Red Sings From Treetops; A Year In Colors
![Picture](/uploads/1/3/4/9/13491848/594979.jpg?195)
By: Joyce Sidman
Illustrated by: Pamela Zagarenski
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children Copyright Date: 2009 ISBN:978-0-547-01494-4
Genre: Poetry Format: Picture Book
Major Awards Received:
Claudia Lewis Award, 2010 Winner United States
Cybil Award, 2009 Winner Poetry United States
Minnesota Book Awards, 2010 Winner Children’s Literature United States
Randolph Caldecott Medal, 2010 Honor Book United States
Summary: Did you ever wonder what colors you see in the seasons of the year? This book has the colors of the season and what they represent through the authors eyes. The pictures show all of the colors that the text describes in such detail that it would hold the attention of any child. Instead of describing what the colors look like, the Author describes how they feel, hear, or smell.
Personal response: This is a great book for young children because they may not know their basic colors and the Author gives them something to associate with the color. I like how she connects the season with the colors and how they can represent different things as the seasons change. The illustrations in the book are so clearly represented that students should not have any problems knowing the items, their color, and what season they may find them in.
Classroom connections: Using the website http://www.joycesidman.com/redsingsTG.html , I was able to create an activity for students to write about colors. The text in Red Sings from Treetops uses personification to point out different colors in a season and make them come alive. In a sense it is a guessing game for readers; each time a color is mentioned, the color word refers to a certain object. After reading through each season, I would go back to each page and ask students:
What object does the each color word refer to? (In the line "RED sings from treetops", RED refers to the cardinal on the tree, etc.)
Try to find the named object on the page.
Have students think of other objects of that color (“What else is red in springtime?”)
Find the dog on each page and figure out what he is doing.
Find the red bird on most pages. Look for other animals as well.
After reading the entire book to students, I would focus on one color—say, white. Have students brainstorm things that are white, and write them on the board. Then as a class, write a list poem, beginning each sentence with “White is . . .” Encourage them to be as specific and descriptive a possible—not just, “White is a cloud,” but “White is a cloud, high in the sky on a bright summer day.” Then I would have each student choose a color and write an individual list poem about his or her color. ESL students would benefit from the book because of the illustrations being associated with color and season. I feel it would be helpful for me to pick an item off of a page and ask the student if they can find it and say the item name back to me as a way of assessing their learning and comprehension.
Illustrated by: Pamela Zagarenski
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children Copyright Date: 2009 ISBN:978-0-547-01494-4
Genre: Poetry Format: Picture Book
Major Awards Received:
Claudia Lewis Award, 2010 Winner United States
Cybil Award, 2009 Winner Poetry United States
Minnesota Book Awards, 2010 Winner Children’s Literature United States
Randolph Caldecott Medal, 2010 Honor Book United States
Summary: Did you ever wonder what colors you see in the seasons of the year? This book has the colors of the season and what they represent through the authors eyes. The pictures show all of the colors that the text describes in such detail that it would hold the attention of any child. Instead of describing what the colors look like, the Author describes how they feel, hear, or smell.
Personal response: This is a great book for young children because they may not know their basic colors and the Author gives them something to associate with the color. I like how she connects the season with the colors and how they can represent different things as the seasons change. The illustrations in the book are so clearly represented that students should not have any problems knowing the items, their color, and what season they may find them in.
Classroom connections: Using the website http://www.joycesidman.com/redsingsTG.html , I was able to create an activity for students to write about colors. The text in Red Sings from Treetops uses personification to point out different colors in a season and make them come alive. In a sense it is a guessing game for readers; each time a color is mentioned, the color word refers to a certain object. After reading through each season, I would go back to each page and ask students:
What object does the each color word refer to? (In the line "RED sings from treetops", RED refers to the cardinal on the tree, etc.)
Try to find the named object on the page.
Have students think of other objects of that color (“What else is red in springtime?”)
Find the dog on each page and figure out what he is doing.
Find the red bird on most pages. Look for other animals as well.
After reading the entire book to students, I would focus on one color—say, white. Have students brainstorm things that are white, and write them on the board. Then as a class, write a list poem, beginning each sentence with “White is . . .” Encourage them to be as specific and descriptive a possible—not just, “White is a cloud,” but “White is a cloud, high in the sky on a bright summer day.” Then I would have each student choose a color and write an individual list poem about his or her color. ESL students would benefit from the book because of the illustrations being associated with color and season. I feel it would be helpful for me to pick an item off of a page and ask the student if they can find it and say the item name back to me as a way of assessing their learning and comprehension.