*A word verification nonsense "word" that here means one who is exalted, high-ranking, elevated, superior, lofty, eminent, prestigious, illustrious, distinguished, and/or esteemed. It is often used to describe a person whose invention (in this case, the Fib) has its own Wikipedia page. For the origin of Ingumpa, please see the first comment of this post.
3. Who is speaking? What is the evidence in the poem for your answer?
4. What is being compared or described? Explain.
5. To what senses does the poem appeal? Elaborate.
6. Does this poem make you laugh, or does it make you cry?
7. What does this poem remind you of?
8. What characteristic of the genre of poetry alerts you as a reader that this is a poem?
9. If you were to put this poem to music, what would it sound like? If you were to illustrate it, what colors would you use?
10.What questions do you have for the author?
* * * * * * *
The back story: Franki and I were discussing what we had ready for the blog this week. I confessed to have hit a wall with the poem-a-day challenge. She suggested I write a one-word poem. We Googled it. We found Slavitt's poem. There is such a thing. (Who knew?) I was amused and inspired.
The discussion questions are the ones I use with my fourth graders as they get ready to answer questions on the state tests about poetry. I thought they worked quite well with this poem.
I introduced GarageBand this week. It is mostly music creation software but has so many possibilities for elementary school. I started out by just teaching kids how to record their voices and to add some background music. We used poetry and kids had a ball reading the poems in different ways, trying new voices, adding a bit of music or a sound effect her or there. It is not a tool I know well, but I can't wait until I know it well to introduce it. My goal in teaching media literacy is for kids to see what is possible, to read with a critical eye and to create with tools available. I don't need to know everything about GarageBand in order to introduce it to kids. I taught myself the basics and we are jumping in together.
One of the challenges, from a writing/creation perspective, is that students don't have a lot of models for what they are creating. Or, they have a lot of models but haven't yet made the connection to the tools that will help them create the things they see. So, as I move forward with GarageBand over the next few weeks, I wanted to throw some possibilities out to kids. I want them to see many options for their work with GarageBand and the other tools we've used this year. I have learned, in my 23 years of teaching, that if I give kids some possibilities and some open ended play time with a tool, they come up with many, many ideas that I would never have imagined.
When I think about creation, I want the students to eventually have a menu of possibilities to show their learning, to create new understandings, etc. One of the things that has struck me in the library, seeing so many different classes each week, is the way the students approach new ideas. When I introduce a new piece of software or a new web tool, they definitely need some play time. They have a ball just trying things out. Then they need to pull back and seem ready to see what they can actually make or do with the software. So, now that kids have done a bit of playing with GarageBand, I want to show them these samples--different pieces where music plays a part. Not that I want them to replicate any of this--that is the reason I wouldn't show them one at a time. Instead, I want it to be a way to begin thinking of the possibilities for this software and the way it might work with other tools they have.
Having a toolbox of possibilities for creation is key for moving ahead with creation and communication.
Sharing several examples of a familiar story like "We're Going on a Bear Hunt" will show kids how different each story can be if you change the way you read/sing it and if you change the music and/or sound effects. For one lesson, I might show several different versions of one book to open up the possibilities and to show kids how sound can impact presentation. Two samples are below. One uses student art which is another thing I want kids to start thinking about.
We're Going on a Bear Hunt
We're Going on a Bear Hunt
After I fell in love with Pete the Cat, I found more songs by this artist. One that I think has huge possibilities with older kids is The Three Pigs song by Eric Litwin. I think taking favorite tales and creating story/songs might be fun for some kids. This is a great example.
Three Pigs audio http://musicishere.com/artist/19819-Eric-Litwin/19795-Smile-at-Your-Neighbor
The kids have become very familiar with PIXIE and FRAMES this year. Drawing tools and some basic animations are making sense to many kids. I want them to take a look at creations like the following songs to see how music and drawing can go together in new ways.
The Elephant Song
5 Little Monkeys
Because so many of the tools are new for kids and because they are just beginning to see the possibilities, much of this spring is about planting seeds, knowing that kids are amazing and will come up with ideas that I cannot possibly imagine. I can't wait to see which of the things from these samples they pick up on to try and which other things they find on their own.
Here's a reprint of a bunch of the Kidlitosphere (and other assorted) NaPoMo projects that I'm following (or at least trying valiantly to follow):
Gregory K. is once again hosting 30 Poets/30 Days with previously unpublished poems by favorite children's authors.
Tricia Stohr-Hunt is interviewing 30 children's poets, beginning with Mary Ann Hoberman, the US Children's Poet Laureate. The Poetry Makers list is stellar!
At A Wrung Sponge, Andromeda is writing a "haiga" (photo and haiku) each day. Her photography is simply stunning. The haikus are amazing, too!
Kelly Fineman at Writing and Ruminating will continue the Building a Poetry Collection series she began last year -- selecting a poem a day in a kind of personal Poetry Tag (see Sylvia Vardell's version below) and providing analysis. I call this The University of Kelly Fineman because I learn so much in each post!
Sylvia Vardell is inviting poets to play Poetry Tag. She will invite poets to "play" along by offering a poem for readers to enjoy, then she will "tag" a poet who shares her/his own poem THAT IS CONNECTED to the previous poem in SOME way—by a theme, word, idea, tone-- and offers a sentence or two explaining that connection. What a creative idea!
Laura at Author Amok is highlighting the poets laureate of all 50 states this month...well, all the ones that have a poet laureate... Fun Fun!
