Rebecca Kai Dotlich’s “Night Mail”

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: Calef Brown

Next up: REBECCA KAI DOTLICH

Setting the Stage: Bring in different kinds of mail and communication as examples to show the kids: cards and letters, print outs of email, text messages, or tweets, a (mock) telegram, etc. How long do each of these take to reach their recipients?

Poetry Performance: Read Rebecca Kai Dotlich’s poem, “Night Mail,” in a whisper voice in the dark (or as dark as possible to suggest nighttime). Invite the kids to close their eyes and pretend they’re asleep while they listen.

Just for Fun: If everyone is not familiar with email, explain how it works. Discuss the particulars of “netiquette” and the use of icons and “emoticons.” Send a favorite poem to a friend via email.

Poem Links: Here are key words that connect this poem with other poems in the PoetryTagTime collection:
Computers
Sleep
Mail
Onomatopoeia
Body
Color
Night
World

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

Next up for PoetryTagTime: April Halprin Wayland


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