1. SHEL SILVERSTEIN

2. PAGE ONE: BACKGROUND INFORMATION  Sheldon Allan Silverstein (b. September 25, 1930/d. May 10, 1999) Author, Cartoonist, Songwriter  University of Illinois- expelled, Chicago Academy of Fine Arts & Roosevelt University  Drafted into United States Armed Forces during 1950s  Worked as cartoonist for Playboy magazine, then a friend suggested he write/draw for material aimed towards children  Interest in Art: "When I was a kid - 12, 14, around there - I would much rather have been a good baseball player or a hit with the girls. But I couldn't play ball, I couldn't dance... So, I started to draw and to write.”

3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2 8qAGZA0Itc The Toy Eater

4. PAGE TWO: SILVERSTEIN’S STYLE Silverstein’s writing  Rhyming schemes (…But so delicious, goodness sake- I could have eaten a lentil-soup lake.)  Plays on words, unique diction (…Would a mop become a mopsicle? Would a cop become a copsicle?)  Irony/Figurative language (Can anyone lend me two eighty-pound rats? I want to rid my house of cats.) Silverstein’s illustrations  Black and white, printed on “special” paper  Refused to have books published in paperback Excerpts from A Light in the Attic & Where the Sidewalk Ends

6. PAGE THREE: SILVERSTEIN ON THE WEB http://www.shelsilverstein.com/  Great resource for both young learners and educators  Wide variety of games, printables, animations  Lessons, activities, event kits  Ideal for visual-spatial, verbal-linguistic, auditory learners

7. PAGE FOUR: SHEL IN THE CLASSROOM Ideas to integrate Silverstein into curriculum  “The Giving Tree” (Civics lesson, Arbor Day, Earth Day, Thanksgiving)  Create student journals with poems, students draw accompanying pictures  Remove title of poems to make inferences, create own title or story based off of image, to encourage higher-level thinking

9. RESOURCES  Amick, Sarah. (2009). Shel Silverstein. Librarypoint. Retrieved 2 June 2014. http://www.librarypoint.org/shel_silversteinhttp://www.librarypoint.org/shel_silverstein  http://www.pinterest.com/weareteachers/shel-silverstein-lessons- and-activities/ http://www.pinterest.com/weareteachers/shel-silverstein-lessons- and-activities/  Sheldon Allan Silverstein. (2014). The Biography.com website. Retrieved 5 June 2014. http://www.biography.com/people/shel- silverstein-9483912.http://www.biography.com/people/shel- silverstein-9483912