Today is the final day of TV Turnoff week. Last Monday, I had only written one stanza of this poem. Now, to end the week, I've added a second stanza.
In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl's Oompa Loompas sing a song about poor Mike TeeVee (who turns into a television), and Roald Dahl Fans gives us the complete lyrics to this song. Here's a bit of the Mike TeeVee song below.
What used the darling ones to do?
'How used they keep themselves contented
Before this monster was invented?'
Have you forgotten? Don't you know?
We'll say it very loud and slow:
THEY...USED...TO...READ! They'd READ and READ,
AND READ and READ, and then proceed
To READ some more. Great Scott! Gadzooks!
One half their lives was reading books!
Here's a YouTube bit of this Oompa Loompa movie song.
And here's the classic book if you haven't read it aloud in a while.
It's Poetry Friday today, and if you seek a review of children's poetry posts floating in the blogosphere this week, Elaine has herded everything up at Wild Rose Reader. Thank you, Elaine!
After today, there are two days left of TV Turnoff week. How about a magic trick? You can find the complete directions for an old favorite at ehow or just learn the trick from this poem.
Last week at The Miss Rumphius Effect, Tricia shared some interesting thoughts and questions about poems set to music, asking, "Are they still poetry?" Tricia's words made me think about two favorite old family CDs of classic poetry set to music by Ted Jacobs - A Child's Garden of Songs and The Days Gone By. On car trips and in the house, I loved these as much as our children did, and Music for Little People still carries them (actually on sale right now). They are beautiful.
Music or no music, poems beg to be read aloud alone or with friends. Reading poetry out loud, we feel the marble-y words rolling in our mouths, and together we fill empty spaces with rollicking syllables.
When we're writing, reading our poems aloud highlights where we "nailed a line" and where words sound off-meter or strange. Listening to poetry aloud strengthens our ears, tuning our bodies to rhythm and sound. Here are three excellent children's poetry books with CDs included.
How might we invite poetry to serve as our daily thread at home and at school? After all, rituals sew our lives together: prayers at bedtime, kisses when we leave the house, read aloud after lunch, three horn blows for "I love you". Starting today, we might regularly memorize a poem together, tuck poems into lunchboxes, or read a poem to end the school day. Some teachers begin each week with a new poem to read and illustrate; our own children's teachers bookmark parts of every day with ritual verses.
Birthdays are one good way to spread poems around. In East Irondequoit last week, Jackie (third grade teacher) read us poems she's written for teachers turning "important ages". Over at Two Writing Teachers, you can read about how Stacey gives poems to students as birthday gifts.
Next Thursday, April 29, is Poem in Your Pocket Day, and you can find many resources and ideas online to help get some fun pocket things rolling. Here at NCTE you can find some poetry lessons, and at the New York City Department of Education, you will find a variety of poetry resources including bibliographies and units. I'll highlight some poem-in-pocket events next Friday...please join in.
Happy Poetry Friday!
(Please click on COMMENTS below to share a thought.)
Happy Poetry Friday! If you are new to Poetry Friday, please let me introduce you to this weekly holiday through a helpful article by Susan Thomsen at the Poetry Foundation. For links to many of the postings and events hosted thus far this month, check out Wild Rose Reader where Elaine has put together a fabulous contents. Today's Poetry Friday roundup is hosted by Marjorie at Paper Tigers. Musing on a topic for today's NaPoWrimo poem, one photograph kept sneaking into my mind. Over the winter, we had some family photos taken by the wise and lovely Elizabeth Pellette, and in addition to human pictures, she took this charmer of our dog Cali and our cat Mini.
One of my favorite ways to get writing (and to get students writing) is to list real photographs from our lives or list photographs that should have been taken but were not, an idea I most likely learned at The Teachers College Reading and Writing Project. Then choose a photo from the list, and get writing. The best part of this exercise is the choice: write a list of photos taken, photos not taken, or write both lists. Something always grows from such compost, no matter how many times you try it.
I am certainly glad this tender photograph was taken at our little farm. Something about it feels so curious, so trusting, and it made me think about pet secrets.
Teachers - today I would like to celebrate two professional books that will help all of us teach poetry. If you are a lover of poetry and seek books to help you spread the love, each of these books is full of rich, meaningful, and very friendly ways to share poems with children - through reading, performance, play, art, and writing. If poetry scares you a little bit, these books will take you by the hand and welcome you into a world of joy and power.
Georgia Heard's work and this book so inspired me that our second daughter is named after her many Grandpa Georges and Georgia Heard too!
This month's issue of Appleseeds magazine (a Cobblestone publication) is all about poetry. You can read some of Sheri Doyle's poems and see the issue here. What a treat to have a whole magazine devoted to reading and writing poetry, and you can even purchase one issue at at time.
Here's wishing that you find poems everywhere you look today, even in that clogged sink or those muddy dog prints across your kitchen floor. As Naomi Shihab Nye says in her well-loved poem 'Valentine for Ernest Mann',
"...poems hide. In the bottoms of our shoes, they are sleeping..."
(Please click on COMMENTS below to share a thought.)
We are one week into the April NaPoWriMo challenge to write a poem and post it each day.
Today I was lucky enough to meet with a class of children who have decided to study poetry now, during National Poetry Month. In Holland, NY, Mrs. Kellner's first graders have been studying a poet each month as Lee Bennett Hopkins suggests in his classic book, Pass the Poetry, Please! These young students know their favorite poems, and they are beginning to write poems too. Listening to their voices and hearing what they plan to write about, I knew that my poem for today would be a present. So, Mrs. Kellner's class - this one is for you!
The Poems Call
Pull a poem from the air.
You may not see it hiding there
but seeds hide deep until the Spring.
Inside of you is everything
you need to make a word parade
full of music never played.
Listen closely. You will hear
poems giggling in your ear --
Write me!Write me!
The poems call
and only you can write them all.
For when a poem finds a child
it settles in to live a while
until this child can find the words
and set them free like summer birds.
I just thought that you should know
you're full of poems
head
to
toe.
Poem in Your Pocket Day is at the end of this month, and at Country Parkway Elementary in Williamsville, NY, teachers and students will celebrate pocket poems all day long. With poems hanging on walls and tucked into clothing, this community will also enjoy "roaming poem-ing" and "poem blast" announcements. Click the link to this holiday (the 9th annual) above, and you will find many ideas for celebrating poems in pockets!
Teachers - if you have poetry ideas to share or if you have suggestions or thoughts for Poem Farm blog posts, please click on comments below, and let me know.
Yesterday was a glorious day for kites. We talked about this on the long drive to my mom's house, and when we arrived, she announced that she had kites for all of our children! So, off we went to the elementary school adjacent to her home and did a little flying. As I watched Georgia hold her string and saw her kite tango in the air, I felt as if I was flying too.
Holding My Kite
Holding my kite I ride rivers of sky. My heart has set sail. At last I can fly! Up here I'm not scared of heights or of death as I ride windy rivers on Mother Earth's breath.
