Elephant of Sadness, Butterfly of Joy

Discussion questions 

• Why do you think the author chose to write about feelings as different animals?

• Which feelings can you relate to?

• How do you think the author decided which animal should pair with which feeling?

• The poet uses metaphors instead of similes in her book when she makes comparisons. Why do you think she did so?

Vocabulary 

• Prods: pokes or jabs

• Unbidden: spontaneous

• Plumage: feathers on a bird

• Fledglings: young birds

• Vile: disgusting and unpleasant

• Knack: special skill or talent

• Regret: to feel sorrow or disappointment for an action

• Resilience: the ability to recover from a crisis

• Lumbers: to move heavily

• Struts: walks with a vain, pompous bearing with head erect and chest thrown out expecting to impress observers

• Emits: to release a sound

• Luminescence: the emission of light not caused by incandescence and occurring at a temperature below that of incandescent bodies

Publisher content 

• Teacher resources from the author

• Publisher’s page

Activities

• Story Map Multi-Leveled Lesson from TeachingBooks

• Labeling our feelings can be a tool to help us understand ourselves. Make a bingo sheet of emotions or a game of Memory using emotions icons.

Companion books