I’m sorry to see National Poetry Month end. Mine went out with a bang, though, in a wonderful Family Literacy Night celebration at an elementary school in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Happily, the date coincided with
Poem in Your Pocket Day.
What fun to see students so excited about poetry! To watch them proudly pull out and unfold their handwritten index cards. To hear them bravely recite their favorite poems.
I was able to narrow my own favorite poems down to eleven—quite an achievement, I think! I brought five copies of each to hand out in case anyone forgot theirs. I’m glad to say that I came home with only three poems and that many of the ones I handed out went to parents. I hope they’ll keep sharing.
On to May! For this
Teaching Authors series, we’re writing about animals.
Bobbi began with some favorite animal books.
For all of April (National Poetry Month), I wrote a haiku a day. (You can see the
April archive on my blog.) I looked back through the poems and found that 13 of the 30 addressed animals, mostly birds. Here in Wisconsin, we see a lot of birds migrating through to summer homes at this time of year, so that seems logical. One thing I loved about the daily haiku practice is that this year, I noticed.
Here’s one more haiku from this morning. I can’t seem to stop!
Squirrel winds her way
from limb to limb, encumbered
mouth full of dry leaves
The Poetry Friday Roundup is at
A Year of Reading, at least for now. Enjoy!
JoAnn Early Macken
Storyworld: Create-A-Story Kits, created by John and Caitlin Matthews (
Templar, $12.99, ages 9-12, 24 cards, 2011) Just the thing to help imaginations take flight, these clever kits immerse young writers in a make-believe place with a supply of ideas. Each kits contains 28 cards with prompts and pictures to create their own story. One side of a card gives a description of people, places, creatures or special objects that might inhabit that particular make-believe world, and the other provides a detailed picture of things they might find. Since its debut in 2010, four more kits have come out, each a delight and available for a bit less, $9.99 each. In
Legends of the Sea, readers are asked to imagine what happened to a haunted wreck with a ghostly crew and to think about what kind adventures would await a lucky sea horse who loves to play jokes. All of the kits come with a booklet detailing various games kids can play by themselves, with friends or parents. Also part of the series,
Fairy Magic, Tales from the Haunted House and
Christmas Tales.
Poem in Your Pocket for Young Poets, published in conjunction with The Academy of American Poets and selected by Bruno Navasky (
Amulet Books, $12.95, ages 9-12, 232 pages, 2011) This charming little book by poetry teacher Navasky invites young writers to carry poems wherever they go. A poem, Navasky writes, is like "a little bird safe in its nest, it needs to stick its head up, needs a breath of fresh air now and then. It needs to play." So, he suggest, "carry it with you," but keep it safe in a pocket and once in a while "let it fly." Inside readers find a tablet of 100 removable poems by classic and contemporary poets, from Emily Dickinson to Naomi Shihab Nye. At their whim, readers can tear out any poem to read to themselves or share with others. The tablet is organized by 10 themes, each with inviting titles. Among them: "The Sweet Earth" about nature, "Where You Never Were" about the imagination, "There is Rain in Me" about the imagination and "They Loved Paperclips" about everyday things.
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