Springsational Poetry Activities

April is National Poetry Month and I would love to share my passion for poetry with you.

  

Try some of these Springsational Poetry activites:

• Collaborative poetry is a fun way to use poetry in your classroom. It can be done with the entire class or in small groups. Each student will write 1 sentence about spring on a sentence strip. Give your students a prompt, such as 1 of those listed below. Collect all of the sentence strips and mount them on one large piece of poster paper.  Invite students to illustrate around the poem and display it for everyone to enjoy. Prompts:
• It's a sure sign that it's spring when...
• The best thing about spring is...
• Spring is the best season because...
• The worst thing about spring is...
• Spring weather...
• One spring day, I ...     You get the idea!

• Acrostic poems are always fun and leave the poets free from the need to create rhymes and rhythm. This can be an individual or collaborative effort. Begin by brainstorming a list of spring words, encouraging students to think in extensions; that is, going into more depth on vocabulary. Use word webs on the board to accomplish this (illustration below). Once you have a nice variety of terms, allow students to choose one of the word web words to use for their acrostic. I often have students circle the word on the board that they are going to use, writing their name or initials by it. If you have enough words, each student can use a different one.  If not, you may wish to impose a limit on the number of children who can choose the same word. Then set them loose to create their acrostic poems (example below).

If you are passionate about poetry (or at least enthusiastic), your students will find that feeling is contagious.

Check out these poetry products borne of my passion (how's that for poetic writing?):

10 Reasons You Should Teach Poetry

It's about time, teachers, for National Poetry Month.

Here are 10 reasons you should teach poetry:

1. Poetry enables teachers to teach their charges how to read and find meaning in any text.  Figures of speech and literary devices are more readily identified and understood when introduced through poetry (think ELL).
2. You can teach grammar by parsing a poem.  Students can more readily find and identify parts of speech, inflectional forms, syntactic relations, structure, and morphology when working with a brief poem.
3. By examining how poets deviate and/or corrupt the use of punctuation, teachers can draw attention to the power of punctuation (think e e cummings).
4. Poetry facilitates the teaching of writing. Skills such as precise descriptions and economical use of words can be honed through poetry (think Mark Twain's famous quote, "I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.")
5. Because poetry eschews rules of grammar, otherwise reluctant writers may be more inclined to express themselves in this genre (think song lyrics and rap).
6. Poetry can give students an outlet for their emotions. Judith Viorst's poetry is excellent for demonstrating this.
7. Reading poetry aloud can build trust and empathy in the classroom.
8. Reading poetry aloud promotes speaking and listening skills.  Poetry is widely recognized as an efficient means of promoting fluency.
9. Through poetry, teachers can foster creative expression. In the age of CCSS and multiple choice, standardized testing, creative expression is too often sacrificed.
10. You should teach students to love literature and this is easily accomplished through poetry.  

You may like these poetry resources:

Emergent Readers for Spring

The Nia Readers are a set of 4 emergent level books for beginning readers. As is typical of emergent readers, these books have consistent print placement and simple, supportive illustrations. The subject matter is familiar to young children; the language structure is natural. Each book features a set of high frequency words in predictable, repetitive sentence patterns. One or two changes are included in each book to ensure that students are attending to the text; not just repeating a memorized pattern.

• Nia’s Toys focuses on these high frequency words: has, a, & no. The text pattern is “Nia has a [toy name supported by picture]."  The last two pages break the pattern. Simple, black and white pictures are attractive and inviting for the children to color.

• Nia Colors the Easter Eggs is a book of seasonal interest. It is a counting book that provides practice with color words. The text pattern is “Nia colors [number] eggs [color word]."  The last page provides a change in the pattern. I recommend inviting the children to color the eggs as described by the text before reading the book independently.

• Nia Goes to the Park tells about her activities at a park and provides a focus on high frequency prepositions (on, in, and with). Other high frequency words include: plays, the, her, & a. The text pattern is “Nia plays [preposition] [article] [noun supported by picture]."  The last two pages break the pattern.

• Nia’s Cupcakes is the most difficult of The Nia Readers. Predictable text is supported by the illustrations. High frequency words include: she, put, on, made, some & color words. The text pattern is “Nia/she put [numeral] [color word] jelly bean(s) on [numeral] cupcake(s).” The numbers are not in sequential order, thus requiring the reader to attend to the text. Similarly, the initial noun varies between “Nia” and “She,” providing additional opportunities for the teacher to determine the student’s attention to the text. Again, you may wish to direct the children to color the illustrations in compliance with the text, thereby offering additional support.  Nia's Cupcakes also invites cross curricular extensions, such as: How many cupcakes did Nia decorate? How many jelly beans did she use altogether? Count, tally, and graph the colors of jelly beans used.

