poetryaction to Take Away the A, by Michael Escoffier

I love the concept of Take Away the A, by Michael Escoffier. It pairs words together, showing what one word becomes if you take a letter out of it. ?Take Away the A

One of the pairs in the book (the “i” pair) turned “stair” into “star.” I especially liked the illustration for that, and it made me wonder what it would be like to climb stairs all the way up to stars. And, well, the worrier in me had a few questions!

And I also did something else new, trying to share a connection with another picture book I like. Take Away the A and Cat Tale both focus on words and language in a playful way.

ba_takeaway-cat

 

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I’ve been doing something new. After reading a picture book, sometimes I jot down a quick poem based on something in the book. It could be inspired by the entire book, the setting, a character, or even just a tiny detail in a picture or a single phrase from the text. I’m using picture books as a jumping off point for poems. I thought this might be something interesting for you to do in your classroom, so I’m going to share some of them here.

 

20 Responses

  1. I know ‘take away the A’, but not ‘Cat Tales’. Great idea, Laura. I was wondering if it couldn’t work with the older students’ YA books too. Those titles can catch the imagination! I like the place you ended up from the book to the poem!

    1. Thanks, Linda–Cat Tale, by Michael Hall, is a fun adventure of 3 kitties whose tale is told using lots of homophones and homonyms. Super fun. When you say, “I was wondering if it couldn?t work with the older students? YA books too,” do you mean poetryaction responses? Or connecting picture books to ya books? I wasn’t sure:>)

  2. I know ‘take away the A’, but not ‘Cat Tales’. Great idea, Laura. I was wondering if it couldn’t work with the older students’ YA books too. Those titles can catch the imagination! I like the place you ended up from the book to the poem!

    1. Thanks, Linda–Cat Tale, by Michael Hall, is a fun adventure of 3 kitties whose tale is told using lots of homophones and homonyms. Super fun. When you say, “I was wondering if it couldn?t work with the older students? YA books too,” do you mean poetryaction responses? Or connecting picture books to ya books? I wasn’t sure:>)

  3. I just saw this book over the weekend and knew it had great potential, but I didn’t think of writing poems with the word pairs. So clever! Thanks for sharing Cat Tale, too!

    1. Thanks, Catherine! I ADORE the premise of the book. It wasn’t quite what I expected, but still fun and a good jumping-off point. :>)

  4. I just saw this book over the weekend and knew it had great potential, but I didn’t think of writing poems with the word pairs. So clever! Thanks for sharing Cat Tale, too!

    1. Thanks, Catherine! I ADORE the premise of the book. It wasn’t quite what I expected, but still fun and a good jumping-off point. :>)

  5. Laura, I like your poem, but did I miss the point? If you take the A out of stair, don’t you get stir?
    Sounds like it would be perfect for a witch needing a step-stool to get to her cauldron.

    1. Oops, I mis-explained, Joy–each pair is about losing ONE letter of the alphabet, a to z. I thought they were all going to lose a when I started the book. So stair-star was the i pair. Thanks for catching that!

  6. Laura, I like your poem, but did I miss the point? If you take the A out of stair, don’t you get stir?
    Sounds like it would be perfect for a witch needing a step-stool to get to her cauldron.

    1. Oops, I mis-explained, Joy–each pair is about losing ONE letter of the alphabet, a to z. I thought they were all going to lose a when I started the book. So stair-star was the i pair. Thanks for catching that!

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