National Poetry Month DAY 1

Mrs. Warland texted me late this morning asking if me not posting my blog was an April fool.
Of. Course. Not.
Just a wild, super busy day. And I still want to bake a cake because today is the first day of...NATIONAL POETRY MONTH.

Did you catch my friend, Kwame Alexander on NPR's Morning Edition THIS morning?

This is well worth the listen, but be sure and pay attention right at the beginning.  Kwame reads a poem written by Mikey, one of our fifth graders!

Poetry really can help us stay positive, release some emotions and feel connected during these times.  I could dedicate the whole month to writing about poems and poetry.  I don't know if I will do that (honestly, I have a very long list of blog post themes to get to!) but I may revisit it often in April.

Laura Shovan

My friend, Laura Shovan, is a poet from Maryland and author of a book I love, The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary School.  It's written in verse from the point of view of eighteen different kids.  This is how the book is described from Laura's website:

Eighteen kids,
one year of poems,
one school set to close.
Two yellow bulldozers
crouched outside,
ready to eat the building
in one greedy gulp.

But look out, bulldozers.
Ms. Hill’s fifth-grade class
has plans for you.
They’re going to speak up
and work together
to save their school.

My students love this book and in fact, I recently recommended it to someone who asked me for another book in verse after reading what? Yes, The Crossover!

Laura has a new month long project going.  It's already started, but we can catch up. Here's a video of her introducing the #WaterPoemProject:

Every day on Laura's blog she has a new prompt to get you started on a poem.  Here's the direct link for her blog. If you want to leap in today, here was the prompt from yesterday:

Buffy’s poetry prompt is: A Watery Home

Buffy Silverman

Write a mask poem about an animal and its watery home.

A mask poem is written from the viewpoint of the poem’s subject. Choose an animal (real or imagined) that lives in water as your subject.

You might write from the viewpoint of a tadpole that wriggles on the bottom of a pond, a crayfish that hides under rocks in a stream, or a dolphin that leaps in the ocean. Write a poem that tells about your home.

Answering these questions might help you begin: What sounds and sights surround you? How do you stay safe and find food? Why is your home the perfect place for you to live?

It's an overwhelming project to sift through all the fabulous poetry books and resources available to us online. I will choose a couple more for today and hope that whets your palate and get you wanting more in the future.  It is after all, National Poetry MONTH.

Dictionary for a Better World: Poems, Quote, and Anecdotes from A to Z

This book is pretty much hot off the press. You know the poems were written before the pandemic, and yet they are hopeful and reassuring and timely.  Here's a discussion guide.  Check out Charles Waters's website at https://www.charleswaterspoetry.com.  He has video links to all of his poems.  It was hard to choose just one to share.  This one has a poem about Aretha Franklin and another one called, Team.  Maybe you will sing and dance to R-E-S-P-E-C-T today and think about the team we are all on fighting COVID-19.

I also love Charles's and Irene Latham's book, Can I Touch Your Hair? illustrated by Sean Qualls and Salina Alko (whose work I admire) which I included on my Newbery list the year it was published.

Shel Silverstein

The first poet I ever loved was Shel Silverstein.  I wish my well read and tattered Light in the Attic book wasn't at school because I could use some of those poems right now. Check out his website for resources, pages to downloads, poems and fun.

I found this site with ideas to link his poems from Where the Sidewalk Ends and A Light in the Attic to math activities.  Have fun with that! A few examples:

• There is a poem called, "Bandaids."  If you have an overabundance of bandaids, place them on your body where the poem tells you to (finger, knee, nose, heel...) and then count all the bandaids up. How many are there? If you have different shape or color poems, write fractions for each shape or color.
• Using the poem, "One Inch Tall" think of all the things you could do if YOU were only one inch tall.
• "Billy Belly Baloney" will eat anything, it seems, for money.  Create a receipt listing all the things he eats.  For how much money would you eat something crazy?  Reminds me of the book, How to Eat Fried Worms (not poetry but maybe a fun, family movie to add to your list? You can read the book, watch the movie and compare.  The book is almost always better.)

Maybe your April fool will be to serve up some fried worms tonight or a belated one tomorrow?  Then write a poem about it and share it to me!

In the meantime, I'm off to check my flour supply. If it's all good a "Happy Poetry Month" cake is going in the oven asap. It's these little things we need to celebrate. xo

No April fool here, Mrs. Warland 😉