Very beautiful and lyrical, the scarecrow has a wonderful break dancing with the wind around the farm, but he is satisfied to know where he belongs and that his work is appreciated. ( )

I'd use this book in a second grade class to introduce poetry and rhyming. I'd have the students wrote a short poem on a time someone depended on them, like the little boy depended on the scarecrow where they could make connections as well as learn to write poetry.

I would use this in a 2nd grade classroom as a read aloud. After reading we would discuss what we think is real and not real in the book. I would ask questions such as "Do you think the scarecrow was really dancing?". This way students could establish reality from fiction. The students would then have to identify if the poem was fiction or non fiction and why. I would also use this book in a 1st grade classroom. I would use this as an interactive read aloud. During the reading I would ask questions about the book so that students could establish that parts of the story are not real. Then students would be given cut out words from the book and would have to match the words that rhyme.

This book would be read as an interactive read aloud. For first and second grade students, this book could be used as a lead into talking about fall weather. This could also include discussing why leaves change color in the fall. I would read this book in the fall, therefore the leaves would be falling and changing outside. We would then gather leaves outside off the ground and bring them into the classroom. The students would then both draw and decorate a scarecrow, glueing the leaves on as a way to incorporate them into their art. For kindergartners, my students and I could discuss more in depth about farm life in class. We could then take a field trip to a local farm in the fall time, and see the farm equipment, animals, crops grown, etc. on a real life farm.

The Scarecrow's Dance is a good book for kindergarten through second grade. In kindergarten and first grade it would be good as a read aloud because it is a poem and could be hard to read for this age group. This book could be used to teach key details, especially for kindergarten, because there is not a whole lot of details to remember and could be an introduction to identifying details in a text. This book could be used to teach rhythm of words to the students, because it is a poem, the words go together well and sound rhythmic, it could be used to model the expression and rhythm words have. This book could be an independent or partner read for second grade because they would be able to read it and understand the poetic nature of the book.