Laurie Purdie Salas’s “After the Storm”

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: Paul B. Janeczko

Next up: LAURA PURDIE SALAS

Setting the Stage: Ask the kids if they know what an acrostic is. Show an example, if possible.

Poetry Performance: To perform Laurie Purdie Salas’s “After the Storm," write each line of the poem on the back of a colored piece of paper—using 7 colors of the rainbow. Write the capital letter (the first letter of the line) on one side of the colored paper, and write the single line of the poem on the other side of the colored paper. Ask for 7 volunteers to participate. Each holds a sheet of colored paper showing the poem line to the audience and lined up in order (to spell the poem subject). Students read their lines and then turn the colored paper around to show their letter, one at a time, gradually spelling the poem's subject.

Just for Fun: Collaborate with the gym teacher or physical education instructor to introduce or demonstrate backbends. Compare other phenomena of nature to gymnastic exercises and activities, e.g., cartwheel = tornado. Work as a group to create a new acrostic poem for a new nature + gymnastics connection.

Poem Links: Here are key words that connect this poem with other poems in the PoetryTagTime collection:
Storm
Acrostic
Body
Rainbow
Color
Summer
World

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

Next up for PoetryTagTime: Robert Weinstock


Image credit: PoetryTagTime

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

Paul B. Janeczko’s “Approaching Storm”

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: Bobbi Katz

Next up: PAUL B. JANECZKO

Setting the Stage: Invite the kids to discuss how they know a storm is coming BEFORE it comes? What signs do they look for? Where would they look for information about storm-watching?

Poetry Performance: Share Paul B. Janeczko’s poem, “Approaching Storm,” by breaking the larger group into two smaller groups. The two groups alternate reading, each taking two lines. Group 1 reads the first two lines, Group 2 reads the next two lines; Group 1 reads the next two lines, and Group 2 reads the final two lines. Read again, switching groups and lines.

Just for Fun: Bring or grow a potted geranium plant; keep it in the window for a season. Write Janeczko’s poem on the clay pot itself.

Poem Links: Here are key words that connect this poem with other poems in the PoetryTagTime collection:
Storm
Light
Dogs
Flowers
Summer
Sea

If you haven’t gotten your own copy of PoetryTagTime yet, buy the book now for only 99 cents, so you can share each of the 30 poems along with the ideas and activities that are available here.

Next up for PoetryTagTime: Laura Purdie Salas


Image credit: PoetryTagTime

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

Lee Bennett Hopkins’ “Summer Fear”

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: Alice Schertle

Next up: LEE BENNETT HOPKINS

Setting the Stage: Lead a discussion of weather worries. Does thunder make you nervous? Lightning? Invite the kids to consider whether flowers might fear stormy weather, too.

Poetry Performance: Read Lee Bennett Hopkins’s poem, “Summer Fear,” aloud to the group first. Then divide the group into three smaller groups. One will read the three-line stanza about roses, one will read the three-line stanza about pansies, and one will read the three-line stanza about sunflowers. Then everyone joins together to read the final stanza. Practice, read, repeat.

Just for Fun: Not everyone is familiar with the varieties of flowers mentioned in the poem. Research together what roses, pansies, and sunflowers, (and yews) look like. Create a collage of these images adding facial expressions on the flowers, a backdrop of fence posts and a window box, and aluminum foil bolts of thunder to create a scene to accompany the poem.

Poem Links: Here are key words that connect this poem with other poems in the PoetryTagTime collection:
Summer
Flowers
Storm
Fear

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

Next up for PoetryTagTime: Betsy Franco



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