Let’s touch base…

It’s the end of April! We’ve had a fantastic month of poetry for most of my students at school. I mean of course there are a few hold-outs who just can’t get into it but that’s okay. We did some borrowed poetry with Kwame Alexander and my littles did a few acrostic and concrete poems about trees, the weather and Earth Day. We read a lot of poetry together and kids of all ages love the You Read to me; I’ll read to you series of poetry books by Mary Ann Hoberman. Reading a poem out loud to a group of your peers is a brave thing to do and reading it with a friend just makes it easier. 5th and 6th graders are doing a mash-up with The Hill We Climb by the amazing Amanda Gorman, poet laureate. We listened to her recite this poem and through Google Classroom each student has their own copy to edit how they choose. Ms. Gorman has many beautiful and meaningful phrases and some students were really able to conceptualize what Amanda’s intention was in this piece. The poem they compose with me will then be illustrated with our beautiful art teacher.

Last week I made a really delicious sweet potato dish from the NYT with wild rice that gave me lots of great lunches for school. I made some yummy m & m bars last night for a student party today at school and at the beginning of the week I made a chocolate vegan birthday cake for our son’s birthday. He took all the cake with him (or we gave him all the cake?) but I’m still thinking about the rich dark chocolate flavor. I am ready for the weekend, ready to relax and prepare mentally for the last month of school. Groovy Girl is almost finished with her freshman year of college and I’m ready for her to be home and in a summer routine.

And tomorrow is May Day! Ya’ll have your May Day baskets prepared yet? We don’t either but will do them tomorrow for maybe an early evening delivery time. Let’s head into May with a positive mindset and good weather for spending time outside.

Where is Spring?

{Source}

It’s been cold, rainy, super windy here. For awhile. I need some sunshine and heat. I want to get out and walk outside around a big pond while the birds are chirping. I want to poke my fingers into dirt and plant a few seeds.

Every morning I wear my winter coat still to work. Today I actually didn’t need it when I walked out the door after school. Halleluja. But then I had things I had to get done and I’m left just gazing outside. I can hear a bird chirping loudly every few minutes. His chatter seems to say “Where is Spring?”

Now that I’m done with my inside meetings and appointments I’m headed outside for a quick run around the block, some stretches in the cemetary park across the street, and maybe, just maybe I’ll have some time to get some seeds started in my starter pots. For now I leave you with this springtime poem.

Spring

By William Shakespeare

When daisies pied and violets blue

And lady-smocks all silver-white

And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue

Do paint the meadows with delight,

The cuckoo then, on every tree,

Mocks married men; for thus sings he,

Cuckoo;

Cuckoo, cuckoo: Oh word of fear,

Unpleasing to a married ear!

When shepherds pipe on oaten straws,

And merry larks are plowmen’s clocks,

When turtles tread, and rooks, and daws,

And maidens bleach their summer smocks,

The cuckoo then, on every tree,

Mocks married men; for thus sings he,

Cuckoo;

Cuckoo, cuckoo: Oh word of fear,

Unpleasing to a married ear!

It’s Shakespeare…

Does he mean married men are mocked because it is Spring?

I don’t know. I like the rhythm of the poem though. Enjoy!

April Showers Bring May Flowers; April Reading Recap

Happy May Day!

Groovy Girl and I usually do the whole May basket celebration, which is something I enjoyed as a child and is now fun to do with her and her friends. This year we had a church event to help at and didn’t get home until 3-ish and I truly needed a nap. Needless to say no May baskets happened and Groovy Girl’s answer when I said “sorry”-“that’s okay, mama-there’s always next year!” Love her.

I must have been blessed with a lot of reading time this month because I read a whopping 10 books! This is a lot for me as evidenced by March’s total of four. I generally average about 7-8 so I’m proud of 10. Also I only count chapter books not picture books, which I read tons of every day for work. The unfortunate part is that I’ve only reviewed one of them so this first week of May I’m going to attempt to write a post a day about each of these so I can get caught up. They were all very, very good so writing should be easy.

Saraswati’s Way by Monika Schrader
Moon over Manifest by Clare Vanderpoole
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
The Sister’s Gimm by Michael Buckley
Not Your Mother’s Casserole’s by Faith Durand
The Time-Traveling Fashionista by Bianca (ARC)
Bitter End by Jennifer Brown (ARC)
Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson
Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos
I’ll Be There by Holly Goldberg )

In other news I have a winner to announce….drum roll please…Natalie from one of my favorite blogs, This Purple Crayon has won a copy of Marc Brown’s Arthur Turns Green. Quite awhile ago I won a copy of David Levithan’s Boy Meets Boy at her blog so I this is a little karmic payback when her name was drawn. She is an elementary librarian as well and does a lot of reading. Congratulations Natalie! David Levithan will be at our public library this week and I plan to get Boy Meets Boy signed by him.

and How was your weekend?

Friday Feature; April = National Poetry Month

I am lucky to have a large collection of poetry books in my library and that I have students who check out from this section even though they stick to favorites like Shel Silverstein. I devoured Shel’s books when I was in school so I can relate. My mom, hip to great literature in 1974, gave me Where the Sidewalk Ends for Christmas that year and I carried it around for months.

Later I fell in love with Maya Angelou, Langston Hughes and Wendell Barry while I was in college and graduate school. There is an bundle of great poetry available and every year, it seems, I discover someone new.

A teaching friend and I developed a wonderful poetry unit about 5 years ago and I doubled our library’s 811 collection. She doesn’t teach 5th grade anymore and poetry is no longer in our curriculum at all. I know-it’s criminal! I am working on poetry with 2nd grade all through April. We are going to read poems, explore some poetry sites and hopefully, create a few of our own. What favorite poetry books do you rely on for April or anytime you bring poetry out?

Here are my poetry picks for today:

1. Poems in Black and White by Kate Miller (2007); This book combines beautiful imagery with poetry about everyday life.

The Cow

Because
she wears
a bristly map
of milkweed white
and midnight black

           it seems
           as though
                  she’s
             strong enough
             to carry continents
                    upon her back

with oceans
in between

and islands on her
                 knees.

2. Mirror Mirror by Marilyn Singer; ill. Josee Masse (2010): This is verse in reverse and it is amazing how each verse works. Fairy tales are the theme, which means I get to use this book in two different lesson plans this Spring.

in the Hood

in my hood,
skipping through the wood,
carrying a basket,
picking berries to eat-
juicy and sweet
what a treat!
But a girl
mustn’t dawdle.
After all, Grandma’s waiting.

and on the other side of the page is the reverse but you can reverse it by reading back up the poem. It makes sense both ways and makes you think! Love it.

3. Here’s a Little Poem; A Very First Book of Poetry collected by Jane Yolen and Andrew Fusek Peters; ill. Polly Dunbar (2007): The illustrations in this one steal my heart; Dunbar is magic! The poetry inside is perfectly picked for young listeners.

This one captures my mommy attention:

You Be Saucer

You be saucer,
I’ll be cup,
piggyback, piggyback,
pick me up.

You be tree,
I’ll be pears,
carry me, carry me
up the stairs.

You be Good
I’ll be Night,
tuck me in, tuck me in
nice and tight.

Eve Merriam
Try out these other poetry places:

Shel Silverstein
Kenn Nesbitt
Kalli Dakos
and Gregory K’s GottaBook blog is featuring poetry all month!
Poets.org