Poetry in the Classroom - The City Life

I read (and write) a lot of poetry about animals and nature, but I am also quite fond of poems about the city. Good poems about the city capture the sights, sounds and smells and catapult me back my days walking the streets of New York City. Life in the big city is vastly different from the rural area where I grew up, and for many students, life in the big city may be just as foreign. Two books I like to use for capturing the spirit of the city are Mural on Second Avenue and Other City Poems, written by Lilian Moore and illustrated by Roma Karas and Sky Scrape/City Scape: Poems of City Life, with poems selected by Jane Yolen and illustrated by Ken Condon.

Mural on Second Avenue is a collection of 17 poems that celebrates the city through the seasons and at different times of day. Accompanied by vibrant oil illustrations, the city, as seen through the eyes of a young boy, comes to life. Whether it's looking out the window, walking through the neighborhood, or playing in the park, the poems in this book exude the energy of the city and its inhabitants. There are poems here about building skyscrapers, going around corners, window reflections, pigeons, a mural (lending itself to the title of the book), bridges and more. One of my favorites is this poem about the skyline.

Roofscape
The lines are
straight
and
many-cornered--
plunging,
rising high.

From my window
I can see
how roofs
design a sky.

Sky Scrape/City Scape is an anthology of poems selected by Jane Yolen. The 25 poems contained inside come from notables like Langston Hughes, Myra Cohn Livingston, Jane Yolen, Carl Sandburg, Lee Bennett Hopkins and many others. The illustrations show crowded streets, fire escapes, graffiitied walls, buildings tall, a garbage dump, and much more. This collection of poems is full of life and almost as energetic as the city itself. Many of the poems on a double-page spread are connected thematically, like the series of poems on skyscrapers or those on street cleaning. Here is an excerpt from a poem by Norma Farber.

Manhattan Lullaby
Lulled by rumble, babble, beep,
let these little children sleep;
let these city girls and boys
dream a music in the noise,
hear a tune their city plucks
up from buses, up from trucks
up from engines wailing fire!
up ten stories high, and higher,

One more book I recommend including in this set is the updated classic by Gwendolyn Brooks, Bronzeville Boys and Girls. Originally published in 1956, this new version is beautifully illustrated by Faith Ringgold. Each poem in this collection of 34 contains the name of a child. This child is either the subject of the poem or the person delivering it. Set in a Chicago neighborhood, these short poems highlight the highs and lows of life in the city, particularly big cities where many are poor. Even though most of the poems are light-hearted, a few are sad. An element of social consciousness is also evident in this collection. Here are a few examples.

Robert, Who is Often a Stranger to Himself
Do you ever look in the looking-glass
And see a stranger there?
A child you know and do not know,
Wearing what you wear?

Michael Is Afraid of the Storm
Lightning is angry in the night,
Thunder spanks our house.
Rain is hating our old elm—
It punishes the boughs.
Now, I am next to nine years old,
And crying’s not for me.
But if I touch my mother’s hand,
Perhaps no one will see.

Together, these three books provide varied glimpses of life in the city and what children living there may experience.

If you want to do some poetry writing about the city but can't get there, here are some resources to inspire you.

• Carefree Cities has an online catalog of city photographs from all over the world.
• NYCfoto has photos of New York City from every angle.
• The world city photo archive contains more than 12,000 photos of cities worldwide.
• The National Geographic series People and Places contains many city photos.

Poetry in the Classroom - Writing Poetry

I write poetry regularly and often turn to books for children and young adults to help me think about form and process. When I was in school, I wrote free verse. While I recall writing the occasional haiku as a English assignment, I was never instructed in how to write poetry. Oh how I wish I had been. Poetry can be so much fun. Trying to make your ideas and favorite words fit into a structured form can be a daunting task, but one that gives much satisfaction upon its completion.

Three books I often open for inspiration are A Kick in the Head: An Everyday Guide to Poetic Forms, compiled by Paul B. Janeczko and illustrated by Chris Raschka, R is For Rhyme: A Poetry Alphabet, written by Judy Young and illustrated by Victor Juhasz, and Immersed in Verse: An Informative, Slightly Irreverent & Totally Tremendous Guide to Living the Poet's Life, written by Allan Wolf and illustrated by Tuesday Morning.

A Kick in the Head begins with an introduction about poetic forms. It reads:

Why, you may ask, do poems have rules? Why 17 syllables in a haiku? Why 14 lines in a sonnet? The answer is: rules make the writing of a poem more challenging, more exciting. Think of a game you enjoy, like baseball. Imagine how much less intriguing the game would be if there were no foul line or limit to the number of outs in an inning. The rules often ask, "Can you do a good job within these limits?" Knowing the rules makes poetry--like sports--more fun, for players and spectators alike.

What follows are 29 poetics forms. Each form is accompanied by some kind of visual clue in the top corner of the page. For example, the page for couplet shows two birds on a wire, epitaph shows a headstone, and ode shows a Grecian urn. Once the form has been identified, readers find a short informational description and poetic example. Here's an example. On the page for acrostic, the visual clue is the letter A. An acrostic is described as a poem in which" the first letter of each line spells out the subject of the poem." The left page contains a picture of a cat on a table and a broken potted plant. The right page contains a picture of a dog sweeping. The poems read:

Can't
Avoid
Trouble

Does
Only
Good

This volume not only contains many familiar forms, such as haiku, cinquain, acrostic and limerick, but also forms such as aubade, pantoum, villanelle, and double dactyl. At the end of the book readers will find a bit more background information on each of the 29 forms.

R is For Rhyme also looks at poetic forms, as well as some of the "tools" that poets use, such as onomatopoeia, metaphor, end rhyme and more. Some forms included here that do not appear in A Kick in the Head include ghazal, kyrielle, tanka, and ubi sunt. Each alphabet letter begins with what the letter is for and includes a poem written in that form. The "sidebar" on each page contains informational text that describes the form or tool and includes some tips for reading and writing poems. Here's an example.

C is for Cinquain.

Always
Attached to me,
This black transparency.
I can't escape the shape of my
Shadow.

A cinquain (sing-Kane) is any poem or stanza that has five lines. A poet named Adelaide Crapsey developed a type of cinquain poem based on Japanese poetry styles. A Crapsey cinquain has a syllable count of 2-4-6-8-2 syllables per line.

