Remote Learning Poetry Party!

Happy National Poetry Month!

Good news:  you already love poetry!  How do I know?  Because I hear you humming songs all the time.  Lyrics to songs are poems set to music.  Poems are songs that are just words.  I also hear you telling jokes, whispering secrets, making wishes, saying thank you, noticing things.  These are all parts of poems.

You can tell something is a poem because of the careful way it rests on the page.  Not usually words in line after line after line in sentences, like a book.  Just a few words on every line.  Every word counts.  In a good poem, every word matters, and the poet has thought a lot about where that word should go.  By doing this, a poet can say a lot with just a little.  Some poems rhyme.  Some poems do not.

Until the end of the month, we are having an online Poetry Party!

FIRST, look at these websites/databases:
Poetry Foundation for Kids (scroll down, kids, for the yummy stuff)
and
Poems Kids Like

Read these poetry collections by Paul B. Janeczko
at the National Emergency Library:
A Kick in the Head
A Poke In The I
The Death of the Hat

And visit and comment on at least two of the posts at StoneBookworms.blogspot.com by April 30, where we will be exploring different and exciting poetic forms.

Question:  Where do I find poems?  At these websites above.

THEN, Here are your choices for activities.  You have six to choose from:

Wait, wait.  Question:  Do I have to do all of them?  NO! Do at least one!  If it's fun, then do two!  If you love it, do as many more as you like!  The more, the merrier.  Remember, participation only helps your grade and helps you learn.
Another question:  Where do I send the assignments for credit?  Send them to me in an e-mail or submit through the library Google Classroom.

CHOICES FOR POETRY PARTY:

1.  Read at least five books of poetry!  Log your time in Beanbright.  Even if you have earned the top badge, you can still log your reading there, it will only help.  If you don't have books of poetry in your house, you can find E-books through the links here.  You can read more if you like, but at least five.

2.  Celebrate "Poem in Your Pocket" Day!  Give a poem to everyone in your house, surprise them by tucking it into their pocket or maybe under their pillow.  It's sort of like a Valentine, you have to choose one very carefully for the person you love.  Which poem did you choose?  Did they like it?

3.  Do a poetry reading or recitation!  Pick your favorite poem (or two, or three if you can't decide), and read it out loud with lots of expression.  Be sure to include the author and title of the poem.   Can you memorize it?  Then your reading becomes a "recitation," and you'll be able to have that poem with you always! Send me an MP3 file of your audio reading or recitation!  You may be featured on an upcoming school library podcast episode!

4.  Dance a Poem!  Pick any poem you like that is at least 10 lines long and read it with movement!  The rule is:  every line should have some movement attached. You can do it by yourself or with your family.  The rule is, just to have some movement or rhythm that compliments the poem. You don't have to act it out and the rhythm of the poem and your body should be the only music.    Below is an example of some students dancing a poem, Hurry by Marie Howe, from some years back.  You can use any poem you want.  Send me the MP4 or Quicktime video.

5. Create a Poetry Anthology!  Million dollar word: "Anthology" is a fancy word for "collection!"  Did you know that you can collect poems the way some people collect seashells or bottlecaps or Pokémon cards?  Well, you can!  Some poetry collectors, or anthologists, like to just collect all their favorites, and other people collect a theme (friendship poems, sad poems, poems about nature, funny poems...whatever theme you like!).

Pick at least 8 of your favorite poems, with or without a theme, and write or print them out, and then be an illustrator and draw pictures that go with each of the poems in the book so you create your own little book of poems you enjoy.  You can use any kind of art supplies you like.
You can scan the finished book and send it to me, or you can just tell me about it:  your table of contents, what you used to make the pictures.  Now you are an anthologist!

Question:  Can I work with a friend to make an anthology?  Yes, you can work with a friend remotely or a child family member to find poems and make pictures for your collection.

Since I love you so much, I made a little collection (or anthology) of some of my favorite poems to share with you.  I didn't illustrate them (yet).  Read them on my Google Classroom.  Do you like them, too?  I don't mind if you use one or two of mine in your collection, but try to find your own treasures.  There are so many good poems out there to discover.

6.  Write Your Own Poem!  This one really is a challenge, but I know some of your are up to it!  Think of a feeling or observation (something you see), and try to put it into words using the least amount of words.  In a poem, every word matters and counts.  In a poem, it matters where you put every word.  It doesn't have to rhyme; try not to put a word in just because it rhymes, it should still make sense.  A good poem should clearly express a feeling or a moment in time.  It's not so easy!  That's why people who can do this are special people.  That's why they are poets.  I can't wait to see you try your hand at it...and to see how you celebrate at our poetry party!

illustration by Shel Silverstein from Where the Sidewalk Ends, HarperCollins, 1974

Poem In Your Pocket illustration, illustrator unnamed, from The Mountaineer, April 10 2018.