J. Patrick Lewis’s “Edgar Allan Poe’s Apple Pie”

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: Leslie Bulion

Next up: J. PATRICK LEWIS

Setting the Stage: Ask the kids if they have ever had to share a yummy treat with someone else—like a sandwich, pizza, candy, apple, etc? How did they decide on dividing the portions?

Poetry Performance: For reading aloud J. Patrick Lewis’s poem, “Edgar Allan Poe’s Apple Pie” invite 2 volunteers to read the lines of dialogue (“How many cuts give me ten pieces?” and “Never four!” as they occur in the poem) while you read the rest of the poem in a very melodramatic voice.

Just for Fun: Find a recording of a reading of the classic Edgar Allan Poe poem, “The Raven,” and play it for the kids. Compare it to the parody that Lewis has created here. What other parodies of classic poems can you find? And of course you have to demonstrate the math in the poem, dividing a paper (or real) apple pie into 10 pieces with 5 cuts.

Poem Links: Here are key words that connect this poem with other poems in the PoetryTagTime collection:
Onomatopoeia
Night
Food
Parody
Dialogue
Riddle
Questions
Sleep
Fear

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

Next up for PoetryTagTime: Avis Harley


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