Plans for National Poetry Month

Last year my plans for National Poetry Month were put on hold by an unexpected death in the family. It was the first time I'd missed celebrating in several years of blogging. I'd like to say I have something elaborate planned this year, but I'll be traveling during two different weeks to conferences so I have scaled back a bit.

This year my theme is Poetry A-Z. For the first 26 days of the month I'll be highlighting poetic forms, specific poems, books of poetry, and poets according to letter. For the last 4 days I've created a set of "acrostic" themed posts with some additional thoughts on poetry.

I know I haven't been around much, but I do hope you'll join me.  

Plans for Poetry - April is Just a Few Hours Away

Lots of people will be highlighting poetry in April since it is National Poetry Month. Over at Kidlitosphere Central you can read about the ways folks in the kidlitosphere will be celebrating. If you're looking for resources to use in teaching poetry, check out this AMAZING post by Elaine at Wild Rose Reader.

Here at The Miss Rumphius Effect I will be highlighting a poem, a theme, a book, or a poet every day and suggesting ways to make poetry a regular part of life in the classroom. I will also be suggesting companion books, web sites and activities to accompany the reading of selected poems. I hope you will join me in exploring poetry for instruction and will consider suggesting your own ideas for sharing poetry with kids.

April is Around the Corner

National Poetry Month begins in just 11 days. As much as I had hoped to continue with interviews this year, life and work haven't afforded me much time for blogging. I do have something planned for April, it's just not as big and grand this year, and will share details in the next few days.

In the meantime, here's a little poetry activity that I love. In the past I have mentioned Susan Kapuscinski Gaylord's amazing site Making Books with Children. You can find her this month at Rhythm of the Home where she has posted a fabulous activity to make a PoeTree. Wouldn't this be a great classroom project? I can just imagine a tree where every child has contributed a poem.

Okay, that's it for now. Back soon with my April plans.

Ready to Rock National Poetry Month? YOU BET!

National Poetry Month is finally here! I'm happy to report that many terrific celebrations of poetry will be happening around the kidlitosphere. Here are the highlights.

Greg K. of GottaBook features 30 children’s poets sharing previously unpublished poems during the second annual 30 Poets/30 Days extravaganza.

Sylvia Vardell of Poetry for Children is playing a game of "Poetry Tag." Sylvia has invited poets to "play" along by offering a poem for readers to enjoy, then "tag" a fellow poet who then shares her/his own poem THAT IS CONNECTED to the previous poem in SOME way—by a theme, word, idea, tone-- and offers a sentence or two explaining that connection.

Jama Rattigan of Jama Rattigan’s alphabet soup will be featuring a Poetry Potluck by posting an original poem and favorite recipe each weekday throughout the month of April by some of the Poetry Friday regulars.

At A Year of Reading Mary Lee will be posting an original poem about teaching and/or learning each day in April. Franki will review poetry books and describe the Poetry Month activities she conducts in the school library.

Jone MacCulloch of Check It Out is once again sponsoring a poetry postcard project, where students write poems, decorate a postcard, and send them off. I've been a lucky recipient of these snail mail treats and they're wonderful! Jone will also be posting a new student poem every day.

Laura Purdie Salas will be posting a favorite children’s poem each day.

Lee Wind of I'm Here. I'm Queer. What the Hell do I read? will be sharing new GLBTQ poetry.

Irene Latham will be giving away a favorite poetry anthology each Poetry Friday during April 2010.

Finally, the following energetic folks are challenging themselves to write a poem a day:

• Susan Taylor Brown of Susan Writes
  
• Mary Lee Hahn of A Year of Reading
  
• Andi of a wrunge sponge
  
• Irene Latham
  
• Jone MacCulloch of Deo Writer
  
• Elizabeth Moore of Tiny Reader
• Amy Ludwig Vanderwater of The Poem Farm
  
• April Halprin Wayland

Finally, right here at The Miss Rumphius Effect I'll be featuring interviews with children's poets each day.

It's going to be a fabulous month. I do hope you'll join us!

Celebrating Hans Christian Andersen

Hans Christian Andersen (or H.C. Andersen as he is known in Scandinavia) was born on this day in 1805. While hoping to succeed as a novelist and playwright, he found his fame in the fairy tales he created. Some of his tales you may be familiar with include:

• The Ugly Duckling
• The Emperor's New Clothes
• The Little Sea-Maid

My favorites are The Nightingale and The Fir-Tree.

You can learn more about him and his work at the Hans Christian Andersen Center. In honor of the anniversary of his birth, they have published two new galleries of fairy tale illustrations from Russia and Chile.