The Nia Readers make great take-home books.  My students are always thrilled by that reality.

BTW, these books are named after my adorable granddaughter. Love her to the moon and back 10,000 times!

You may also like:

High Flying Kites

It's about time for flying kites, teachers!

Here's an idea for a center, individual work, or partners' activity.

  

Create colorful kites from construction paper. Write a number in the center of each shape. Laminate the kites. Then give a kite to each group or individual. Instruct your students to use wipe-off markers to write as many math facts as they can about the given number. Post the kites on a bulletin board.  Allow students to create tails for their kites using string and pieces of crepe paper.  They can add a colorful tie for each fact they wrote.

Obviously this activity can be used for any operation and within whatever range of numbers are appropriate to your students.  It could also be used for seasonal words and their synonyms or other vocabulary exercises.

My favorite way of doing these kites is to have partners work together. This increases their perseverance and improves accuracy.

March products you may enjoy:

Petunia, the Silly Goose

Have you ever read Petunia, by Roger Duvoisin? 

This book is an oldie, but a goodie! When I was teaching 1st grade, I shared the Petunia series with my students every year. If you can find a copy, try reading it to your students. It provides a great launchpad for...

WORDPLAY: The author always refers to Petunia as a "silly goose." Then he proceeds to prove that description with the story.  In this book, Petunia finds a book. She knows that reading is associated with intelligent beings, so she picks up the book and carries it with her. The other farm animals seek her wise counsel with disastrous results. I was always delighted when my students started referring to themselves as a "silly goose" when they did something foolish. It's so much more benign than some of the terms they bring from home.

GREATER THAN/LESS THAN CONCEPTS: When Petunia tries to help Mother Hen count her chicks, she miscounts and then declares that 6 is more than 9. Timing this book to that point in your math curriculum when you introduce (or review) < and >, will help implant the concepts firmly in your students' brains. You just have to help Petunia count those chicks. And, you just have to talk about the math concepts.  Then add some Petunia problems to your math journals or morning meeting.  For example: 

• 5 pigs are ___ than 3 pigs.
• 8 sheep are ___ than 4 sheep.
• 2 turkeys are ___ than 6 turkeys.
• 7 ducklings are ___ than 9 ducklings.

Let your students illustrate one or more of these math sentences. They will love it. 

Invariably, some clever child suggested that we do "Petunia math" wherein we would purposely choose the wrong symbol. Thus began some great discussions about whether a given answer was according to Petunia (i.e. incorrect) or according to us (i.e. correct). I just love first graders!

MORAL OF THE STORY: One of the most endearing parts of any Petunia story is that she finally realizes the error of her ways and corrects her behavior.  Oh the possibilities her lessons bring to a group of 6 year olds.

Other books in the Petunia series:

 

In keeping with farm animals, Ducks in a Row Literacy Center provides practice with letter sounds and phonological awareness.

Get your Ducks in a Row!

Climbing Back on my Soap Box or I Told You So! Part Two

Phew!  I survived Christmas, although the 22 expected guest morphed into 28 and 8 of them are still vacationing in my home.  No problem as the left-overs continue to spill out of my refrigerator every time the door is opened.  I am a bit exhausted, though.

I find I have just enough energy to climb back on my soap box and continue my sermon on the virtues of handwriting instruction.

In my last post, I professed:

*Consistent, logical, progressive instruction and practice allow everyone to participate and experience a sense of accomplishment and success.  Then I started to explain how I construct my instruction so that it best supports my students.  Let me continue from there.  

After teaching l/L, I revisit the concepts from that lesson the next day as I teach h/H.  The same concepts are practiced:  start at the top line; go straight down to the bottom line.  We just add the short hump, thereby drawing attention to the dotted mid-line on our writing paper.  The mental recording I hope to instill goes something like this: down, up, over and down.  On subsequent days, we learn b/B and k/K.  

Having laid the foundation for the mid-line, our next step is short, straight line letters: i/I, r/R, n/N, m/M.  I still teach t as a 3/4 letter, so it comes last in this sequence.

Next up are letters that start like c.  Obviously, we start with c/C, then move on to a/A, d/D, e/E, and o/O.  All of these lower case letters start with a c and I stress that daily.  This really helps with the Reading Recovery students and those needing reading interventions.

