Welcome to the fourth of five "My Poetry Book" Kids' Poetry Challenge post link-ups! In celebration of National Poetry month, we're challenging other parents and kids to explore the world of poetry together. More details at the end of this post.
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Within the fantasy world fairies are often depicted as caretakers of nature and they also watch over all the creatures in the animal kingdom. Earth Day is a day of environmental awareness and we're celebrating by reading "A Fairy Went A-Marketing," a poem by Rose Fyleman about a very caring and beneficent fairy.
We found an incredibly beautiful picture book version titled
A Fairy Went A-Marketing
with illustrations by Jamichael Henterly at our library. Henterly's breathtaking pictures depict an amazing fairy-tale world full of the wonders of nature. The fairy, with her beautiful, long brown hair and spectacular butterfly-like wings, goes to market and ends up helping out various animals including a fish, bird, frog and mouse. My daughter loves to slowly page through the illustrations and point out all the interesting fairy world details.
"A Fairy Went A-Marketing" originally appeared in Fyleman's book of verse,
Fairies and Chimneys (c1920). The entire book can be viewed online at the
Internet Archive. (By the way, if you've never visited the Internet Archive, you must! It is a virtual treasure trove.)
Fairies and Chimneys includes several fairy-themed poems, and I especially like the short "Bird Lore" poems. Fyleman dedicated the book to her mother, "To the realest fairy of my childhood, my mother." Also, one of the poems in the book is titled, "Mother." Isn't that wonderfully sweet?
A FAIRY WENT A-MARKETING
by Rose Fyleman
A Fairy went a-marketing —
She bought a little fish;
She put it in a crystal bowl
Upon a golden dish.
An hour she sat in wonderment
And watched its silver gleam,
And then she gently took it up
And slipped it in a stream. ..."
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Make Your Own Miniature Fairy Book Craft
Rather than illustrate just one part of the poem, my daughter decided to draw pictures for all the verses. Inspired by the creative
make-your-own miniature books at DYI Dollhouse Miniatures, I designed a miniature "A Fairy Went A-Marketing" book for her to illustrate. She's still not entirely finished coloring her artwork but you can see her progres
Welcome to the first of five "My Poetry Book" Kids' Poetry Challenge post link-ups! In celebration of National Poetry month, we're challenging other parents and kids to explore the world of poetry together.
Each week in April we hope you'll consider reading a poem with your child and then encourage your child to create an illustration based on the poem. This type of creative activity helps your child more thoroughly understand the poem and interpret it in his or her own way. If you would like to participate, please refer the original
Kids' Poetry Challenge post and read the guidelines.
We've tried to make it very simple for everyone to participate. Reading a poem together only takes a few minutes. The link-up will remain open all week long, so feel free to post the picture and accompanying text any day of the week and, if you have the time, stop by and visit the other participants' posts.
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The Fairy Dew Drop
Down by the spring one morning
Where the shadows still lay deep,
I found in the heart of a flower
A tiny fairy asleep. ...
... All the colors of the rainbow
Were in her robe so bright
As she danced away with the sunbeam
And vanished from my sight.
Laura Ingalls Wilder - February 1915
The poem is from a slim volume of poems titled,
Laura Ingalls Wilder's Fairy Poems
, compiled by Stephen W. Hines and illustrated by Richard Hull.
I never realized that Laura Ingalls Wilder had written anything but the Little House books, so her fairy poems came as a bit of a surprise to me. According to the introductory chapter by Hines, Wilder wrote articles for various newspapers before she wrote her books, and she wrote the fairy poems for the
San Francisco Bulletin.
Only five short poems appear in
Laura Ingalls Wilder's Fairy Poems. My daughter chose to illustrate the first poem, "The Fairy Dew Drop," a poem about a fairy named Drop O'Dew who takes care of flowers. The quaint, happy poems are all simple enough for young children to cherish and a refreshing alternative to the Disney Fairies kingdom.
Interestingly enough, Wilder's poems were all written in 1915, after Barrie's
Peter Pan but before the Cottingley Fairies photographs and Cicely
Do the numbers 808.81, 811 or 821 ring a bell? We've been hitting the library stacks this month in celebration of National Poetry Month and have become quite familiar with the books in these Dewey Decimal system sections. I'm rather ashamed to admit that before this past month, we hadn't checked out any of the offerings in this part of the library. But, blogging does have a way of broadening your horizons in delightful ways. We've read some beautiful, lyrical, funny and all around amazing children's poetry that we never knew existed. And the best part? The kids love it.