There are two big differences between this book and A Kick in the Head. First, R is for Rhyme contains poems written by the author, while the selections in A Kick in the Head tend to be by well-known poets. Second, R is for Rhyme contains a great deal more information about each of the forms.

While the first two books are picture books that can be used with elementary school (and older) students, Immersed in Verse, is a how-to guide for middle grades and young adults on becoming a poet. The book begins this way.

Have you noticed how rhythm makes you move? How heave bass vibrates the door panels of passing cars? Have you noticed the colors of a rainbow? How the stench of fireworks burns your eyes? How you cold winter hands sting under warm water? To be a poet is to notice.
...
Poems are all around us, waiting to be written. The world teems with words, images, ideas, sights, sounds, colors, anecdotes, notions, and emotions. Just as water is the stuff of life to a fish, the world is the stuff of life to be a poet. all you need to do is dive in.

The book is divided into several sections, each color-coded for ease of use. Poetry & You offers readers a quick guided tour of poetry, nine habits of successful poets (such as get gonzo over words, write every day and play), a writing pledge and more you. Your Poetry Toolbox explains the tools of the trade, such as poetic devices and the anatomy of a poem. The Poet's Decisions delves deep into the process of writing, providing lessons on point of view, tense, form, playing with structure, revising and much more. Always Something to Write About provides ideas for journaling and writing prompts. The last major section, Ta Da!: Presenting Your Work is about reading, performing and publishing poetry. Liberally sprinkled throughout the text are examples and lots of poems from a range of poets.

One of my favorite sections is entitled Your Best Revising Tools. Having just spent a significant amount of time revising a poem, I can tell you how much these ring true. Here they are in abbreviated form.

1. Time - It's very difficult to read a poem objectively on the day you wrote it. It's best to let it age--a day, a week, a month.
2. An Audition - With poetry, there's no room for words that aren't pulling their weight. Make those words work for you. Make them prove they belong where they are.
3. A Sense of Fearless Tinkering - Don't be afraid to take apart what you've done. . . . Take your poem apart and put it back together. Don't worry about the extra parts still on the floor.
4. Highlighting the Poem's Golden Moments - Use a yellow highlighter to designate your poem's top three golden moments (be they a single work, a partial phrase, or an entire line) that are vital to the poem's life. . . . Once you've highlighted the poem's golden moments, examine the remaining words with a critical eye.
5. Vivacious Vocal Cords - Poetry is ultimately a spoken art. . . . but it's also a great revision tool. It helps flag a poem's awkward phrases, blips, bleeps, and blemishes.

The book ends with appendices of selected poems and poets, as well as publishing resources for young writers.

All three of these books can serve as useful jumping off points for writing poetry in your classroom. While there are many great poetry teaching resources written expressly for teachers, these are some of my favorite books for kids.

If you are looking for additional resources on poetry writing, try these sites.

• Scholastic's Writing with Writers site has a section on poetry. Kids can learn to write with Jack Prelutsky, Karla Kuskin and Jean Marzollo.
• Poetry4Kids has a section of "how to write" articles.
• Elaine at Wild Rose Reader has written an article on Recipe & How to Make ... Poems.
• You can view a range of kids poetry in a variety of forms at Magnificent Rainbow: Kids Form Poems.
  
• Giggle Poetry has a poetry class section with lots of lessons on writing poetry.
• ReadWriteThink has a series of lesson plans and online tools for writing diamante poems, shape poems, acrostic poems and some associated lesson plans.
• If you want to experiment with different types of poetry, check out these instant poetry forms.
• PBSKids has a site called Fern's Poetry Club, where kids can learn more about writing a poem.
• Poet Joyce Sidman has some tips for writers and poets.
• Poet Kristine O'Connell George has some tips for young poets.
  

Poetry Friday - Cutting a Swath, Sonnet #3

By now you've heard that the crown sonnet proposed by Liz Garton Scanlon way back in November is finally finished. The project is fully described and shared in its entirety there, so do stop by and read about it. It's been an amazing ride, and one I'm so glad to have taken.

Here's my contribution to the crown.

Flying through life's grand chaos, bright and vast,
the tide of days leads down a path unknown.
I know not who I'll be when I am grown,
but want to live a life that's unsurpassed.
I wish to speak in words both true and fast
(when sideways glances make me feel alone
or handsome smiles imply I've won the throne),
while keeping every secret to the last.
But I commit my heart with pen to page,
my feet to races not yet known or run,
my life to every opportunity.
These dreams I hold are bound to come of age,
cannot be stopped and will not be undone,
because they live and breathe to be set free.

The crown made it's way to me on December 12th. When a message with the subject Crown Sonnet #2 arrived in my mailbox, I felt my stomach drop to the floor. All I could think was, "Oh no. It's my turn and I can't back out now." Why was I so nervous? Well, at 42, I'd never written a sonnet before. That thought alone was terrifying. Sure, I'd read plenty of sonnets, but never attempted on myself before Liz's invitation. I immediately planned a poetry stretch on sonnets (Italian form) and got to work. The results were nothing to write home about.

I took by far the longest to complete my sonnet. Between final exams, the Christmas holiday, Cybils work, and preparation for my department's accreditation review, I stole precious time each day to escape my office and wander the campus. I often passed students who, I'm sure, wondered what this crazy woman was doing walking in a fog, counting on her fingers, and stopping sporadically to scribble words in a notebook. I'm sure from behind I could be seen bouncing as I walked, "ta-DUM, ta-DUM, ta-DUM, ta-Dum, ta-DUM." (Hey, I bounce anyway. Why not walk in iambic pentameter?!)

What I learned while writing my sonnet was that a great deal of what I write is just junk, but when an idea starts to come together, it just "feels" right. I've never been one to trust that intuition, but now I know that this is exactly what I must do. I was relatively satisfied with my sonnet by the time I let it go and shared it with the group. I was glad to be rid of it for a while and let someone else begin the process. When all 7 poets were done, we spent some time on a group revision. This was the most amazing part of the experience for me. In a supportive and collaborative environment, folks asked questions, offered feedback, and helped me revise in ways that made my contribution to the crown much stronger than it originally was. Though we never met, we were connected by our love for writing and poetry. Perhaps this motley crew with more than 250 years among us (258 to be exact!), and many, many miles separating us (from the midwest, to the south, to the east coast, and a short hop across the pond), can one day meet and write together. Wouldn't THAT be amazing? I certainly think so.