I so loved Elisha Cooper's book BEACH last year, that I was thrilled to see his new book FARM on the shelves. FARM is easily recognizable as Cooper's work if you have his book BEACH. In this new book, readers learn the workings of a farm. The cycle of the year and the way the farm works is all part of this book. There is a lot of information about farms in general and a short glossary at the front of the book adds to the learning. The information is told in a kind of story format in which we learn the names of the animals and about the children's chores.
The thing I love most about this book is the language and the humor spread throughout. Just as in his first book, this shows times on the farm in which several things happening at once. The layout helps readers understand that the farm is a busy place.
This book would be a great one for anyone who teaches about the farm. So much information packed into a gorgeously written picture book. It would fit nicely into many social studies units. But, even if you don't teach something related to this topic, this is a great mentor text for writing. Children can learn a lot from Cooper's writing.
This week, I gave my students the option to write their responses to their nightly reading in haikus instead of sentences. I thought I'd give it a try.
I was totally inspired and realized how fun this would be for kids. What story would) their favorite book character tell with a search story? I am all about making myself learn these new tools so I tried one today. And the first favorite character that popped to mind was Pigeon of course! So, here is my first try. How much fun is this? Wish I had nothing to do but to make more search stories today. Kids could have a ball with this. My daughter helped with this one and I imagine she'll make her own sometime soon. Kids could even make them as riddles--others could guess who did the search story. I am not into book projects or gimmicky things but I find these search stories totally fun and love the possibilities of our favorite fictional characters creating their own search stories as a way to learn and play with this tool.
If you have not had time to play with these, I would highly suggest it. I am amazed at the stories that people have created. Time to create your own:-)
I pretty much buy anything new that Cynthia Rylant writes. She is one of my all-time favorite authors and she rarely, if ever, lets me down with her books. I had somehow missed THE BEAUTIFUL STORIE OF LIFE: SIX GREEK MYTHS, RETOLD by Rylant when it came out last year, but my friend, Jennifer, shared it with me. Maybe I did see it last year, but hadn't paid much attention to it. But this year, with so many kids reading the Percy Jackson series and wanting more to read connected to Greek Mythology, I was thrilled to see something on mythology by Rylant. I was also surprised--mythology didn't seem like something Rylant would take on. But the inside flap of the book says this:
The ancient Greek Myths
are among the oldest stories
in the world.
These are tales of love and loss,
pride and forgiveness,
courage and cowardice,
and hope.
They are the beautiful
stories of life.
Of course this type of book makes sense for Rylant. Her work is all about the beautiful stories of life.
I loved the Disney CINDERELLA that Rylant recently rewrote. Her language and view of the world makes her version my very favorite ever. She seem to do the same with the six Greek Myths that she retells in this new book.
The book is a small one and only 70 pages long. Each of the six stories is about 10-12 short pages long. These pages include great black and white illustrations by Carson Ellis. As we expect from Rylant, these stories are each retold in a way that only Rylant can do. Her great use of language and her deep understanding of the mythology and life in general, make for great storytelling.
These six myths--Pandora, Persephone, Orpheus, Pygmalion, Narcissus and Psyche would make great read alouds for middle school kids. And I can see many fans of Greek Mythology reading this book on his/her own. Each story is short enough to be read in one sitting. So much in each story. This is a great introduction to Greek Mythology and also a great way to stretch those kids who have become interested in mythology because of Percy Jackson.
Disclaimer: All blog posts, opinions, grammatical errors, and spelling mistakes are our own.
Franki and Mary Lee are both teachers, and have been for more than 20 years.
Franki is a fifth grade teacher. She is the author of Beyond Leveled Books (Stenhouse), Still Learning to Read (Stenhouse), and Day-to-Day Assessment in the Reading Workshop (Scholastic).
Mary Lee is a fifth grade teacher. She is the author of Reconsidering Read-Aloud (Stenhouse) and has poems in the Poetry Friday Anthology, the Poetry Friday Anthology for Middle School, the Poetry Friday Anthology for Science, the Poetry Friday Anthology for Celebrations (Pomelo Books), Dear Tomato: An International Crop of Food and Agriculture Poems, National Geographic Books of Nature Poems, The Best of Today's Little Ditty (2014-15 and 2016), Amy Ludwig VanDerwater's Poems are Teachers, National Geographic's The Poetry of US, and IMPERFECT: Poems About Mistakes.
I so loved Elisha Cooper's book BEACH last year, that I was thrilled to see his new book FARM on the shelves. FARM is easily recognizable as Cooper's work if you have his book BEACH. In this new book, readers learn the workings of a farm. The cycle of the year and the way the farm works is all part of this book. There is a lot of information about farms in general and a short glossary at the front of the book adds to the learning. The information is told in a kind of story format in which we learn the names of the animals and about the children's chores.
I pretty much buy anything new that Cynthia Rylant writes. She is one of my all-time favorite authors and she rarely, if ever, lets me down with her books. I had somehow missed THE BEAUTIFUL STORIE OF LIFE: SIX GREEK MYTHS, RETOLD by Rylant when it came out last year, but my friend, Jennifer, shared it with me. Maybe I did see it last year, but hadn't paid much attention to it. But this year, with so many kids reading the Percy Jackson series and wanting more to read connected to Greek Mythology, I was thrilled to see something on mythology by Rylant. I was also surprised--mythology didn't seem like something Rylant would take on. But the inside flap of the book says this:
