Avis Harley’s “All Aflutter”

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 free downloadable Kindle platform for your computer, cell phone, etc.

Previously: J. Patrick Lewis

Next up: AVIS HARLEY

Setting the Stage: Ask the kids if they ever feel nervous. At school? At night? Playing sports? Have they heard or used the expression “butterflies in the stomach” to describe a nervous feeling? Is being nervous ever a GOOD thing?

Poetry Performance: For Avis Harley’s poem, “All Aflutter,” she employs the same line to begin each of her five stanzas: “Butterflies in your stomach” (with one additional word in the final stanza). This is the perfect opportunity for all the kids to join in on the repeated line, jump-starting each stanza of the poem while the teacher/librarian reads the rest of each stanza out loud.

Just for Fun: Work together to create a unique poem display by writing each stanza of the poem on a butterfly-shaped piece of paper and then attaching it to an outline of a person (one of the kids outlined on butcher paper perhaps?) placing the butterfly stanzas in the stomach area.

Poem Links: Here are key words that connect this poem with other poems in the PoetryTagTime collection:
Body
Fear
Repeated lines
Butterflies
Night

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

Next up for PoetryTagTime: Joan Bransfield Graham


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