I hope you'll take some time to read the contributions of each poet, as well as the final crown in its entirety at Liz in Ink. Here is where you'll find the posts by each participant in the crown, in the order they wrote.

• Sara Lewis Holmes
• Laura Purdie Salas
• Me!
• Liz Garton Scanlon
• TadMack
• Andromeda Jazmon (cloudscome)
• Kelly Fineman

The round up this week is being hosted by cloudscome at a Wrung Sponge. Andi participated in the crown as well, so you can read a bit more about it, as well as find even more great poetry this week. Before you go, be sure to check out this week's poetry stretch results. Happy poetry Friday, all!

Poetry Stretch Results - April Inspired Image

This week's challenge was to write a poem in response to this image.

This photograph was taken by lijojohnson and is protected under a Creative Commons license.

Here's what folks are sharing this week.

Diane Davis shares a poem entitled Living Graffiti.

Elaine at Wild Rose Reader shares a few quick poems.

Rae over at Rae's Ramblings shares a poem entitled Soldier on, beetle. Welcome, Rae!

sister AE at Having Writ give us a poem entitled Armor.

Here is my response to this image. Now if only I could talk to the animals.

What do your colors say?
If you were black and white,
would I want to pet you like a dog?
If you were red and black,
would I relish holding you in my palm?
But green and blue?
Are you warning me of danger?
Will you sting or bite?
Are you telling me you taste bad?
Should I find another meal?
Are you shamelessly announcing,
your lothario ways?
Before you go,
won't you share your secret?

It's not too late if you still want to play. Leave me a comment about your poem and I'll add it to the list.

You Must Read This - The Yearling

I've written about this NPR series before. This installment features Lois Lowry talking about The Yearling. It's terrific. Do go and listen.

Poetry in the Classroom - Dear Mr. Rosenwald

Imagine attending a school where wind sweeps through cracks in the walls, rain drips from the ceiling, and indoor heating and plumbing are noticeably absent. It may seem unbelievable, but for many African American children attending segregated schools, these conditions (and often worse) were the reality in public education.

With her book Dear Mr. Rosenwald, Carol Boston Weatherford uses poetry to tell the story of how one community came together to build a new school--a Rosenwald School. The narrative begins with the poem 1921: One-Room School. Here is an excerpt.

My teacher, Miss Mays, said,
You can't judge a school
by the building. When the roof leaks,
she calls us vessels of learning.
When the floor creaks, she says
knowledge is a solid foundation.

From the very beginning, the heart, the dreams, and yearning of people longing to be educated comes through. As told by Ovella, a young girl in the community, we meet dedicated people who put their blood and sweat into backbreaking work that doesn't earn a decent living, and then see them spend that money for the good of the community. We see families and communities at work, at home and church, coming together for the common good. You see, Rosenwald schools were only partially funded through grants from the rural school building program. The balance came from the community. This meant that hard-working, poor folks needed to raise money, acquire land and build that school. The poem New School Rally ends with these words.

Everyone in church stood, clapping.
How on earth will poor people
find money to give away?

How indeed? In the poem Taking Root, we learn that the church gives an acre of land for the new school. In the poems Box Party and Passing the Plate, we learn about the ways in which people worked and sacrificed to raise money. Finally, the seeds of hope begin to grow, as Blueprints for the school are presented. Soon building materials are acquired, a roof is raised, second-hand materials arrive, a playground is built, and a school is born. Every time I read this book, I'm all choked up by the time I get to 1922: White Oak School. It begins this way.

Uncle Bo cut the ribbon at the doorway
and we marched into the new school,
proud as can be. The place sparkled.

The poem that lends its title to the book is the final piece. Ovella completes her first lesson, writing a letter to the man who helped make this new school a reality.

This is a moving and powerful book. I have highlighted the beauty of the language, but cannot fail to mention that the gouache and colored pencil illustrations by R. Gregory Christie remarkably capture and extend the emotion of the poetry. Overall, this is a gorgeous book that deserves a spot on your bookshelf.

Dear Mr. Rosenwald was published in 2006, long after my full-time work in K-12 classrooms ended. I bought it though, for use with my college students in Foundations of Eduction, a class that looks in part at the history of education in America. When we began to the look at the history of schooling for African Americans, I read this book.

Here in Virginia, fourth grade students are immersed in state history and spend time exploring the social and political events in Virginia linked to desegregation and Massive Resistance. I would love to see this book become a source of discussion in telling the story of this part of our nation's history.

For those of you who wish to use this book or discuss these issues in your classroom, here are some additional resources for instruction.

• You can learn more about the author, Carole Boston Weatherford.
• Carole Boston Weatherford has a Q&A about the book.
• You can see just how different schools for black and white children were by viewing photographs of schools in Prince Edward County, Virginia.
• The New Georgia Encyclopedia has an article on Rosenwald Schools.
• The Rosenwald Schools Initiative has a great deal of information on the history of Rosenwald Schools.
• Learn more about efforts to save Rosenwald schools and preserve African American history.
• You can search the Jackson Davis Collection of African American Educational Photographs for images of Rosenwald schools.
• You can learn more about Massive Resistance in Virginia.
  

Poetry in the Classroom - Hummingbird Nest

The spring before we left our first house, a robin built a nest in the pyracantha tree just outside my bedroom window. I marveled that this bird could build such a sound nest amid the thorns of the tree. I spent many early mornings watching her build the home that would soon become host to three beautiful eggs. William was 5 at the time, so together we would sit, and watch, and wait. The wait was excruciating for us, but this didn't seem to matter to the vigilant mother. I shed tears when the chicks arrived and a few more when they were gone. I did not photograph these events, though now I wish I had. Joyce Sidman had a similar experience, which she documented at Nesting with Robins. Seeing spring erupting around me puts me in mind of these baby birds, and how poetic this particular cycle of life can be.

