Pool in the classroom

Pool by JiHyeon Lee

What you’ll need

• A copy of Pool (My review)
• Massive dollops of imagination and wonder

Age Level

Any aged primary class will love this book.

Reading Pool

After the chaos and loudness of yesterday’s Whoops, today I’m gifting you silence. Pool is entirely word-free. As you’ll have read in my review I was pretty skeptical about how a wordless picture book could possibly work. I’m a fairly noisy person and it didn’t really make sense to me. But, I have used Pool in the classroom and there is something so delightful about turning pages in silence. Initially the kids look slightly skeptical themselves and then the wonder of the images unfold and you start to get responsive noises, which are all the more special because of your silence. There are obviously plenty of opportunities to discuss what’s happening as the story progresses but it’s a fun challenge to try to stay silent through the initial “reading” and then discuss it during a second “read-through.”

Writing

With a couple of slightly older classes I have given pairs of students a photocopy of a double-page spread from the book. It is their job to write the words to go with the picture. If you wanted to add an extra element of challenge, you could choose names for the children and creatures as a class. Model writing the opening sequence as the boy arrives at the pool and dives in and and then see how well the pieces of story go together at the end.

Younger children can do a simplified version where they choose and describe one of the underwater creatures.

Art

Once again, I’ve never made it this far, but creating your own versions of the creatures to hang from strings in the classroom would make for a very happy afternoon.

Check out Pool at Auckland Libraries.

Or buy Pool from Fishpond.