Friday, March 30, 2018

Write About Before or After a Holiday


Salt or Sugar?
Photo by Amy LV




Students - Happy almost April Fools' Day!  It's not for a couple of more days, but Sunday is our day to be prankters.  I like writing holiday poems, but I also like writing poems about the days before or after holidays.  I did this with Groundhog Day too, with the poem February 3.

You might try this - just think about a holiday, any holiday.  Then list the feelings and preparations one might do BEFORE this holiday.  After this, list the feelings and activities one might do AFTER this holiday.  Pick one idea and go with it.  You may just find a good writing idea in those lists.

If you missed my Tuesday post, you might be interested in taking a peek at my new book with Lou Fancher and Steve Johnson.  It is titled WITH MY HANDS: POEMS ABOUT MAKING THINGS, and you can see the trailer and learn more HERE.  The giveaway winner is Nerdy Knitter...so if that's you, please drop me an e-mail to amy at amylv dot com.  If you're interested in another giveaway, Clarion/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is giving away 10 copies on Twitter. Just follow the directions on my pinned Twitter post HERE to enter by April 3.


If you missed last Friday's post by Second Grade Teacher Darlene Daley and her poets, I recommend going back to read it. These writers teach us, through narrative and poetry, all about showing and not telling with our words.  I am thankful to share the work of teachers and young writers and welcome classes who wish to share interesting poetry work Poem Farm readers to reach out to me.

National Poetry Month begins on Sunday, and I will be doing a special daily poem project here which I have juuuuust decided upon!  You can see it in my sidebar here.  (This is an update from this morning when I still did not know what the project will be!) 

Find out about all kinds of other cool poem projects at Jama's Alphabet Soup, where Jama shares the 2018 National Poetry Month Kidlitosphere Events Roundup!  Hooray for National Poetry Month!

Heidi is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup at my juicy little universe with a history of the Poetry Friday Progressive Poem.  Visit Heidi's place to learn about this and to find out about all of this week's Poetry Friday Posts...

ps - It's salt!

Please share a comment below if you wish.

7 comments:

  1. Planning for a holiday can be as much fun as the day itself--kind of like planning a writing project. I'm looking forward to reading about your Poetry Month project!

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  2. Amy -- Your poem and image conjured up childhood memories of someone playing the salt for sugar trick on me and, even worse, mixing vinegar into my jello. YUCK! I love the day before/day after idea. Will have to try! XX Christie P.S. Things are happening at the vernal pool. Don't miss today's poem!

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  3. What a fun poem! I actually kinda despise April’s Fool’s Day. I’m going to try to write out some “after “ poems about why. Thanks for the idea.

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  4. Fun poem! Happy April Fools' Day!

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  5. I'm so glad that April Fool's Day is on a Sunday. I don't like this day because I am so gullible. The kids always get me. I'll never forget when a friend played a trick on her husband that she was pregnant. The joke was on her because she was!

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  6. Ha--planning on the hoof! I love it. I love your idea, too, to put your own *Poets Are Teachers* ideas into practice on ONE SINGLE SUBJECT. What will it be? I can't wait. I made my plan for my April project WHILE I was on the phone with Irene. : ) It involves 2nd graders...

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  7. Ha! This year I'm expecting a quiet April Fool's day, but I've had fun with it in the past. My favorite was finding and sharing old videos with my students. I loved the one about the spaghetti harvest in Italy. I'm looking forward to seeing what your one subject is!

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