Kristine O'Connell George had a similar experience with hummingbirds, which later became her book Hummingbird Nest: A Journal of Poems. In it she describes a hummingbird's building of a nest in a potted ficus tree on her patio, as well as the hatching and growth of the baby birds. An extensive author's note describes how she kept a hummingbird journal and the joy brought to the family by simply observing the birds over the course of two months. There is also information about hummingbirds, as well as a list of selected books for both younger and older readers.

The book begins with the poem, Visitor.

A spark, a glint,
   a glimpse
   of pixie tidbit.
Bright flits, brisk zips,
   a green-gray blur,
   wings, zings, and whirr--

I just heard
   a humming of bird.

What follows are poems that describe the dive-bombing of the family by a bird very determined to protect it's territory, nest building, egg hatching, nestling care and growth, flight practice and the inevitable empty nest. Poems are written from the perspective of the observer, as well as the disgruntled dog and cat. ("I'm a prisoner--because of a bird. How absurd.") You can read another poem from the book. You can also listen to the author read a few of the poems.

The poems in the book are accompanied by Barry Moser's vibrant watercolors, which exquisitely capture the world of the hummingbirds. Each one contains a date that allows readers to the see the progression of events. The poems themselves are moving and full of the emotion that comes with watching an amazing event like this unfold. The rich imagery and detailed observations make this a great choice for both science and language arts.

While you may not have the opportunity to watch the building of a nest and hatching of chicks with your students, there is generally plenty of activity on school grounds that can be chronicled over time. Journaling about these changes can help students to become better observers, and journal entries can later provide background for writing poetry.

If you want to take these ideas further, the following sites offer additional resources for this topic.

• Kristine O'Connell George has an extensive page of hummingbird links and resources.
• The Journey North site provides information about robin eggs.
• The Vermont Institute of Natural Science shares a robin's nest diary.
• Journey North highlights Rufous Hummingbird migration.
• PBSKids has a nice lesson with reproducibles about nature journaling.
• Visit the National Environmental Education Week blog to find tips for nature journaling.
• Here's one more helpful article on natural journaling.

Finally, I recommend connecting this book with the informational book, A Nest Full of Eggs by Priscilla Belz Jenkins.You can find more books on eggs and nesting birds at Springing to Life.

Poetry in the Classroom - Anthologies in Math and Science

When I was teaching kids on a daily basis, I began my lessons with a cartoon, a poem, or short excerpt from a book. It was a great way to "hook" kids into the ideas that would be presented while getting them interested in learning more. Cartoons from The Far Side were a staple, as were Calvin and Hobbes (there's a lot of bad science in those babies). I had a huge classroom library, so books weren't a problem. When we studied insects I read excerpts from James and the Giant Peach, and told students their job was to determine if certain statements were true. When we studied electricity I read an excerpt from Dear Mr. Henshaw where Leigh builds an alarm system (circuit!) into his lunch box. Poetry, however, was a bit harder to come by. Sure, there was a great deal of nature poetry by some classic poets, but poetry that touched kids seemed hard to find. Keep in mind that this was during the 80's, so if it wasn't Silverstein or Prelutsky, I couldn't find it in my library.

I carried my love of literature with me into graduate work, and even though it wasn't the topic of my Masters thesis or dissertation, I couldn't let it go. When I began to think seriously about it again in the late 90's, I found Lee Bennett Hopkins, a poet himself and the man behind a number of poetry anthologies on a huge range of topics. I was hooked. Two anthologies I wish had been available when I was teaching are Marvelous Math: A Book of Poems and Spectacular Science: A Book of Poems.

Both books open with poems by Rebecca Kai Dotlich. Here is an excerpt from each.

Marvelous Math
How fast does a New York taxi go?
What size is grandpa's attic?
How old is the oldest dinosaur?
The answer's in Mathematics!

What is Science?
What is science?
So many things.

The study of stars--
Saturn's rings.
The study of rocks--
geodes and stones--
dinosaur fossils,
old-chipped bones.

(Note: The book What is Science? is a different version of the poem first published in the anthology. The illustrations are lovely and make it a stand out title on its own.)

The 16 poems in Marvelous Math and 15 poems in Spectacular Science provide thoughtful invitations to ponder the nature of science and math and the work that scientists and mathematicians do. They are perfect lesson starters for a variety of topics. Spectacular Science contains poems on stars, wind, snowflakes, seeds, magnets, dinosaur bones and more. Marvelous Math contains poems on calculators, division, multiplication, fractions, time, and other topics.

I suppose one of the things I enjoy about using these poems is that they can send discussion in any number of directions. They also make great models for writing to learn activities. Finally, they allow teachers to make great connections to other books and poems. Here's an example. Are you ready? Just follow the bouncing ball and see how I get from a poem in Marvelous Math to Loreen Leedy's new book. Here is an excerpt from p.8.

from Take a Number
by Mary O'Neill

Imagine a world
Without mathematics:

No rulers or scales,
No inches or feet,
No dates or numbers
On house or street,
No prices or weights,
No determining heights,
No hours running through
Days and nights.

(Note: This was originally published in 1968 as the book Take a Number which introduced the basic concepts of mathematics in poetic form.)

We do live in a math world, even if math-phobics are reluctant to admit it. Enter Math Curse, by Jon Scieszka. It begins:

On Monday in math class, Mrs. Fibonacci says,
"You know, you can think of almost everything as a math problem."
On Tuesday I start having problems.

Through the eyes of a child we see that getting dressed, eating breakfast, catching the school bus, eating in the cafeteria, English, P.E., geography and just about everything else is related to math. How are these "problems" solved? With math, of course!

For those students who still see math as a curse, it's helpful to think about the prompt at the beginning of Mary O'Neill's poem. What would a world without math look like? In her latest book, Missing Math: A Number Mystery, Loreen Leedy shows readers what happens when the numbers all over town suddenly vanish. Beyond the obvious delight some children will have when they recognize that math can't be done (for shame!), they will soon recognize the dire situation we face without numbers, when we can no longer play sports (no scores), watch television (no channels), elect officials (no votes), send mail (no addresses), nor do lots of other things. This book is an imaginative romp through a world devoid of numbers that makes readers really take stock of the value of numbers and math in their lives.

