March is Reading Month 2012, Tip #16: Read Some Poetry Today

Tip #16: Read Some Poetry Today!

Yesterday, I had the good fortune to get to sit around with Colby and listen to third graders read her some dog poems. Time well-spent...

I love reading poems with Fran and Claude.  Claudia is really into nursery rhymes and I absolutely love it. I just checked out Here's a Little Poem for Claudia; it's fabulous selection of poems with joyful, expressive illustrations.  I think she'll love this one:

From "Here's a Little Poem"...a little Gertrude Stein for the Claude...

And Fran has been enjoying Toasting Marshmallows (Camping poems since MIRM has a camp theme!) and we have I Didn't Do It on hold at AADL (the follow up book to Once I Ate A Pie.) I also think he's just prime for the goofy, rhyme-y stuff that kids love (and I poo-poo, but totally loved as a child) along the lines of Prelutsky and Silverstein.

I can't believe I haven't published Fran's famous Fog Poem yet on the blog.  I recited Sandburg's fog poem with the little cat feet and silent haunches while driving him to school one foggy morning, and Fran had a different image in his version, which he barked at me from the back of the mini-van:

He's not always a prolific poet-- legos and basement sports do keep him so busy-- but he has some really good ones.

March is Reading Month, Tip #17: Limericks!

Limericks! And we were just talking about poetry yesterday...

OK, I really hate seeing a poetry unit reduced to limericks- especially with young children; it is very hard for kids (especially under age 10) to consider content, humor, meter, and rhyme independently. That being said, if children have been adequately exposed to enough limericks- especially silly ones, they can work together to co-author some with support. (This could be a great shared writing or small group activity, minds working together yet process still being scaffolded.) Also, my love of silly, naughty, and parody can be embodied quite well in limericks.  And limericks are noticeable- and kids like that.

So today, I challenge you: write a limerick to amuse your child or yourself or a friend. Find some limericks suitable for kids or check some out from the library.

Photo by Chuck Roderique

And here's my hand at one:



There once was a dog named Colbine,
Who was known to make quite a scene.
She would push for a pet,
Which of course she would get.
No one can resist Miss Colbine!

March is Reading Month, Tip #16: Read Some Poetry Today

Read some poetry today!

I don't read poetry with my children as often as I would like, which surprises me because it is my one of my favorite things to teach.  I also get really crazy about pushing free-verse rather than rhymey-schlop.

But then I had this epiphany: kids like rhymey-schlop, they like clever poems, they like shape poems, they like acrostics (oh, the horror), they like poems that have things they can try and notice.  Poetry is about discovery.

 When I was six I could tap out the beats to "The Swing" by Robert Louis Stevenson.  When I was seven I thought Shel Silverstein had magical powers.  And as a teacher, I cannot imagine first grade without the glorious free-verse poetry of Little Dog Poems.

So today, I'll read more poetry- both on my own and to my children.