Ideas for using
BEACH IS TO FUN
in the classroom
A day at the beach and all the fun that entails can be found in this book of rhyming analogies.
An analogy compares things that are different from each other but similar in some way. Try writing some with your students. Here are some ideas to get you started:
Susan is to Sue/ as Thomas is to ---
Bicycle is to two / as tricycle is to ---
Seven is to week / as twelve is to ---
Pork is to meat / as orange is to ---
Analogies are often written with the middle words missing. For example,
phone : conversation :: mail : ___
"Claws are to crab
As hands are to me"
is one of the analogies found in this book. What words would your students use in place of claws if the line read
-----are to dog / As hands are to me.
-----are to horse /As hands are to me.
-----are to elephant / As hands are to me.
Pat Brisson lives in Phillipsburg, New Jersey. Sachiko Yoshikawa lives in Seattle, Washington. Let your students find those places on a map. Can they also find Tokyo, Japan (where Sachiko grew up) on a map or globe?
The end papers are often without illustrations in a book, but Sachiko Yoshikawa filled the end papers of BEACH IS TO FUN with three dozen illustrations that remind us of a day at the beach. Use an overhead projector to display the illustrations for your students to study, then shut off the projector and play a game of concentration and have your student's make a list of all the things they can remember, or cover one thing and see who remembers what's been covered.
Pat Brisson's son, Gabriel, thought the analogy "Knight is to castle as small is to large" would have been better as "Knight is to small as castle is to large." Let your students explain why they agree or disagree. Pat Brisson dedicated this book to friends in her writers' group. Together they have over eighty books published. Use the catalog to find out if you have any of their books in your school library.
Sometimes the title of a book can change before the book is published. The original title for this book was the opening three words: NIGHT IS TO MOON. Do your students think BEACH IS TO FUN is a better title? Why or why not? How about the subtitle - A Book of Relationships? Do they think A Book of Analogies would have been clearer? Or is it clear enough the way it is? Would they have named the book something else entirely if they had written it?
Pat Brisson envisioned this book as being about a boy's day at the beach with his father and grandfather, from waking up in the morning to going to bed at night. The illustrator had a different vision and included pictures of a classroom, a pool, a park and a jungle. How might the pictures be different if the author had told the illustrator what she wanted the pictures to look like? (Most people are surprised to learn that authors never get to talk to the illustrators of their books.)