I've gone off on a math tangent, so let me get back to science. As I mentioned earlier, there are many good books that can be connected to these anthologies. Let me tell you about two more books that make excellent companions. The first is Scien-Trickery: Riddles in Science by J. Patrick Lewis, a book full of poems to be solved on a range of science topics. There are some wonderful pairs that can be made using Spectacular Science and Scien-Trickery, including the poem Magnet by Valerie Worth with the poem Push Me, Pull Me by J. Patrick Lewis, as well as the poem Under the Microscope by Lee Bennett Hopkins with the poem Buggety Buggety Boo! by J. Patrick Lewis.

The last book that I think belongs in this set of lesson starters is Jon Scieszka's Science Verse. It begins:

On Wednesday in science class, Mr. Newton says,
"You know, if you listen closely enough, you can hear the poetry of science in everything."
I listen closely. On Thursday, I start hearing the poetry. In fact, I start hearing everything as a science poem.
Mr. Newton has zapped me with a curse of SCIENCE VERSE.

Many of the poems in this collection parody poems by Joyce Kilmer, Lewis Carroll, Ann Taylor, Robert Frost and others, as well as nursery rhymes and childhood songs. Make sure you get a copy with the CD in the back, as the audio is a great deal of fun.

So, are you ready to start a lesson with poetry today? I sure hope so.

Poetry in the Classroom - Rulers of the Earth

They are found nearly everywhere on Earth and comprise the largest phylum in the animal kingdom. In fact, there are more species of arthropods than all other animal species combined. While many people call them "bugs," this name is misleading, as it includes only insects. Arthropods include animals as diverse as spiders, centipedes, scorpions, crabs, barnacles, butterflies, bees, ants, beetles and many, many others.

Examining arthropods up close can be a very interesting unit of study in the elementary, particularly if teachers can get past butterflies. Yes, I know that metamorphosis and life cycles is part of the curriculum, but there are so many other fascinating species to consider. Introducing some of these creatures through poetry is one way to begin. Two books that I find helpful for doing this are insectlopedia by Douglas Florian, and Water Pennies and Other Poems, by N.M. Bodecker.

The 21 poems in insectlopedia provide an imaginative romp through the world of arthropods. Yes, I know the title says insect, but this collection includes poems about spiders and ticks as well (no crustaceans or centipedes/millipedes, however). Using clever wordplay and illustrations that reflect the humor in the poetry, this volume provides a wonderful introduction to animals as varied as weevils, locusts, mosquitoes, caterpillars, water bugs, and others. The illustrations were done in watercolor on primed brown paper bags with collage. One of my favorites depicts three crickets playing violins, around an image of the moon. The poem reads:

The Crickets
You don't need tickets
To listen to crickets.
They chirp and cheep for free.
They fiddle and sing
By rubbing each wing,
And never will charge you a fee.

Other poems in the collection take concrete forms, like those for the inchworm and whirligig beetles. Overall, this is a strong and entertaining collection.

Water Pennies contains 32 poems that reflect the variety of life found in, on and around a pond. Illustrated with pen and ink drawings by Erik Blegvad, this posthumous collection is lively and full of delightful imagery. Here is an excerpt from the poem entitled Seeing a Dragonfly Over the Pond on a Sunny June Morning.

So dragonfly
is on
the wing,
the shiny
helicopter
thing.

Brand-new
today,
and bold
as brass,
but clear
and brittle
as fine
glass.

The bulk of the poems in this collection do focus on arthropods of one form or another. For poems in which readers may not know about the animal in question, they will find a footnote with a brief bit of information. For example, the poem Summer Skaters includes a footnote that reads, "A skater is a mosquito-like surface skimmer that sticks around until first frost."

In addition to these two fine poetry books, I recommend including April Pulley Sayre's book, Ant, Ant, Ant! An Insect Chant, in which an ant and 59 other insects are named. The book ends with a short informational section that describes the animals.

For those of you looking for additional resources for the study of arthropods, I recommend you explore these sites and materials.

• This spider unit from Paso Partners includes bilingual information (Spanish) and activities for integrating math and language arts into the study of science.
• Yucky Roach World lets kids explore life through the eyes of a cockroach.
  
• The Glossopedia site on arthropods contains useful information for kids.
• Try this Education World lesson plan entitled What's Bugging You?
• The Understanding Evolution web site has a comprehensive section on arthropods entitled The Arthropod Story.
• Kids can play a game called Monster Bugs at Scholastic's Magic School Bus site. Given a drawer full of bug parts, kids put them together to create bugs found in nature or new bugs of their own.
• If you want to use live animals in your class, check out this lesson on using stick insects in the classroom.
  
• The University of Iowa College of Education has created an insect bibliography. (This one has not been updated since 1999, but you will still find many useful titles here.)
• Orkin has some bug and insect games for kids.
• The University of Kentucky department of entomology has a variety of fun bug activities.
• A large collection of insect illustrations are available from the University of Illinois.
• If you want to integrate even more children's literature into your study of insects, take a look at this Eric Carle insect unit study.
  

Monday Poetry Stretch - Inspired Image

It's the first Monday of the month, so that means this week's poetry stretch is to write a poem from an image. The poem may take any form that inspires you. Here is the image we'll be writing about.

This photograph was taken by lijojohnson and is protected under a Creative Commons license. You may include this photo with your poem as long as you include this attribution on your blog.

As you can tell from my last "buggy" post, I've got insects and other small creatures on the brain. I was struck by the colors of this one, and found myself wondering what it would be like to meet one face-to-face.

What kind of poem will this image inspire? Leave me a comment about your poem and I'll post them all here later this week. Don't forget that if you like this kind of stretch, you can take it up every week with Laura Purdie Salas and her 15 words or less challenge.

Poetry in the Classroom - Lighting it Up

While I can always find many poems for teaching life science and earth science topics, physical science is another story entirely. Poems about energy, sound and matter are much harder to come by. I do, however, have two collections of poems that are wonderful resources for teaching about light in all its forms.

Flicker Flash, written by Joan Bransfield Graham and illustrated by Nancy Davis, is a collection of 23 concrete poems about light in various forms or things that give off light. Here you will find poems on the sun, a candle, match, lightning, firefly, porch light, light bulb, lighthouse, and much more. Since these are concrete poems they are impossible to reproduce here, but you can preview some of the pages at Google Book Search. One of my favorite poems in the book is Lighthouse, which begins this way.

