Bing Bang Boing

Bibliography
Florian, Douglas. 1994. Bing Bang Boing. Harcourt Brace & Company: Orlando. ISBN: 0-15-200802-0. 

About the Book
This big collection of rhymes and verse is most appropriate for older elementary students and is sure to get a laugh.  Some poems are visual (for example Book Crooks, "T ey  stol  some  let ers") and some are enjoyable to listen to (for example Strange Change, "An enterprising wizard / Turned Aunt Fay into a lizard.") Florian's collection has surprises including nonsense verse, which probably is what causes students to enjoy it so much. Most of the poems are end rhyme and are somewhat predictable which can be fun for reading aloud as students try to guess the word the poet used to finish the line. Each two page layout has two, three, or four short poems so the reader easily moves from poem to poem. The illustrations are done by Florian himself and are somewhat rudimentary.  The thick line drawings are simplistic and boring and do not particularly add anything to the poems.  However, the illustrations can be used to encourage students to write and illustrate their own poems. 


One Poem


Twinkle, Twinkle


Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are - 
     A sphere of incandescent gas
     Spinning round a nuclear mass.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are. 


Activities
*Before reading the poetry collection, discuss with students different ideas about what poetry is.  Lead them to discuss how some people think that all poetry rhymes.  Have some examples of non-rhyming poems ready.  Then read the poems from this collection and identify how the poet had to choose words carefully in order to get his ideas across using this end rhyme style. 
*Poetry Break- using "Twinkle Twinkle."  Before or after a science lesson about planets or the solar system, read this variation on a familiar rhyme.  Briefly discuss the two new lines and their scientific basis, relating them to the science lesson.
*Read other Douglas Florian poetry collections.  Compare the style of poems in this collection to those in other collections.
*Lead students to choose a common subject (like a pet) and write a collaborative class poem in the style Florian wrote the silly rhymes in this collection. 
*Encourage students to write and illustrate their own simple rhymes by choosing a familiar subject and writing a poem about it.