Alice Schertle’s “Sunquain”

Reminder: PoetryTagTime is the first ever electronic-only poetry anthology of new poems by top poets for children. You can purchase the book for 99 cents at Amazon and read it on your Kindle or through the downloadable Kindle platform for your computer, cell phone, etc.

Previously: Nikki Grimes

Next up: ALICE SCHERTLE

Setting the Stage: As you introduce the Schertle’s poem, “Sunquain,” invite the children to share their associations with the word “sun.” What comes to mind? Heat? Color? Shape? Summer?

Poetry Performance: Challenge the artists in the group to create a graphic novel-like page to accompany this poem with one image for each line of the poem. Then copy and project each image as the poem is read aloud in unison.

Just for Fun: Alice Schertle’s “Sunquain” poem title is a clever play on the word “cinquain” (and the poem is a cinquain poem). Look up the rules of the cinquain form and research other examples of the form. Work as a group to create an original sun-focused companion cinquain to Schertle’s.

Poem Links: Here are key words that connect this poem with other poems in the PoetryTagTime collection:
Sun
Cinquain
Summer
Sky

Buy the book now, so you can share each poem along with the ideas and activities that follow here.

Next up for PoetryTagTime: Lee Bennett Hopkins

Posting (not poem) by Sylvia M. Vardell © 2011. All rights reserved.