Oh,
Captain
of the
midnight
sky, you
stretch
your arms
and flash
your eye

This is a cleverly conceived book that provides many opportunities for exploring light in a myriad of forms with young readers.

Light & Shadow, by Myra Cohn Livingston, is a collection of 14 poems accompanied by the photographs of Barbara Rogasky. This is a quiet book that reflects on light and shadow as it accompanies us through the day. The photos and poems work so beautifully together that I have to wonder if the pictures were chosen to accompany the poems, or if the poems were written in response the images. Whatever the case, they make astounding pairs. The book opens with the poem Daylight and a picture of the morning sunrise. Here is the poem.

Light jumps
out of gray dawn
pushing a yellow ball
over

patches
of earth and sea,
shoving it higher than
city

buildings,
higher than the
tallest of all mountains
where it

slowly
circles the earth,
exploding the sky with
color.

This is a beautifully written book that demonstrates how light often has a life of its own.

Many teachers enjoy using the Robert Louis Stevenson poem My Shadow when studying this topic. Here it is.

I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,
And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.
He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head;
And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed.

The funniest thing about him is the way he likes to grow--
Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow;
For he sometimes shoots up taller like an India-rubber ball,
And he sometimes goes so little that there's none of him at all.

He hasn't got a notion of how children ought to play,
And can only make a fool of me in every sort of way.
He stays so close behind me, he's a coward you can see;
I'd think shame to stick to nursie as that shadow sticks to me!

One morning, very early, before the Sun was up,
I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup;
But my lazy little shadow, like an arrant sleepy-head,
Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed.

I have seen three illustrated books that take very different approaches to the poem. I don't think any do justice to the poem, but you'll need to decide if any of them "work" for you.

• My Shadow, illustrated by Ted Rand, highlights children from all over the world playing with their shadows. This version is a Reading Rainbow book. My problem with it is that poem is told from the perspective of a single child, yet in many of the illustrations, groups of children are depicted.
  

• My Shadow, illustrated by Monique Felix, presents the poem through the eyes of a mouse. This book is visually pleasing, however, some of the wording in the poem has been changed to better fit the illustrations. For example, the word children has been replaced with mice, nursie with mom, and arrant with errant.
  

• My Shadow, illustrated by Glenna Lang, follows a young girl's as she travels through a "dream nightscape" with her shadow companion. The travels here are cast by the moon (noon in the poem is depicted as midnight). Scientifically, this one has some serious problems.
  

(Please note that there is still another version illustrated by Penny Dale, but I have not seen it and, therefore, cannot review it.)

If you are looking for some additional resources for teaching about light and shadows, you may find these to be useful.

• Joan Bransfield Graham has created a teacher idea sheet for use with Flicker Flash.
• The McDonald Observatory has a series of lessons on shadow play.
  
• Try this lesson plan on observing and drawing shadows.
• Teachers can learn more about the science of light.
  
• The Optical Society of America has a wonderful site for kids on exploring the science of light.
• Optical Research Associates has a site called Optics for Kids that explores light, lenses and lasers.
  
• Lighten Up! Discovering the Science of Light is an activity guide written for the Girl Scouts and designed for girls ages 11-15. However, there is much here that teachers will find of value that can be modified for use in the classroom.
• NASA has a K-12 teacher's guide entitled Optics: Light, Color and Their Uses.
  
• The Reading Rainbow episode on Rand's book suggests several other books for studying this topic. You can also download the teacher's guide.

Poetry in the Classroom - Ordinary Things

April is the month when spring is truly upon us. It is prime time for getting outdoors, as we celebrate Earth Day, National Kite month, and in many states, Arbor Day. One of my yearly spring rituals is to pull out my copy of Ordinary Things: Poems From a Walk in Early Spring and read my way through the sights and sounds of spring. Once I've done this, I head out with my notebook for a spring walk of my own.

This lovely book by Ralph Fletcher contains 33 poems divided into three sections -- Walking, Into the Woods, and Looping Back. On the backside of each section divider is a poem describing that portion of the walk. Within each section readers find poems covering a range of natural and man-made objects, from fossils and ferns to litter and railroad tracks. There is much here that readers will relate to and recognize. Here is an excerpt from one poem I particularly like, entitled birds' nests.

When I was small
Grandma cut my hair
and tossed the clumps
onto our lawn.

"Birds will use it
to line their nests
and keep the eggs
safe and warm."

An amazing thing:
my ordinary hair
woven into a bird's
wild tapestry.

When I was growing up, we threw the debris from the lint trap in the yard for this very reason. Once the pieces disappeared, I wanted to spy on the nests nearby to see just what bits of nature had been included. With a good pair of binoculars, I could see the grasses, sticks, leaves, and in some cases, lint or some errant thread or string.

Last year I wrote a three part series on exploring the natural world. In one of the posts I wrote this about focused observation.

When I first begin to take kids outside, we do two activities designed to help them become better observers. In the first, I assign partner and give each pair a hula-hoop. The pair finds a spot in the yard, field or forest they would like to focus on. The hoop is laid on the ground, where it provides the boundaries for the observational field. How much can you find in this "small" circle? PLENTY! The first job should be to simply sit and look at all that is inside the hoop. Kids should sketch what they see in their journals. How many kinds of grass or vegetation are in the hoop? Knowing the names here isn't important, but rather recognizing that things look different. Encourage kids to get down on their knees and use their hands or a stick to part the vegetation and see what is beneath. A hand lens will help here. I often set timer this activity and then ask for groups to share what they have found. I also give groups the opportunity to repeat with a second plot so that they can see how different these small areas can be.

The poems in Ordinary Things expand on this notion and demonstrate what can happen when readers look closely at the world around them. I recommend taking children on a nature walk with a journal in hand. Stop along the way for quick writing breaks. Encourage the children to focus on something they see and record a series of words or phrases to describe it. After a few minutes, move along to another spot. The idea here isn't to draw or photograph what's been seen, but rather capture the essence of the thing in words. Later on, all these descriptors can be used in writing poems about the walk.

