Read Grow Inspire Book Week Slogan 2023 (Part 6) IMAGERY and SYMBOLISM continued

 

Now for more of the ways the word 'seed' is used figuratively...

What do we mean when we say 'he sowed a seed of doubt' ? The Seed of Doubt  by Irene Brugnill and Richard Jones illustrates this adage very well. A little boy dreams of a world beyond the farm where he lives – a world full of mountain ranges, oceans and cities, where he could do anything. But one day he plants a seed from which doubts start to grow. Instead of thinking of all that he could do, he thinks more of what he could not. Can he overcome his fears and chase his dreams?

What are 'seeds of compassion'? In the book by His Holiness the Dalai Lama,  The Seed of Compassion he shares stories of his own childhood which highlight this concept. Once an ordinary child named Lhamo Thondup he grew up in a small village in Tibet where his mother taught him about compassion.

What are 'seeds of change'? We hear the saying 'Be the seed. Be the Change' and two books that demonstrate this are  Seeds of Change by Jen Cullerton Johnson and Sonia Lynn Sadler which tells the story of Nigerian Nobel Prize winner Wangari Maathai and next year Nina Laden's new book set in Madagascar, also called Seeds of Change  will look at this metaphor less figuratively as it is not about planting trees, but rather about having the courage and resilience to plant "seeds" that will improve ourselves and our community. It is very poetic

Sow seeds of strength

Ride out the storm.

Sow seeds of compassion 

Make hearts warm.

What about 'seeds of promise'? Teachers hear themselves saying this about a student or situation. In Little Seeds of Promise by Dana Raft and Reina Metallinou, Maya feels very lonely and lost when she moves to new country. Her grandmother has given her some seeds to plant when she gets there, but she wonders about whether to plant them and whether she will ever fit in. Can she risk planting them? 

The Seeds of Friendship  by Michael Foreman explores a similar situation through the eyes of a boy called Adam, yet the title likens seeds to friendship rather than promise.

Can a seed be personified? Read A Seed is Sleepy  by Dianna Hutts Aston and Sylvia Long; The Bad Seed by Jory John and Pete Oswald or Seed School  by Joan Holub  and Sakshi Mangal and your students will know that it can be.

You can teach figurative language without having to use the books suggested in the English K-2 units online! Their lists are only suggestions.

11th December International Mountain Day

The theme for 2018 International Mountain Day is Mountains Matter. The website states

'Considering the crucial role they play in providing key ecosystem goods and services to the planet and their vulnerability in the face of climate change, we need to step up and raise attention to mountains.'

To raise attention of anything, I turn to books and in particular picture books so here I want to highlight two, an old one and a new one.

• Mountain Dance by Thomas Locker (2001)  This poetic text is accompanied by intense oil paintings that reveal geological details from the base to the tip of mountains. It is accompanied by Water Dance and Cloud Dance but stands alone as a testament to the beauty of mountains. We turned these books into a dance performance for a K -2 school concert. It was stunning.

• Mountains of the World by Dieter Braun (2018) This is a beautifully detailed and illustrated collection of the mountains of the world, part of the new range from Flying Eye Books.

If you haven't access to these two books in your library, of course there are others which will help children be enthralled by mountains. These two will help:

• How Mountains are Made by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld
• Mountains  by Seymour Simon



If you want to be more specific, these two books allow students to 'feel' the Himalayas:

• The Top of the World Climbing Mount Everest by Steve Jenkins
• Our Village in the Sky by Janeen Brian and Anne Spudvilas




And for two new stories with magnificent illustrations

• Up the Mountain by Marianne Dubuc
• Secrets of the Mountain by Libby Walden and Richard Jones