Next I introduce letters with tails: g/G, j/J, p/P, and q/Q. I typically teach g and q in sequence since they both start like c. Similarly, j and p both start with a straight line that commences at the mid-line. While I realize that y/Y also has a tail, I refrain from teaching it yet.

f/F is an anomaly, so I teach it in isolation. The upper case F fits well with the letters that start like l, so I may teach it after b/B and k/K. Then again, I may teach it after t/T.  It all depends on the needs of my students.  

Similarly, s/S is rather unique.  It can start like a c, but must fit itself all within the lower half of the writing line.  This can be difficult for young learners, so I typically delay teaching s/S until the children have a good sense of the short letter spaces.  

Because the remaining letters are used less frequently in early writing, AND because they involve diagonal lines, they are reserved for the later lessons.  The usual sequence for diagonal letters is v/V, w/W, y/Y, x/X, z/Z.

Having worked with student teachers for many years, I am always surprised to learn that they have never considered teaching the letters in any order other than alphabetical. Similarly, many new teaching professionals have given little thought to building a scaffold with their instructional sequence.  That's a lesson that is applicable throughout their teaching and, to my mind, critical to success.

Neither did these neophytes consider all the basic skills they could squeeze into a simple handwriting lesson. Through these lessons, students can acquire the concepts of top/bottom, tall/short, begin/end, straight line, curved letters, tails/below the bottom line, middle, mid-line, diagonal, capital/lower case, proper nouns, spacing, ...

There's more to my sermon on the soap box. Please come back soon.

You may be interested in these products:

       

I Told You So!

Maybe it's because I started teaching long before computers and tablets were available to the public...

Maybe it's because both of my parents had beautiful, award winning, Palmer method, cursive writing that I admired (and practiced endlessly in my free time)...

Maybe it's because I'm a professional calligrapher...

Maybe it's because I have decades of elementary experience that simply bears the proof...

I firmly believe...

Handwriting instruction and practice are essential to the education of our children.

Today I came across a NY Times report that adds even more credence to my long held and soap box professed belief.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/03/science/whats-lost-as-handwriting-fades.html?_r=3 

I won't paraphrase or interpret the report for you.  Instead, I urge you to read it.  It's concise.  I will, however, preach a little bit.

When I first started teaching, cursive writing was introduced in 3rd grade. My students were excited to learn cursive. Starting 3rd grade meant they had reached a milestone. Enthusiasm was inherent. Motivation was keen. Thus, success was almost guaranteed, even among reluctant learners.  Having taught 3rd grade for 9 years, my experience on this subject has credibility.

Then I became a 1st grade teacher and eventually a reading interventionist and Reading Recovery(TM) teacher.  After nearly 20 years in those roles, I became adamant about the value of handwriting instruction!  So full of conviction am I that I find this subject to be a battleground I visit often in my role as Literacy Coach for my building.

Admittedly, I have not conducted scientific research to support my position.  I simply have years and years of experience and anecdotal evidence.  So here's my litany: 

*Consistent, logical, progressive instruction and practice allow everyone to participate and experience a sense of accomplishment and success.  Even learning disabled students can master this and there is a body of evidence that supports the conclusion that handwriting practice improves their reading, writing, and cognitive skills.    Certainly I found that Reading Recovery students, those most at risk for failing in school, benefited vastly from direct instruction on letter formation, especially with reversals.  (My Teacher Leader stressed spending a precious minute or 2 of our 30 min. lesson creating a "mental recording" of letter formation for students.  Example for child with b/d confusion -- d is around, up, down.)

For all of the years that I taught 1st grade, we had handwriting practice as soon as we returned to the classroom from lunch recess. This provided a perfect means of calming the children and settling them back into the task of learning.  Just as with the 3rd graders referenced above, my charges were excited and engaged; a perfect recipe for learning.

Instruction progressed not alphabetically, but in a manner that created a scaffold.  Thus, we began with l/L; a simple line that starts at the top line and ends at the bottom line.  Stop for a minute and think about all the learning you can stuff into that simple letter form: concepts of top and bottom, up and down, straight and curvy, upper and lower case, phonetic sounds, ...  Never did we study a letter without recognizing the students whose names began with that letter.  In doing so, we added beginning sounds and early concepts of proper nouns to our learning, not to mention the warm feeling of being recognized by your classmates.  During this quick 15 min. lesson, I also found an opportunity to provide individual reinforcement to those who needed it, whether that involved holding the pencil correctly or remembering to start at the top.

I find this litany is growing into a sermon. With just a week until Christmas, I have too much to accomplish before my 22 guests arrive. Hence, I will continue this post at a later date. I hope you'll come back for more.