Teacher's Section

Saturday Night at the Beastro Brainstorming

1. Throw a Beast Bash Party
   • To Eat:
     • Monster Muffins (See my "To Every Season" Cookbook)
     • Worm Souffle (Chocolate Pudding with Mashed Oreos and Gummi Worms)
     • Blood Punch (Cranberry Juice and Seltzer)
   • To Touch:
     • Frozen Eyeballs (grapes dusted in sugar or sea salt)
     • Monster Snot (Flour, Green Food Coloring, and Water)
     • Brains (Cold Spaghetti)
2. Create Your Own:
   • Beast Poems
   • Beast Songs
   • Beast Masks
   • Noisy Instruments - Put beans in empty raisin or oatmeal containers, and decorate with crepe paper, streamers, glitter, buttons, string, feathers, yarn, or pipe cleaners.
3. Beast-search!
   • Go to your local library, and research famous beasts and monsters. Which ones are like the ones in "Saturday Night at the Beastro?" Which ones are different?
   • Imagine a new Beast. What does it eat? Where does it live? Who are its friends?
   • Extra Credit: Make a costume of your new Beast.

Two chapter book novels back in print through iuniverse.com:

Topics of Discussion

Let There Be Light: Poems and Prayers for Repairing the World

Think of writing your own original poems and then illustrating them in mult-media to express your feelings about trying to make the world a better, friendlier place where people show compassion and understand each other instead of mistrust and pain. Collect all the poems of the class and sew them together into a 32-page book dummy. (Take 8 pieces of blank 16 by 10 inch paper and fold it in half.) Make a jacket and laminate it. If you do not have a machine for this application, then use 3M shrink wrap plastic from a hardware store (keeps out windy drafts in the winter!) and use a hair dryer to tighten around the piece of art. Wrap art around the class book dummy and present the book on a special author day for the children - a literary tea or luncheon or brown bag it with the parents - so that we all can "repair" the world by doing small acts.

~

Unfinished Dreams

Have you ever felt passionate about something, and you feel you need to do it more than anything else in the world?

Are there times in life that you feel different and you must follow your own path? Or are there times you feel you have to conform for fear of being different?

Have you ever come to anyone's defense? What happened because of it?

Have you ever had a teacher, a principal, a parent, or any adult that has supported your dreams? It is important to focus on how Mr. Carr supports and inspires Jason, and not his own disease ... how he shows him about life and dying with dignity and passing on an inheritance of love and caring. In the novel, we never find out exactly who destroyed Jason's violin. Who do you think destroyed it? Is this essential to the climax?

If you had a wish list of the things you needed and wanted in life, what would they be? Jason's teacher has the class do one at the beginning of the year and then at the end. It might be fun to do the same, seal them in envelopes in September, and open them up in June to see how maybe they have changed, or maybe how you've reached your goals. In that same vein, discuss any dreams that are unfinished, and how you can finish them.

For younger children, visit the Games and Activities Page. Also visit Beni's Page and Pearl's Page and listen to the music.

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