . Lives under a stone and prefers to be left alone

J . Can swim across the sea and even swallow half the sky

K . Has eleven heads, eleven legs, eleven tails, and eleven eyes

L . March about in earnest on continual parade

ACTIVITY #1: ChARACTER MATChING

Illustrations copyright © 2008 by James Stevenson

Jack Prelutsky loves to play with words and language. One of his favorite techniques is alliteration.

Alliteration is the repetition of the same sounds or of the same kinds of sounds at the beginning of words. Below are four examples of alliteration found in the poems in My Dog May Be a Genius. Which letter repeats itself through these phrases? Circle the letter that repeats in each phrase.

Now, can you come up with four of your own examples of alliteration?

Finally, can you make a poem using these four alliterative phrases? You can either have one long poem or four short ones. Use as many alliterative phrases as you want! You can use the back of this sheet if you need more space.

1. 2.3.4.



ACTIVITY #2: AwESOME ALLITERATION ACTIVITY

1. A worm wends its winding and unaware way2. It’s pouring pythons 3. So listen at length to the laughter 4. Burt burps longer, Burt burps louder

In his poem “An Enigmatic Entity,” Jack Prelutsky uses many clever and curious words to describe the puzzling appearance of an unidentified object. Here is a puzzle for you, filled with those very words. Can you find all words listed below?

ENIGMATICEERIE

APPARITIONENTITYFUZZY

SPHEREFLOAT

TUMBLED

CHARMSUSPECT AWAKE

BEDIMAGINE

EBDSPHEREA

NACHARMFPF

IWBAMRUPIL

MACCEZARBO

AKEIZRCOEA

GEEYIPI

WDT

ICRTYTITNE

NEISUSPECT

EOETUMBLED

NENIGMATIC



ACTIVITY #3: wORD SEARCh FROM “AN ENIGMATIC ENTITY”

An enigmatic entityis floating by my head.It first appeared last weekend,as I tumbled out of bed.It’s not a bit impressive,just a fuzzy little sphere.I can’t imagine what it wants,or what it’s doing here.

It’s an eerie apparitionthat has yet to make a sound.I sense that I’m the only onewho knows that it’s around.It’s somewhat reassuring,with a certain quiet charm.As far as I can figure out,it clearly means no harm.

When I’m awake, that entityis never out of sight,and I suspect it’s also therewhen I’m asleep at night.I’ve grown to like it, so I hopeI never see the daythat enigmatic entitydecides to float away.

Read the poem below, and draw your own Enigmatic Entity!



ACTIVITY #4: DRAw “AN ENIGMATIC ENTITY” ACTIVITY


Words that rhyme can be hard to find! How many words can you find that rhyme with the following words? Your rhyming words can have more than one syllable.

Tree Cat Bed Day

Now write a phrase using the rhyming words!Example: The bee is in the tree, wishing he was free.

Tree

Cat

Bed

Day



ACTIVITY #5 : RhYME TIME


2 •

3 • 4 • 5 •

6 •

• 12

7 •

8 •

9 • 10 •

• 11 • 13

• 14

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• 17

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• 20 • 21• 22

• 23

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29 •• 1

Jack Prelutsky has a poem called “I’m Appearing Out of Nowhere” in which a person grows easier to see with each passing second...a blob here, a shadow there, and suddenly a whole person! Connect the dots on this page to make an image of the person literally appear out of nowhere!



ACTIVITY #6: APPEARING OUT OF NOwhERE


In Jack Prelutsky’s poem “A Witch Was in a Hardware Store,” the witch has lost her broom and she wants a new one. But she doesn’t want just any broom—she “prefer[s] a broom that’s old. . .with noticeable mold.” Help the witch find her broom in this maze of a hardware store. And hurry! “For midnight quickly nears. . .”

START

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The poetry wheel provided contains 20 words and phrases from the poems in My Dog May Be a Genius. Use the poetry wheel to play the creative games below! Use the back of this sheet to write on.

Game #1: Create Your Own Poem

Spin the arrow on the poetry wheel once. The word or phrase that comes up should be the title of your poem. Spin the arrow five more times. With each spin, write down the word or phrase that you land on.

Now, create a poem of your own! You must use ALL five words/phrases that you spun in your poem.

For extra fun, read your poems out loud!

Game #2: Poems, Long and Short!

There are all different types of poems that you can write: poems that rhyme, poems that don’t rhyme, poems that are long, and poems that are short. Follow the instructions below and create a variety of different poems with the poetry wheel.

Activity #1: Spin the arrow twice. Now write a two-line poem using the two words or phrases that you get. Remember, your poem cannot be any shorter or longer than two lines.

Activity #2: Spin the arrow three times. Now write a four-line poem where the first two lines rhyme with each other and the second two lines rhyme with each other.

Activity #3: Spin the arrow four times. Now write an eight-line poem that does not rhyme at all!

Get creative! What other kinds of poems can you come up with?



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