Workshop Wednesday {Poetry}


Next week we will FINALLY be in the month of April!  I cannot wait to say good-bye to March, it's over welcomed it's stay!  April of course is Poetry Month!  I have spent the last couple of days gathering the resources in my room to prep for the upcoming weeks.
My all time favorite book for poetry is Giant Children by Brod Gagert and Tedd Arnold.  You can read about how I used this book earlier in the year HERE.




This year I am going to try to go outside of my comfort zone and use poetry books I normally don't go to.  I personally like the fun, silly, and entertaining poems like those in Giant Children and Where the Sidewalk Ends.  Requiring myself to go outside of my comfort zone will result in exposing my students to a wider variety of poetry.  Every year I have students who think ALL poems must rhyme.  My goal is to expose them and introduce them to a variety of poems that do not rhyme.


 For example Popcorn by James Stevenson (top right in picture) has a variety of poems that do not rhyme, some are written in different fonts, and all are illustrated.

Image from Amazon.com

 This is a perfect example of a poem that doesn't rhyme.  I am already thinking of some text dependent questions for this specific poem. :)  Popcorn also has some examples of shape poems :)

For our poetry unit I am having my students create Poetry Journals.  I am using Pinkadot's Student Poetry Journal, which by the way is included an exclusive Educents Poetry Bundle.  I can't wait to see the poems my students come up with! 


There are ELEVEN INCREDIBLE products in this bundle!  Click on the image to check it out!




5 comments

  1. Poetry books are one of my biggest weaknesses! I love Giant Children. We have so much fun reading these poems together. I try to mix up the fun poems with some more serious ones and mix up the formats as well. However, I always like to start and end with the "fun ones".

    Enjoy!
    Mary
    Fit to be Fourth

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  2. I love Tedd Arnold, but haven't heard of that book yet. I must check it out! Thanks for the suggestion. I can't wait to hear how you like the poetry journal! :) My class LOVES it!
    Theresa
    Pinkadots Elementary

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  3. I haven't seen Giant Children before, but I sure did recognize the Tedd Arnold kids!! :-) I'll check it out! Thanks for linking up!
    Jivey
    ideas by jivey
    Follow me on Facebook!

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  4. Tedd Arnold is amazing! I'll had to check out that book - it's one I don't have! I also tend towards the "silly" but I find that my students also really like Robert Frost as we get to discussing his poems. We also read quite a few William Carlos Williams poems. They also enjoy, "This is Just to Say." Good luck with your unit!

    Amanda
    My Shoe String Life

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  5. I like that you're thinking outside of the box-I have the Langston Hughes and American Poetry books, but the Popcorn one looks good. I think I have Giant Children, at least I hope I do! We'll have to exchange some new poems that we come across that will be meaningful and different!
    Joanne
    Head Over Heels For Teaching

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