SHEL SILVERSTEIN

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.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28qAGZA0Itc

The Toy Eater

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

http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&docid=EpSDWyCdF4Sn1M&tbnid=rk_lfdDJyX5ThM:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http://www.pinterest.com/pin/194288171397812908/&ei=xnGSU5PaDOqssATC9oGIAg&bvm=bv.68445247,d.cWc&psig=AFQjCNH5BOmXITifwl_NdDHIvDf4ejBzBA&ust=1402192704573062

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

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

RESOURCES

Amick, Sarah. (2009). Shel Silverstein. Librarypoint.

Retrieved 2 June 2014. http://

www.librarypoint.org/shel_silverstein

http://www.pinterest.com/weareteachers/shel-silverst

ein-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.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&docid=NVIl4UofepwhMM&tbnid=q8Qn3VIR1iAJKM:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http://performingsongwriter.com/shel-silverstein/&ei=M69-U6TpBrPMsQTUwIGQAg&bvm=bv.67720277,d.b2k&psig=AFQjCNGVYtot2Iyd6qbLQpCEA9kXVmvuXg&ust=1400897712123230