*Picture book about volcanoes–found in non-fiction section–told in poem form
*Subject matter: A volcano erupting and how it affects life around it
*Rating: Volcano Wakes Up! is a wonderful book to teach kids about volcanoes and the life around them. Love it!
Short, short summary: In Volcano Wakes Up!, Lisa Westburg Peters uses poetry to tell the “story” of a small volcano. She follows the volcano’s activity throughout one day, and also includes the perspective of the ferns growing around the volcano, a lava flow cricket, a small black road on the active volcano, and the sun and moon. This book presents a very creative way to tell about an erupting volcano along with wonderful cut-paper illustrations by Steve Jenkins. Volcano Wakes Up! is a great book for use with science curriculum in the classroom or in a home school program.
So, what do I do with this book?
1. Let students research the facts they learn from the poems in the book to find out more facts about volcanoes, ferns, and so on. The author provides more detailed notes in the back of the book that you can share with your students. Students can create presentations of their facts with illustrations styled after Steve Jenkins work.
2. Not only can this book teach your students or children (if you home school) about volcanoes, but it also exposes them to different forms of poetry. What are the poems like in this book? Challenge your students to write a similar poem–maybe instead of a volcano, they can use a mountain as their subject. Instead of a fern–they can use a tree and so on.
3. Study with students what other effects volcanoes have on the land, plant life, animal life, and even human life when they erupt. You can do a lesson on cause and effect with this activity, also.
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