Now I am by no means a poetry expert. This month has been about baby steps for both the kids and me. In fact, I did not particularly like the poetry lessons in school. The word poetry leaves me trembling and feeling a little intimidated. But, that's mostly because in school I was required to write verses as instructed and work to interpret meaning in poetry. (Read J. Patrick Lewis' "Can Children’s Poetry Matter?" for more on this topic.) My perspective completely changed when I started reading poetry for my own personal entertainment. Likewise, young children should be able to freely choose and seek out poetry, much like they would any other form of entertainment.
What poetry books do you have in your home? If you want your children to immerse themselves in the verses they must first have access to poems. Before my children were born, I purchased a volume of Mother Goose rhymes. One of the best purchases I ever made. I still sing nursery rhymes with them daily. But, there's a whole lot more out there...volumes and volumes just waiting to be discovered by little hands. Today, as part of the Savvy Verse & Wit National Poetry Month Blog Tour, I'm writing about a few read aloud poetry books for young children we discovered and, in some cases, eventually purchased for our home library.
Find poetry in ANTHOLOGIES
We started out our poetry month with a superb collection of poems -- Read-Aloud Rhymes for the Very Young
by Jack Prelutsky. The first poet to serve as the U.S. Children's Poet Laureate (2006-2008), Prelutsky is a super star in the world of children's poetry. His anthology is packed with over 200 poems that were specifically selected to appeal to the youngest children, baby to age six. Sun up to sun down, the poems in the book cover a variety of child-friendly topics ready to spark the imagination -- the seasons, animals, imaginary creatures, outdoor exploration and personal feelings. Some are familiar (like "I See The Moon") but many are not and some are just plain silly. Nea
We decided that it would be fun to create a "My Poetry Book" this April for National Poetry Month. Every weekday we'll select a poem to paste into my daughter's poetry notebook and, after reading the poem aloud together, my daughter will draw an illustration for the poem. Along the way we'll try to update our readers on the progress and post a few entries.
It looks like rainy weather is here to stay for a few days. Good weather for ducks and some duck poetry. Additionally, my daughter's preschool teacher brought some duck eggs to school, and my daughter is excitedly waiting for the eggs to hatch.
Here's our latest poetry choice. We found this wonderful poem about ducks in The Llama Who Had No Pajama: 100 Favorite Poems by Mary Ann Hoberman, illustrated by Betty Fraser. The poems in the book are perfect for younger readers. The selections feature different animals and other topics of interest to children.
"Ducks are lucky,
don't you think.
When they want to
Take a drink,
All they do is
Duck their bill.
(Doesn't matter
If they spill.)"
You can see the whole poem in this embedded Google books widget:
My daughter drew a lovely watercolor pencil illustration for her "My Poetry Book" to accompany today's poem.
Do you have any favorite duck poems or books?
Within the fantasy world fairies are often depicted as caretakers of nature and they also watch over all the creatures in the animal kingdom. Earth Day is a day of environmental awareness and we're celebrating by reading "A Fairy Went A-Marketing," a poem by Rose Fyleman about a very caring and beneficent fairy.
What a precious little book! Her pictures are just wonderful. JDaniel loves rhyming. He seems to enjoy the illustration more than the poems when we read them.
Thanks for linking to Read.Explore.Learn.
Happy Easter!
Thank you so much for stopping by our blog, and letting us know about your link-up. We are so excited to participate and see everyone's great ideas!
I'm so glad I saw this! I didn't realize it was poetry month...we love reading poems, but now I'll make sure we make a point of it and add in the art component too! Thanks for the reminder!
What an interesting idea to make a mini-book. The blog you linked to looks fascinating. Perhaps I'll pick up this hobby when I have a bit more free time :)
Your mini book is absolutely ADORABLE, I remember loving that kind of thing when I was little. Those would be really fun to make for your doll house.
My son has become absolutely enamored with fairies after watching the Tinkerbell movie. He'd love the illustrated poem and the miniature book for sure! Thanks for linking up at Feed Me Books Friday!
That's just adorable. (I know that word must come up frequently, but it is *the right word.*
I think one of the best ways to raise children who love art and books is let them make books and art--so this is a winner, certainly.
Wow! Amazing--so happy to see you and your daughter enjoying poetry this way.
I'm off to check out the template and see if I think I can do this!