Early Childhood and Childhood Books discussion

Explain how you could teach with one of your poetry books and create a joyful poetry learning experience for your students. In your post, please provide the full title & author of your book.

Both of my poetry books I checked out would be amazing to read to students, but Eric Carle’s book Animals Animals would be amazing due to its detailed illustrations. I would teach this poetry book joyfully by first reading the book together as a classroom while having a chart next to me to add all the names of the animals presented in the book. This will help us know the different types of animals and prepare them to choose the animal or animals they would act out. Once we are finished reading the book we will talk about each animal and how they are described in the poetry book. Students will then choose an animal and while I re-read the book they would have to actively listen to the poem until they hear their animal. For example, the first animal presented is the whale so I would have my student that's the whale to do the movements they believe a whale does. In the poem, it talks about how the whale “who glides in the water, who glides, who twists himself, who leaps”. The student, in this case, will glide, twist and leap, acting it out will have students engaged and have them pay attention to what animal is coming up next!

I will teach my poetry book by making our lesson fun and light-hearted. For my poetry book, A Foot in the Mouth, selected by Paul B. Janeczko, illustrated by Chris Rashka, contains a lot of different fun poems. I would start by reading one poem as a group in order to introduce the students into the book and what type of text we will be learning and working with. I would then have each student choose a poem they are interested in and have them try it and perform in with the class. Since poems have a unique structure to them, I would even offer them small musical instruments that they can use to create a beat with the poems. This way, they are engaged and the students are reading and using the structure of the poems while playing around and having fun with it.

I loved both poetry books. For a more scientific and informational book while being easily understandable for kids I would read a poetry book like UnBEElievables by Douglas Florian. He illustrated this beautiful poetry book with paintings of bees, their colonies, and them out in nature. Filled with fun facts that are easily understandable to young students I can see me doing a lesson about honeybees in the spring. After reading the book we can create little honeycombs for the bees and draw their habitat as a fun closure activity. I can also see the possibility to go on a field trip to visit a natural history museum to go over more bee/insect fun facts. I could also see the possibility of doing a lesson about friendship in Meet Danitra Brown by Nikki Grimes. It's beautiful poetry about a young girl telling her best friend's story. It also talks about single parents, being fearless and accepting yourself in a way that students will understand through the poems. For activities, I can see students doing a friendship poem similar to the book and then reading it to the class. It would work on a student's literacy, creativity, and social skills.






UnBEElievables: Honeybee Poems and Paintings Douglas FlorianMeet Danitra BrownNikki Grimes

After reading “Red Sings from Treetops”by Joyce Sidman, I could read this to my class one day to link real life things to colors. Each page talks about a season and what colors are associated with it. For example, white in the summer represents ice cubes in a cold drink. Then the yellow sun will melt it all away, this helps kids register items they may see every season. It will click with them that the sun is yellow and ice cubes are white. A fun way to incorporate this book into a lesson would be reading certain sections of the book based on the season. For example, in the spring read about the green leaves, and how yellow shouts with light. Bring the students outside to use their senses to observe the green leaves and yellow sun. For the fall time, bring them outside to see that green is tired, and it was time for brown to take over. Point to the brown leaves on the ground, allow your students to see, touch and hear them. Don’t just teach, allow your students to make connections within their body in order for them to grasp.

After reading "Dark Emperor" by Joyce Sidman, I would focus in on the poem "Night-Spider's Advice" to do an activity with my class. First I would read all 12 short poems to class, then I would go back and read the "Night-SPider's Advice" again to the class. I would have a group discussion and review the word advice. After I would ask my students what they think spider is trying to tell them in his poem. What advice is spider trying to give us? After we have a group discussion, I would have them do a writing activity. I would have my students write about how they can connect spiders advice to their own life.

After reading the book, A Kick in the Head by Paul B. Janeczko, I’ve decided that I would read this book in pieces instead of at once. This book contains all different types of poems such as sonnets, acrostics, and haikus. To make this experience joyful, I would choose one type of poem to focus on and read the poem/s in that category. I would point out how the poem is different from other ones we have read. I would then have the students create their own poem. For example, if that day we were reading the acrostic poems, I would then have them create their own such as an acrostic of their name or an animal. Each time we would do a different type of poem and the students would create their own. I would then pull them together in a book so the students can refer to it! I think the students would really enjoy this because it would allow them to interact with poetry and create their own in a fun way.

I read, Sad Underwear and Other Complications by Judith Viorst. I think this book is good to read to kids based on topics you are teaching. There are different poems based on different sections. There is even a knock knock section that kids will probably love. There is a moms and dads section you could use during fathers' of mothers' day. You could have the students look back on these poems and it could help them to create their own poems for their moms or dads. There is a first day of school poem that you could use. I think it would be good for the students to look back on as a reference for help them create their own, or for them to relate some of the poems to things that are going on.

Although I enjoyed reading both poetry books, The New Kid on the Block by Jack Prelutsky stuck out to me as a great introductory poetry book. The book includes numerous poems which are unrelated to one another, and often have silly concepts. Each poem is structured simply and will provide younger students with a small window into the world of poetry. Many of the poems have made up or silly sounding words which I find usually interest students and would promote a joyful environment. One could approach teaching poetry using this book in a variety of ways, but I think that reading the book aloud to my students would be best. There are a few tier two vocabulary words in some of the poems and having younger students try to read them would be unfair. I think that a read aloud of each poem followed by discussions would suit this book best.

