Yes indeed, spring has sprung (at least in Blogland). After a horrible winter, we most certainly are ready for Spring flowers and a break from winter snow. As the weather changes, it's the perfect time for reading and writing weather themed poetry (or any poetry for that matter). I am so glad that Rebecca at Line Upon Line has lined up this great hop for us this weekend, and I hope you enjoy it. My post today will focus on how poetry can be used to address reading and writing skills for early readers. I've been working the past two years with 4/5, but my love is K-2, and this post makes me miss them!


To practice a few of these skills, here is a collection of four-lined weather themed poems that K/1 teachers can use to work on fluency, word recognition and COW. I hope you'll enjoy using them.
The most important point is that with all poetry is intended to be read out loud and enjoyed for the beauty of the words or sounds. Poetry is meant to be shared, so repeated reading provides a chance to discuss reader impressions. One passion of mine is parental involvement, and for a long time, I've wanted to offer our families a Coffee House Night complete with jazz or orchestra music (we offer Suzuki violin in our schools) and poetry sharing. It is a night where students share partner poems, humorous poetry, and reader's theatre over coffee and desserts. Several years ago, author Brod Baggert visited our schools, and to this day, my oldest still remembers it. Brod was just plain hilarious. He recited "Booger Love" to our group of families, and I can honestly say that the children were rolling on the floor while the parents were reaching for tissues. We teachers can appreciate the humor in "Booger Love", especially if you're in a primary grade. This poem was part of his book, Giant Children, which I would recommend just for fun reading. (The other poems are fun, but not as "yucky" as "Booger Love". I promise!)
Another of Brod's books I came across recently at my favorite book find store, Ollie's, was Shout! Little Poems that Roar. It is intended for the primary grades, so I'm sure the lucky winner of my giveaway will enjoy sharing it. The poems include a more controlled vocabulary and are focused on topics important to the K/1 crowd.
The last book I am including in my giveaway is School Fever. This is Brod's newest book. It's intended audience is grades 1-3.
Good luck in the giveaway, and thanks for dropping by for a look at poetry for the elementary grades. I hope you enjoy the ideas and my freebie.
Thanks for hopping by today, and enjoy the new ideas you collect along the way. Stephanie at The Learning Chamber has some great information to share next, so click the button below and hop on over to check it out and have a great weekend!
I love your post! I had no idea about the Reading A to Z secret! I guess it really wasn't a secret but thank you!
ReplyDeleteThere are lots of features that can easily be overlooked with that site. I have really enjoyed using it.
DeleteLove the books! Great way to get kiddos to love poetry!
ReplyDeleteL love teaching poetry. I tell my fourth graders that poems they write can never be wrong because there is no particular guidelines that they must follow. I LOVE Brod Bagert. He cam to our school several years ago. SO much fun. I like Jack Prelutsky and Bruce Lansky' compilations of great kids' poems!!
ReplyDeleteFirst, I SO love the A to Z information! I really like to teach poetry. I've struggled this year (first year in kindergarten) to fit in everything I wanted to do. This is a piece that I am working on for next year. My partner and I are also thinking of using Chicken Soup with Rice. Thanks for the blogs!
ReplyDeleteA subscription to Reading A to Z would be money well spent. There is just so much available to you. If you have a Smartboard, all of the leveled books are projectable, the poetry pages, the graphic organizers, and so much more. I love using the stampers, highlighter pens, and text box tools to mark sightwords, help kids with tracking, identifying picture clues, and even text marking for older students. The text box feature helps with that. Thanks for commenting and if I can help with ideas, just email.
DeleteI am using Hope King's unit on Poetry Picnic. I love it! Students make a paper bag poetry book. They learn poetic devices and write an example of five poems. We have a poetry picnic at the end of the unit where we picnic on school grounds and read our poems to each other.
ReplyDeleteI love that idea. I got a product last year where the kids put together a poem of each type to create the anthology. Fun times!
DeleteI am totally unfamiliar with smartboard, but those sound like awesome activities! Thank you for the weather poems! Those should be fun (when Spring gets around to coming!). I love Preluksky for poetry. I keep coming back to his poems when I'm looking for something to complement a lesson!
ReplyDeleteRebecca-You can also use the books on the computer and do the same things. In the classroom setting, the books, poems, etc are projected on a whiteboard (computer screen on the wall). It makes the books very interactive, and by having the kids manipulate things on the board, they stay actively involved. I also work at my reading table some, on the floor, and at the smartboard, so that gets the wiggles out with little people. (Kindergarten at 2:15 in the afternoon would have been impossible otherwise).
ReplyDeleteI've not experienced the magic of Brod Boggert, but have pinned your titles for a future shopping spree! Thanks as always for sharing such worthy ideas and resources!
ReplyDeleteP.S. I used your Owl Moon resource this week before two naturalists from a local animal rehab/rescue organization came to share four owls with our second graders! I will be blogging about it next week, and will send you the link!
Gratefully,
~Jennifer
Ah....that just makes my day, Jennifer! I am so glad to hear that it worked well, and I greatly appreciate you highlighting it in your post. I can't wait to read it! I love your blog!
DeleteI use poetry to work with fluency and concept of word. I did not know that about Reading A-Z, and I am definitely going to check it out! Thanks for sharing it!
ReplyDeleteAndrea
Reading Toward the Stars