Classroom Guide for
Cool Melons - Turn to Frogs!

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1. How did the poems I just read make you feel? What parts of the poem made you feel that way?
2. How do you show what you are feeling or thinking about?
3. How are poems different from stories?
4. Do you think poems are easier or harder to understand than stories? Why?

silhouette	intent	plucking	locusts
bamboo	shoot	peony	soothing

1. This book is different from most books you have read because it contains both a story and poems. What did you learn about Issa from the story? What did you learn from the haiku? How do the story and haiku work together?
2. The book begins by describing Issa’s life as it relates to the seasons. How do the first four poems illustrate the different seasons? What words in each haiku suggest the season it represents?
3. Why do you think Issa came to think of birds and insects as his friends?
4. Why did Issa’s schoolmaster encourage him to write haiku? What do you learn about how Issa was feeling from the haiku he wrote at this time?
5. What does Issa’s father mean when he tells his son that his gift "cannot grow in this soil"?
6. A haiku often describes two events side by side. What are the two events in the poem "Lilies blooming"? How might these two events be related?
7. Issa was a country boy, so when he moved to Toyko, the bustling city seemed overwhelming. How might the poems "Sparrow chicks—" and "A newborn butterfly" relate to Issa’s life in Tokyo?
8. Read the haiku "Climb Mount Fuji" again. What might this poem be saying about Issa’s journey to become a master poet?
9. How might the poems "Needlework—" and "Asleep on the ocean—" relate to Issa’s years of traveling around Japan?
10. In "Spring rain—," who is the owl? Who is the dove? What do you think this haiku means?
11. What feelings does Issa express in "A dewdrop world—"?

• The Questioner might use questions similar to items 6 through 10 in the Discussion Questions section above to help students think about the relationship of the haiku to events in Issa’s life.
• The Passage Locator The Passage Locator might look for passages in the book that reveal information about Japan in the 1700s.
• The Illustrator might draw a picture to go with part of the text for others in the group to interpret.
• The Connector might report on the status of poetry in contemporary Japan.
• The Summarizer should provide a brief summary of the group’s reading for each meeting.
• The Investigator might research additional information about haiku and/or Issa.

1. Which haiku in the book is your favorite? Why?
2. How do Issa’s haiku help you "see" things in new or different ways?
3. Reread the poems and try to figure out which ones suggest sounds, tastes, odors, and things you can touch? Which ones are funny, sad, and show joy?
4. Try writing and illustrating your own haiku based on your own experiences. (If necessary, review the definition of a haiku and the rules for syllables, as noted on the last page of the book. Compose a few practice haiku as a group to get students started.)
5. Write a letter to Issa telling how his haiku affected you.
6. Which illustrations do you like best? Why? How did they help you understand the poems?

1. Introduce similes to the class, or review them if you have worked with similes previously. Explain that a simile compares two unlike things using the words like or as. As an example give this simile from Confetti: words warm as almonds.
   
2. Have students create similes by writing what things are like. Brainstorm with students a list of familiar items, such as the sample list shown here. Ask students to compare the items in unusual ways to other things. For example: My shoes are like a soft pillow.



Teacher Tip Shoe Fingernail Chalkboard Pencil Scarf Calendar



3. Challenge students to write haiku based on the comparisons expressed in their similes. For example:
   My old yellow shoes—
   cushions for my tired feet,
   soft like a pillow.
4. Have students choose one of the haiku in the book and write a descriptive paragraph about the same topic.

1. Have strong English speakers make tape recordings of the haiku in the book. ESL students can follow along in the book as they listen to the tapes to become familiar with the spoken and written words.
2. Use photographs, real objects, and the book’s illustrations to help students identify concrete nouns such as cat, child, dew, kitten, leaves.
3. If you have students who speak and read Japanese in your class, invite them to read aloud the Japanese versions of some of the haiku in the book. Have students make a chart showing the Japanese and English words for nouns and verbs used in the haiku.

1. Poetry plays a role in several Japanese holidays. For example, on the second day of the new year, Japanese families often engage in the activity called Kakizome. They write poems or favorite proverbs on long strips of paper and hang them in a place of honor. Poems also feature in another holiday, called Tanabata, which falls on the seventh day of the seventh moon (around July 7). Students might do research to learn more about these holidays, exploring questions such as:
   What kind of poems do people write for these occasions?
   What is the legend associated with Tanabata?
   What role do poems play in this holiday?
   
2. Challenge students to use the book’s text and poetry to find clues about Japan’s geography, climate, architecture, religion, and traditional clothing. For example, students should be able to determine that Buddhism is practiced in Japan. Have students follow up each clue with research to verify and expand what they have learned.
3. Students might want to learn more about Issa and then make a timeline covering his life span (1763-1827). Have students include six to eight important events in Issa’s life on one side of the timeline. On the other side, have students show a similar number of important events in U.S. history. Students who have access to their own family histories during this time period, might want to try plotting important events in their families opposite the events in Issa’s life.

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