Dinothesaurus by Douglas Florian describes many different types of dinosaurs and includes facts about each of them. I think this book would be a great source to teach poetry because each section is short and entertaining, which will keep students interested and students can learn about the prehistoric times. I really like how this book provides each dinosaur with its own section including details, facts, and colorful illustrations. This book portrays poetry in a fun and educational way. Throughout the book, there is rhyming and many new words that students may not have heard before which would be a good time to teach new vocabulary. In the back of this book, there is a Glossarysaurus that explains each section and dinosaur in the book in more detail. A few ways that this poetry book can be used as a lesson is by having students make up their own dinosaur and create a display of it, create their own poem about dinosaurs, or pick one dinosaur and create a visual about it.

I loved reading both of the poetry books, but my favorite one out of the two would have to be Book Speak! by Laura Purdie Salas and illustrated by Josee Bisaillon. Each page in Book Speak! is a different small poem. Each poem has its meaning behind each word that's written on the page. There are some poems in the book talk about various parts of the book and why they are the best part of the book. One thing I liked about each poem was how it was its own poem, but it goes along with the other poems in the book. How I would teach this book to my students is to read each poem with a different voice and different speeds of reading. This book talks about the different parts of a book, which can be fun for the children to create their poems about the different parts of a book. Once the children have all written their poems, I would turn them into our own classroom Book Speak!.

One of the books that I have chosen is "Good Sports" by Jack Prelutsky and Chris Raschka. The poem focuses on different sports on each page examples like : football, swimming, gymnastics and baseball. I feel like a way I could incorporate this in a lesson is to include movement. Maybe have students act out each sport as we read the book for the second time. Or, I was thinking perhaps have the student pick their favorite sport and have them write their OWN poem about that sport they love so much.

I really enjoyed reading the two poetry books. One of the books I read was "This is Just to Say" by Joyce Sidman. I think this book would be a very effective resource for a classroom. It’s a compilation of various styles of poems which focus on the importance of forgiving and apologizing to others. I would use this book with my students as a way to emphasize the importance of forgiveness and apology, as well as to show the students various types of poetry. I would provide each student with a photocopy of one of the poems, and ask them to read it through for understanding. Each student would receive a different poem within the book. After a lesson on the different types of poetry, I would then ask the students to identify the type of poetry they were assigned, whether it be a haiku, free verse, or another type of poem. I would then ask each student to present the poem they explored by reading it aloud to their classmates and explaining why the poem fits into the particular category they determined. Lastly, I would ask each student to share the main idea or lesson of the poem they were assigned. This exercise would demonstrate how poetry often contains important lessons that we can all learn from. In this instance, students will be reminded that it’s important to be forgiving and apologetic to others when necessary.

Of the two books I read I enjoyed Book Speak!, by Laura Purdie Salas and illustrated by Josée Bisaillon, the most. For some reason poetry is one of the most disliked writing styles especially among young readers which is why it is important for teachers to create a love for poetry in young readers. This book uses poetry to describe the different parts of a book, and why each part is important in its own way. So not only does it teach poetry but it also teaches parts of the book such as, the cover, the spine, the index, the table of contents, cliffhangers, and more. My favorite thing this book talks about is how characters in a book come alive in your mind as you read or are being read to. This is a crucial skill for young readers to have and it allows them expand their knowledge and comprehend the story better. I would use this book to make poetry fun and enjoyable especially for youngsters, all while. I would do this by teaching the different parts of a book and the importance of each part. After reading I would have my students try and create a mini story of their own including some of the parts discussed in this book, for example, a cliffhanger, or character that would come to life in a reader's mind. I would also encourage the students to write their mini book as poetry if they so choose but they don’t have to.

One of my poetry books was "Meet Danitra Brown" by Nikki Grimes and illustrated by Floyd Cooper. This book is about a friendship between two girls, Zuri and Danitra. The story is told through Zuri's point of view. In the story Zuri talks about what her and Danitra do together as best friends. I think I could make this a fun poetry lesson about friendship with a reinforcing activity at the end. After reading this book, I could have students make their own poem about their own best friend and even draw a picture based on their poem. I think this is a good way to get children familiar with poems because they're given a topic. Most children already talk about their friends all the time so friendship is a good topic to get familiar with writing poems.

Poetry is something that can be a tough topic for children to enjoy. My poetry book is "Song of the Water Boatman" by Joyce Sidman and illustrated by Beckie Prange. This poetry book has multiple poems based on water/ponds, and the fish/animals that live in it. This poetry book would be great to use in a lesson based on ponds. I would use this book by introducing one poem each day and giving a lot of expression in my face and voice to have the children also enjoy it. Something I know that I enjoyed with poetry was reading the poem and then going back and seeing if we can find things like alliteration, repetition, learning about stanzas. Something else to make this fun is writing your own poem about ponds and making illustrations which could be a final project. I feel with poetry you have to add lessons that are fun for the students to really enjoy the poem.

I loved reading the "Firefly in July" by Paul B. Janeczkko and Illustrated by Melissa Sweet. There are several short poems about everyday life. I would share this book with my class by having a helper each time we read a new poem, and that student would be able to bring or make something in relation to the poem they are going to help read. For example, if we read a poem about spring, the student could bring in a flower or something along that line. This will help keep the students interested and excited about poetry!