photo by lululemon athletica www.flickr.com
To get ready for spring and April, National Poetry Month, I thought we should start having some Wacky Wednesday posts about teaching kids poetry. Whether you teach your kids at home or you are a K-12 teacher, your students can benefit from reading and studying poetry. The next two weeks, the Wacky Wednesday posts will target elementary school students, using a book called More Pocket Poems poems selected by Bobbi Katz and illustrated by Deborah Zemke. Then I’ll have a post or two for middle school and high school teachers and home schoolers. So, on to April, poetry month, and looking at poems. . .
Bobbi Katz wrote a poem titled “Put the World in Your Pocket.” In this poem, she talks about how it’s nifty to hold a quarter or key in your pocket, but that a pocket can’t hold really big things like summer, elephants, or the sea. However, and here’s the secret–if those things are in a poem, a pocket sure can hold them! This is the introductory poem in the book More Pocket Poems, and it’s a perfect starting point for teaching kids poetry and doing several poem activities during April, poetry month.
The rest of the book has poems by some very famous poets, and all of this poetry could easily fit in a pocket or two. For example, “March” by Emily Dickinson is included in this book with a cute illustration of hats flying in the wind–did students know they could carry March around with them? There are also “Skeleton Parade” by Jack Prelutsky and “Song of the Witches” from MacBeth by William Shakespeare. Bobbi and the poets take children through the four seasons, and the illustrations add to the poetry fun. Teaching kids poetry with this book might just be e-a-s-y or at least easier.
Once you have shared some poems from this book with your students, ask them to choose a poem either from the book or a favorite. They should copy it down; or if they are too young, you can make a copy for them. Ask them to illustrate it, fold it neatly, and put the poem in their pockets. (Maybe send a note home earlier in the week to make sure students can wear a jacket or pants with a pocket that day if you teach in the classroom–or bring some aprons with pockets in case anyone forgets.) At the end of the day, gather students around or put them into small groups and ask them to take out their pocket poems to share for April, poetry month, activities.
Stay tuned next Wacky Wednesday (3/17) for some poetry writing fun while teaching kids poetry. Also, don’t forget there’s a book giveaway going on this week. See yesterday’s post for a chance to win a copy of Aries Rising, the first book of a new contemporary YA series with some astrology mixed in! Contest goes until Friday at 11:55 p.m. CST.
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