Poetry Break: The Spring Wind

Introduction
I will place four different fans around the room adjusting them to varying speeds to simulate the wind in the poem. I will attach streamers to the front of the fans. I will ask the students what a fan makes.

The Spring Wind
By Charlotte Zolotow

The summer wind
is soft and sweet
the winter wind is strong
the autumn wind is mischievous
and sweeps the leaves along.

The wind I love the best
comes gently after rain
smelling of spring and growing things
brushing the world with feathery wings
while everything glistens, and everything sings
in the spring wind
after the rain.


From Read-Aloud Rhymes For The Very Young, selected by Jack Prelutsky, illustrated by Marc Brown. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1986.

Extension
I will ask the students to tell about different things that happen depending on the speed the wind is blowing. What activities depend on wind? As a class we will make a list poem of windy activities. Living in west Texas during the spring usually assures us of enough wind to fly a kite. When we finish our poem we will go outside and fly a kite.

Poetry Break: Wilma Rudolph

Introduction
I will display books about Wilma Rudolph, including Wilma Unlimited. I will ask the students if they know who Wilma Rudolph is. I will then read the poem.


Wilma Rudolph
By Ann Whitford Paul

One leg was bent; her foot turned in.
She had to wear a heavy brace
and an ugly, hateful shoe.
Each pace, each step, she scraped and clunked.
Kids gathered close to stare at her
and taunt and tease.
Slowly,
Wilma hobbled off.
She found a secret place,
unbuckled the brace, untied the shoe,
then yanked them off.
Every day she practiced walking.
How it hurt to hold her leg the normal way!
At first Wilma stumbled.
She dragged her foot.
Step, slow step…
slow lurching steps…
until she learned to walk!
Faster! Faster!
Wilma began
to run.
She ran
and ran
and ran.


From ALL BY HERSELF: 14 GIRLS WHO MADE A DIFFERENCE, Poems by Ann Whitford Paul, illustrated by Michael Steirnagle. San Diego: Harcourt, Inc.,1999.

Extension
I will let the students direct the discussion. After a few minutes of discussion I will read Wilma Unlimited. Then we will discuss her achievement. Then as a celebration of good health we will go outside and run on the playground.

Insectlopedia: Poems and Paintings

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Florian, Douglas. 1998. INSECTLOPEDIA: POEMS AND PAINTINGS. San Diego: Harcourt Brace & Company. ISBN 0152013067

Insectlopedia is a witty and entertaining book to read. It is an engaging book that lures readers of all ages, especially young readers, into the insect world with joy. The twenty-one short poems are a variety of styles and shapes. Douglas Florian uses rhyme, alliteration and internal rhyme to capture an insect detail and weave lighthearted and informative poems. The Inchworm is written with a hump to depict a moving inchworm. The Whirligig Beetles poem is written in a circle. Text formatting is used to emphasize the poem content and bring attention to certain words. Clever use of words will engage and amuse readers. Students will immediately catch the play on words in the poem The Mosquitoes. The accompanying illustration will further delight students and open another topic, the human body.

The Mosquitoes

Mosquitoes are thin.
Mosquitoes are rude.
They feast on your skin
For take-out food.

Florian also illustrates Insectlopedia. The artwork is watercolor and collage on primed brown paper providing another avenue for Florian to continue and deepen this insect adventure. While the poetry utilizes clever word play, the artwork encourages and invites the reader to pause and ponder its connection to the poem. Insectlopedia is a whimsical, clever book that encourages readers to examine both the text and illustrations closely.

The book has a table of contents listing each poem title and page number. Each poem is centered on a white page opposite a brightly colored painting. Large font is easy to read. The full page illustrations are all bordered with a band of white.

The imagery and rich vocabulary can provide a hook or extension for a study of a range of insects. Insectlopedia would be a great introduction to a live show and tell with insects. Douglas Florian captures a child’s enthusiasm and wonder for bugs.

TENT

Introduction
I will have “Library on the Lawn Day.” I will set a large tent up in the school yard and we will have library outside. I will have a triangular piece of concrete on display with the poem written on the back. I will ask the students if they have ever camped in a tent. I will share how much fun my family has camping at the lake. I will ask the students if they know what concrete poetry is and accept all ideas. I will read the poem one time without showing the students the poem written on the back of the concrete triangle. I will then turn the piece of concrete over and read the poem again.

