Red Sings from Treetops: A Year in Colors

Red Sings from the Treetops
Written by: Joyce Sidman
Illustrated by: Pamela Zagarenski
Published by: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2009
Grades: PK-2
Genre: Picture Book, Poetry
Caldecott Honor Book

Synopsis: This book travels through each season and describes the colors that you see throughout it. It starts with spring and ends full circle with spring again with the color red. In this book, it associates spring with red and the red cardinals that appear singing and the buds of the leaves too. It talks about the green that covers the earth on the trees and in the grass. It talks about birds being born and how spring is also the new beginning to things. It then leads into summer and talks about yellow and the sun and how it melts everything it touches. It then goes into fall where it talks about green being tired and how brown rises and takes over. It ends in winter when you breathe blue and white traces all over everything. It ends with red and the inclination that spring will be here again with the cardinals singing. This completes the cycle of the seasons.

Theme/Skill: Seasons, Colors, Figurative Language, Poetry, Descriptive Language, Word Recognition

About the Author: Joyce Sidman

Joyce Sidman was born in Connecticut and has three sisters.  Education was an important aspect to her parents and herself as she was growing up.  She began writing in grade school by writing things down that came in her head to help her understand the world.  She discovered her love for poetry in high school from the inspiration of one of her teachers.  She loves using images and metaphors in her poetry to explain her thoughts and feelings.  She has written almost one hundred books, but currently has eleven children’s books that have been published.  Among these are Swirl by Swirl: Spirals in Nature, Dark Emperor, The World According to Dog, and Red Sings from Treetops: A Year in Colors.  The latter book received the Caldecott Honor in 2010.  She currently lives in Minnesota with her husband and two sons. 

Source used: http://www.joycesidman.com/biography.html

About the Illustrator:  Pamela Zagarenski

Pamela Zagarenski  graduated from the University of Connecticut with a BFA in Graphic Design.  She is well known as a published illustrator of thirteen children’s books.  Among these books are What Day Is It?/ Que Dia Es?, This Is Just to Say: Poems of Apology and Forgiveness, Mites to Mastodons: A Book of Animal Poems, Small and Large, and Red sings from Treetops: A Year in Colors.   Pamela is also known for her paintings that are on display in the Whyevernot Gallery in Mystic.  She currently lives in Stonington, Connecticut. 

Source used:  http://www.atthegallery.com/artists/zagarenski.html

Pre-reading Activities: Activating Prior Knowledge:  Break the students up into four gropus.  In their groups, give students a piece of chart paper, markers, colored pencils, and crayons.  Each group will receive a season as their topic: fall, winter, spring, or summer.  Tell students that their job in the group is to come up with a scene that represents the season their group was given.  When they are done, they need to present it to the rest of the class and explain why they chose the colors they did. 

Post-Reading Activities:  Following reading the book, students will again take their season that they had in the pre-reading activity.  Each student will create their own poem about the season they had first.  They can use the same picture from their chart to help write their poem or create another picture that they will use to describe their poem.  In their poem they must include at least two colors.  These colors must use the same strategy as in the book and have them highlighted in their color.  The poems must be at least 5-7 lines.  Students will have time to start these in class.  If they do not finish in the class time they will take them home to finish and bring them back the next day.  Students will then share them with a partner and have them edit their poem or give them ideas on how to fix them.  After this is done, they will then write a final draft and place it on the final paper with their picture.  They will share it with the class and then each poem will be used to create a class season poem book to put in the reading area. 
  

Reflection:  I think this book allows children to learn about the seasons both visually and auditorally. It not only allows children to learn their seasons but also their colors. While following along it writes the name of the color in that color. The pages make the color it speaks about pop out and allows children to pick out the different things the story is talking about. I think this book is especially good for visual learners who need pictures in front of them to be able to understand what the teacher is talking about. The rhythm of the book makes a nice read and easy for children to follow along. The book is lengthier than others but using intonation and questions throughout the story should keep students engaged throughout the entire story.