I awoke this morning to what I thought was hail hitting my skylights. Odd since it was sunny, calm, and beautiful outside. Then I realized --
Watching this seed dispersal is fascinating and inspired me to write a little poem.
If you follow me, you know that I love poetry and use it extensively in the classroom. I give focus to poetry elements and appreciation, but I use poetry primarily as a vehicle for teaching an abundance of other subject matter.
My nod to poetic elements for this poem would be to discuss the theme. Obviously, the theme is whirlybirds, but more importantly, it's about their movements. I establish this through discussion.
This leads naturally to an exploration of present participle verbs. Students are directed to highlight the present participles on their copies of the poem. Then I challenge them to write a present particple, or -ing poem. The most intriguing of these poems are composed almost entirely of these verbs. Thus, I present just such a poem -
We compare the 2 poems; feeling, rhythm, flow, etc., before I launch my young poets to do their writing.
There is an obvious correlation to the science of seeds. So we study nature's methods of seed dispersal, collecting seeds and classifying them.
There are so many more lesson possibilities for this poem....
- fluent reading
- punctuation
- alliteration
- rhymes
- rhythm
- syllables
- parts of speech
- phonics
- and so forth
Enjoy!
If you would like more poetry possibilities, you may like
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