Tent
By Kristine O’Connell George

First,
smooth dirt.
No rocks or roots.
Next, sharp stakes, poles,
strong nylon rope. Shake, snap.
Billow, whoof, settle. Tug. Pull taut.
Our tent is up! Blooming, bright orange.

From TOASTING MARSHMALLOWS: CAMPING POEMS. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2001

Extension
After showing the students the form of the poem I will ask again what they think concrete poetry is. I will direct the discussion until the students understand. We will have two activities. All students will have an opportunity to help set up a small tent—orange of course. All students will get to write their own triangle shaped poem using paper with a triangle on it. It can be about a tent or anything that pertains to a triangle. Examples of triangles are the geometric shape itself (math), top of house, church steeple, air vent window on a car, and Doritos chips.

pie

Introduction
I will have an apple pie on display in front of a poster with the poem written on it. I will tell them that pie was my dad’s favorite dessert and that he always called cake, “old dry cake” even if it was delicious.

pie
By Valerie Worth

After the yellow-white
Pie dough is rolled out
Flat, and picked up
Drooping like a round
Velvet mat, fitted gently
Into the dish, and piled
With sliced, sugared,
Yellow-white apples,
Covered with still another
Soft dough-blanket,
The whole thing trimmed
And tucked in tight, then
It is all so neat, so
Thick and filled and fat,
That we could happily
Eat it up, even
Before it is cooked.

From ALL THE SMALL POEMS AND FOURTEEN MORE, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1994

Extension
I will ask the students what their favorite pie is. Then we will make dough and slice apples for a pie. The students will have the opportunity to read a recipe, measure, cut, and mix ingredients and finally taste an apple pie. Then, they will write a poem about their pie.

OUT OF THE DUST

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Hesse, Karen. 1997. OUT OF THE DUST: A NOVEL. New York: Scholastic Press. ISBN 0590360809.

Out of the Dust is a verse novel by Karen Hesse that captures the readers’ emotions from the first page to the last page. This novel chronicles the life of Billie Jo from the winter of 1934 through the autumn of 1935. It is a powerful description of the hardships of life during the dust bowl years of the Depression in the Oklahoma panhandle. Written in free verse, this novel reads like a diary. The entries (poems) are divided into sections by the seasons and titled; with the month and year listed after each poem. The sparse words plainly tell of Billie Jo’s struggles to survive; not only the Dust Bowl but personal tragedy. Hesse’s description of the conditions (wind, dust, heat), the pain from the burns Billie Jo and her mother suffer, the despair, and finally the hope not only allow, but demand the reader visualize and feel the experience.

The writing reflects the starkness of the life Billie Jo is living, mirroring the fact that life during the Depression was about surviving the harshness of life with only the hope that better times will come. Teenagers reading this book will identify with Billie Jo’s struggle to find her own identity and accept the changes in her life.

The length of the poems varies with some poems a simple comment about her life and some poems dealing with life altering events. The Accident is a poignant and pivotal poem in the book. It tells about the accident that changed Billie Jo’s life. The repetitive use of words expresses Billie Jo’s sincerity and childlike bewilderment at what was happening.

The Accident

I got
burned
bad.

Daddy
put a pail of kerosene
next to the stove
and Ma,
fixing breakfast,
thinking the pail was
filled with water,
lifted it,
to make Daddy’s coffee,
poured it,
but instead of making coffee,
Ma made a rope of fire.
It rose up from the stove
to the pail
and the kerosene burst
into flames.

Ma ran across the kitchen,
out the porch door,
screaming for Daddy.
I tore after her,
then,
thinking of the burning pail
left behind in the bone-dry kitchen,
I flew back and grabbed it,
Throwing it out the door.

I didn’t know.
I didn’t know Ma was coming back.

The flaming oil
splashed
onto her apron,
and Ma,
suddenly Ma,
was a column of fire.
I pushed her to the ground,
deperate to save her,
desperate to save the baby, I
tried,
beating out the flames with my hands.
I did the best I could.
But it was no good.

Ma
got
burned
bad.

Out of the Dust is a very emotional reading experience engaging all the senses from the beginning. It is an excellent example of a verse novel and an enticement to read others.