Here are some resources that may help you think a bit more about some of these ideas.

• Learn more about Ralph Fletcher.
• Kristine O'Connell George has some observation tips for poets.
• You can learn when Arbor Day is celebrated in your state.

Poetry Friday - More Sonnets

The first sonnet I ever read was during the first week of high school in my ninth grade English class. The sonnet was by Percy Bysshe Shelley. I'm not sure why I loved the poem, but I did, and still do. Because of the spark ignited by that one poem, I am still reading and enjoying poetry of all sorts. Today I share that very first sonnet and one more.

Ozymandias of Egypt
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said:—Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Lift not the painted veil

Lift not the painted veil which those who live

Call Life: though unreal shapes be pictured there,

And it but mimic all we would believe

With colours idly spread,--behind, lurk Fear

And Hope, twin Destinies; who ever weave

Their shadows, o'er the chasm, sightless and drear.

I knew one who had lifted it--he sought,

For his lost heart was tender, things to love,

But found them not, alas! nor was there aught

The world contains, the which he could approve.

Through the unheeding many he did move,

A splendour among shadows, a bright blot

Upon this gloomy scene, a Spirit that strove

For truth, and like the Preacher found it not.

The round up this week is being hosted by Becky over at Becky's Book Reviews. Please stop by and enjoy all the great poetry folks have selected to share. Before you go, be sure to check out this week's poetry stretch results. Happy poetry Friday, all!

Poetry in the Classroom - A World of Wonders

I have been teaching a course on integrating science and social studies for some time now. While I often get puzzled looks from folks when I try to explain this, the elementary teachers I work with recognize that this makes perfect sense. There is tremendous overlap between the science and social studies curriculum, particularly with respect to the topic of geography. The book A World of Wonders: Geographic Travels in Verse and Rhyme, written by J. Patrick Lewis and illustrated by Alison Jay, nicely captures this relationship.
The book opens with a poem entitled Places and Names: A Traveler's Guide, in which a number of cities and sites with interesting names are named. The poem concludes in this way.

Thousands of spaces are places to be--
Discover the World of GE-OG-RA-PHY!

Travel by boat or by car or by plane
To visit East Africa, Singapore, Spain.
Go by yourself or invite a good friend,
But traveling by poem is what I recommend.

What follows are poems about explorers, places on the map (Sandwich Islands, Italy, Angel Falls, Mount Everest etc.), the globe itself (latitude v. longitude, equator and the poles), earth science topics (aurora borealis, San Andreas fault, stalactites v. stalagmites), and many other things.

This is a wonderful book for introducing a mix of geography topics, as well as science topics like biomes, ecology and natural resources. There are a few poems that encourage readers to think about their impact on the earth. The last poem, entitled Walk Lightly, begins this way.

Make the Earth your companion.
Walk lightly on in, as other creatures do.
Let the Sky paint her beauty -- she is always
watching over you.

A range of activities can be conducted with respect to these poems. Many of the poems lend themselves to mapping activities. In addition to the opening poem, there are riddles where readers must identify a city, as well as a poem entitled New Names, Old Places, where countries with changed names are described. In addition to the standard calendar bulletin board that appears in many elementary classrooms, I highly recommend a permanent board with a world map in which students can place push pins or "markers" to identify locations studied. This works not only for these poems, but also for places identified in current events and others books students read.

I also recommend laminating the map or placing a layer of plastic over it so that students can label and color areas of the map. For example, the poem 136ºF in the Shade describes the hottest day ever recorded in history. It occurred in the desert of Libya. There is also a rhyming couplet describing the size of the Sahara Desert and a poem on the Mohave Desert. While reading these poems, students can research other deserts of the world and color all of them on the laminated map. From here they'll be able to draw some conclusions about the characteristics of deserts and the geographic features they share.

For those of you looking for additional resources for using poetry in the teaching of geography and related fields, here are a few ideas.

• Learn more about the poet J. Patrick Lewis.
  
• Poetry of Place - This site encourages the reading and writing of poetry in geography instruction and includes many fine examples of student work.
• Got Geography! by Lee Bennett Hopkins - This book contains poems about maps, globes, far away places and more.
• In the 2007 September/October issue of the Journal of Geography you will find an article by Joseph Kirman entitled Aesthetics in Geography: Ideas for Teaching Geography Using Poetry.

**Updated** - My blogging friend at Wild Rose Reader, Elaine, posted an interview with J. Patrick Lewis today! It's terrific, so do check it out.

Poetry Stretch Results - Clerihew

The challenge this week was to write a clerihew. A clerihew is a four-line verse written in an a/a/b/b rhyme scheme that is biographical and humorous. Here are the poems my smart, witty readers came up with.

Noah the Great shares a poem about The Strokes lead singer, Jules Casablancas, entitled Failed Triumph.

John Nixon from The Quintessential Tangential shared this clarihew about Edward Bernays. Welcome, John!

Edward Bernays
Discovered the ways
Of Subconscious persuasion
Which made him the father of mass manipulation.

Sam Riddleburger shares a clerihew about Tycho Brahe that tells us what happens when a drunken young man gets into a duel.

sister AE at Having Writ is back (we've missed you!) with two clarihews about some television stars.

Madelyn Ruth from The Poop Deck reminds us that living with a young child means that the word famous often applies to cartoon characters and muppets. (Welcome, Mad!) Here's her clerihew about Oscar the Grouch.

Oscar the Grouch
Needs a therapist's couch
To combat depression
And garbage obsession

Daisybug at Things that make me say... shares a poem entitled P-ewww Clerihew.

My contributions this week are, like Sam's, scientific in nature.

Galileo Galilei
was subjected in Pope Urban's day,
to a nasty Inquisition
for his views on Earth's position.

Sir Isaac Newton, mathematician
scientist of recognition,
saw an apple fall from a tree
then shouted, "Yes, that's gravity!"

It's not too late if you still want to play. Leave me a note about your clerihew and I'll add it to the list.

Poetry in the Classroom - Animal Senses

Teaching the five senses is an important part of the elementary science curriculum. While we generally focus on how humans use their senses to explore and understand the world around them, we don't often think about how animals use their senses to thrive and survive in the wild. Two poetry books that describe how animals use their senses are Voices from the Wild: An Animal Sensagoria and Animal Sense.

