Batter Up During May!
by Elizabeth Panzera
Springtime is associated with the baseball season, so it seems fitting to merge this favorite American pastime with the classroom literary routine.
At the beginning of the unit, send a letter home to parents detailing upcoming events and learning objectives. Stress the importance of parental involvement, and provide suggestions to get them involved, such as reading books and such magazines as Highlights for Children and/or participating in the upcoming "Baseball Bonanza."
- Play classroom baseball. Have students first read a story or magazine article with their family and classmates. Then provide three strips of paper for each student. Have them write one question about the article or story on each strip. Divide the class into two teams. Set up paper bases in your classroom to look like a baseball diamond. Invite one team to have a "batter" step up to home plate. Have a "pitcher" pull a question strip from a baseball cap and read it to the batter. The batter answers and, if correct, advances to first base. Play continues with the next teammate. If incorrect, the player gets a strike and sits down. If a team gets three strikes, the next team gets up to bat.
- Explore point of view through sensory poetry. Define and discuss personification. Have students brainstorm what the chalkboard might be seeing, thinking, smelling, feeling, tasting, and hearing as you write on it. Have students write sensory poetry imagining they are the baseball as the bat hits it, soaring into the air or rolling through the grass. Afterward, have the students rewrite the poems on baseball-shaped paper.
- Make baseball trading cards. Pass around baseball cards. Have students study the information the cards provide about each player. Explain to students that they will be making their own baseball cards about an important person in their life. (Remind them that they will be sharing these at the "Baseball Bonanza," so they might want to choose someone who can attend the event.) Allow students to brainstorm about the "stats" they would like to include. Hand out paper that you have made to look like a baseball card. Have each student draw the person in a "frame" on the front and list the person's "stats" on the back.
- Rewrite "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." Share and sing with students the lyrics of the original song. Then have the class rewrite the words to fit the upcoming event.
- Invite families to school for "Baseball Bonanza" night. Ahead of time, send a letter home to parents asking them to bring cupcakes, popcorn, cookies, and/or beverages. At the event, have students sing their class song, read poems, and share "baseball trading cards" with their family members.
Elizabeth Panzera teaches at Atlantic Highlands Elementary School, Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey.