Friday, January 19, 2007

POETRY FRIDAY!

Poetry Friday! Poetry Books That Are Fun to Read Aloud Early in my career, I taught at a school that had doughnuts and coffee for teachers each Friday in the teachers' lounge. It was a great way to start our Fridays--chatting with colleagues in a relaxed setting. I learned how important these traditions are when setting the stage for positive interactions. I thought that something like this would be great to do with children. Didn't they deserve a relaxing, talk-filled Friday morning too? When I realized that my students were reading very little poetry, I thought the combination of poetry reading and doughnuts might help them to see the fun in poetry. For the past few years, Poetry Friday has been a tradition in our classroom. Parents sign up to bring in a morning snack (usually donuts and juice boxes) once or twice during the school year. They are able to send them in with their child, drop them off on their way to work, or come in to enjoy poetry and donuts with us. (This is the beginning of an article that was just posted on Choice Literacy’s website. You can get to the rest of the article and the list of poetry books that are fun to read aloud here.)

3 comments:

  1. Anonymous7:35 PM

    Franki,

    I chatted with you briefly today at Chris Tovani's workshop. I want to reiterate how much my students loved Poetry Friday. I had read about it on Choice Literacy and decided to just dive right in. I had received some poetry books that you recommended from Amazon. I loved it. My kids loved it. It was so great for me to see my boys giggle over Shel Silverstein and two girls who are very low readers have fun with Take Me Out of the Bathtub. The best part was when I asked who wanted to read some of their poems aloud. About 10 kids raised their hands...one of them being someone who is very embarrassed to read in front of others and hated reading at the beginning of the year. Thanks for the great idea...we are looking forward to more Poetry Fridays.

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  2. Anonymous8:18 PM

    Poetry Circle happens bi-weekly, so my kids missed it this past Friday. They were sooooo sad! They can't wait for this Friday. (Too bad I'll be at a P.D. and will miss it.) I think when kids look forward to things like Poetry Circle, Poetry Friday, etc. it makesit so much easier to weave poetry across the school year!

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  3. Anonymous8:39 PM

    Julie--it was nice to chat with you today. So glad Poetry Friday! worked well for your kids. Mine usually have fun with it too. I've noticed that it helps those kids who are often uncomfortable with their fluency too. It is just a good time:-)

    I agree that any of these poetry routines help get kids to love poetry. I remember reading about your Poetry Circle on your blog. A great idea! I find that since I started Poetry Friday years ago, the poetry writing has increased too:-)

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