Voices from the Wild, written by David Bouchard and illustrated by Ron Parker, was awarded the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award in 1997. In this collection of imaginative and expressive poems, animals relate the ways in which a particular sense helps them hunt, avoid predators, and care for their young. The book is divided into five sections, one for each of the senses (sight, smell, touch, hearing, and taste). Each section features five poems, each one accompanied by a lifelike painting of the animal.

Animal Sense, written by Diane Ackerman and illustrated by Peter Sís, explores the ways that animals navigate the world using their senses. This book is also divided into five sections, each representing one of the senses. The poems are funny and clever and occasionally include made-up words. This book begins:

Hello!

A stapler with its tiny fangs
cannot outwit
orangutangs.

Rocks are very good at sitting
but never walk
or take up knitting.

Living things all feel the sense
their way through
every happenstance. . . .

Both of these books provide excellent read aloud opportunities for discussing the five senses.
I like to pair these books with What Do You Do With a Tail Like This? by Steve Jenkins and robin Page. This Caldecott honor book examines the function of ears, eyes, noses and other body parts. Each double-page spread pictures a body part of several different animals, such as noses, accompanied by the question, "What do you do with a _____ like this?" The next double-page spread shows each animal and includes an explanation of how the part functions.

After reading several poems on how different animals make use of the same sense, I share the appropriate set of pages from the Jenkins/Page book. First we look carefully at the "teaser" pictures and try to determine which animals are being pictured. Then we turn the page and read about how the animals use that body part. After this, select one animal and ask students to brainstorm some words and/or phrases that might be useful in a poem describing how the animals uses this sense. Write their ideas on sentence strips. Once you have a number of suggestions, rearrange them and put together a class poem. After you have collaboratively written a poem or two, encourage children to write their own poems that focus on animal senses.

Here are some additional resources for learning about animal senses.

• Amazing Animal Senses - This site includes information on ants, bats, elephants, jellyfish, mice and many more.
• National Geographic Kids: Animal Senses - Learn about animals with amazing powers of sight, smell, taste and hearing.
• Amazing Animal Abilities - This site explores the top ten animal senses that humans do not have.
• A Teacher's Guide to Animal Senses - Download this series of lesson plans for K-2 students on the senses.
  

Poetry in the Classroom - Concrete Poems

Poems that take shape are such fun. There are many great poetry books that use concrete forms. Two of my favorites are A Poke in the I: A Collection of Concrete Poems and Doodle Dandies: Poems That Take Shape.

A Poke in the I, written by Paul Janeczko and illustrated by Chris Raschka, includes a wide range of poems that are cleverly shaped and written. Eskimo Pie and Popsicle are both poems in the shape of ice cream. Swan and Shadow looks exactly like the title is is a lovely piece of work. You can see it and read it at this concrete poem page.

Doodle Dandies, written by J. Patrick Lewis and illustrated by Lisa Desimini, uses wordplay and surprising "movement" to make the topics come alive. Synchronized Swim Team uses the legs of upside-down swimmers to make its point, while Creep and Slither appears in the shape of a snake, until midpoint when the bulging word bull frog announces what's been eaten.

Both of these books are surprising and funny and deserve to be studied for the way the collaboration of shape and text makes the topics come alive.

I often encouraged my students to write shape poetry when we were drawing diagrams in class. It was a good way to help them learn more about the parts of plants, cells, electric circuits, and more. Generally they were given a blank outline to fill in with their poems. You can do this with your students. Using shape patterns, encourage them to use the outline of the shape to create their own concrete poems.

Concrete poems are fun to write and challenge children to think in different ways about the objects and events they see in their world. For additional ideas on writing concrete poetry, here are some resources you may find useful.

• Learn tricks of the trade from Paul Janeczko and write your own concrete poems.
• Write shape poems online.
• Write concrete Poetry related to the Wright Brothers historic flight.
• Learn more about graphic poetry.
• In the May 2005 issue of Book Links there is an article by John Grandits entitled Concrete Poetry and Visual Learning.

If you want to read concrete poetry as story with your children, try Joyce Sidman's lovely book entitled Meow Ruff: A Story in Concrete Poetry.

Poetry in the Classroom - The World's Greatest Poems

The World's Greatest Poems, written by J. Patrick Lewis and illustrated by Keith Graves, is a book that highlights in verse and illustration some of the strangest world records, such as the talkingest bird, longest traffic jam, and stone skipping record. Before each poem, the record is briefly described. Here is an example.

The Tallest Roller Coaster
Superman the Escape
Six Flags Magic Mountain
Valencia, California
415-foot steel support structure

You're swerving north,
You're swerving south,
Your stomach sits
Inside your month.

You hold your breath,
You lose your nerve,
Your scared to death
At every curve.

You're feeling very
Sick, but then
You tell your Dad,
"Let's go again!"

The poems in this book come in a variety of forms, including acrostic, limerick, sonnet and more. Accompanied by whimsical illustrations, Lewis' verse really shines.

The vast majority of the poems are based on records that include numbers. Before reading the poems, consider asking students to estimate the answers to questions like these:

• How long was the longest traffic jam (in miles)?
• How many people did one man kiss in eight hours to set a world record?
• What is the longest time someone was stuck in an elevator?
• How tall was the tallest scarecrow?
• What was the weight of the biggest potato?

After reading the poems, share the actual measurements and find some ways to make these numbers concrete. For example, plot out the traffic jam on a map (1093 miles from Lyons towards Paris), compare the weight of that potato (7 lbs 13 ozs) to something kids can understand, like the weight of a newborn baby, or compare the height of that scarecrow (103 feet and 6.25 inches tall) to the number of cars parked end to end.
Kids love record-breaking numbers and comparisons of this sort. I recommend pairing this book of poetry with Steven Jenkins' book Hottest, Coldest, Highest, Deepest, in which he identifies and describes places such as the hottest, coldest, wettest, driest, and windiest places on Earth, as well as the longest river, highest waterfall, deepest lake, highest mountain and more. Once you've read this book and shared some of these records of the natural world, look again at Lewis' poems and encourage students to write some of their own "World's Greatest" poems.