I would be lying if I did not admit that the thought of being home with my three kids during any school vacation , scares me. Even with my trips to the zoo, museums, the library, visiting friends who have a playroom in their basements (an apartment child's dream) and any other free events posted on the blog mommypoppins.com, I struggle to keep my sanity. One constant I try to maintain is giving my children the opportunity to have "project time". I usually choose an activity that is academic in nature (I'm an educator, you know!) but something they will feel proud of when they are finished. It's a great alternative to leaving the television on because you know when they plead for "one more 1/2 hour program" it always leads to an extra hour and a half of viewing before we somehow get out the door. Here is one literacy idea with more ideas to come as we lead up to the closing of schools.
One of my favorite projects I did while I was teaching was to do a book of poetry with the entire school. I was an arts and literacy specialist and was fortunate enough to work with every grade. While teachers seem to choose poetry randomly throughout the year I always liked to wait for spring. So much is happening in the spring. We emerge from the gloomy winter, there is so much to notice and growth is happening all around including in the children! One of my favorite ways to approach poetry is using a technique from an old timer, Kennetth Koch, who taught poetry to inner city kids in the 70's. He has two books, "Rose Where did you get that Red" and "Wishes, Lies and Dreams". One of his techniques was to read many poems from a specific poet like Williams Carlos Williams and his "I'm sorry I ate your plums...", (one of my favorites as a kid) and get children to use the poet's style as a spring board to write their own poetry.
How do you do this at home? Read poems to your kids. Many parents read everyday to their children but often skip poetry. You can start with one author, one subject or an anthology. Enjoy them, encourage children to draw pictures of poems, dance to poems, sing poems or have children write their own poems the key is exposing them to it! With young children, talk about rhyming words, keep the beat by clapping or tapping or discuss/draw strong visuals. With older children you can also discuss the poet's intent for instance in the "I'm sorry" poems by Williams Carlos Williams "Do you really think the poet is sorry? Have you ever said you were sorry but didn't really mean it?" A Japanese form of poetry also known as Haiku lends itself beautifully to nature and spring. Traditionally using nature as the topic, the poem contains only 5 syllables on the first line, 7 on the second and finishes with 5 syllables in the last line. This is a great way to get older children to problem solve, it's hard to be descriptive while keeping within the syllable limit. Many times as soon as children get involved in writing poetry they want to continue writing! This is a great opportunity to turn their work into a book. Just think if it's really good you can turn their work into a calendar and give it to the grandparents for the winter holidays, you can call it "A Reminder of Spring".
Some great books and sites for kids poetry:
Enjoy!
Sara Lise
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