On My TBR List

When I found out I was going to be teaching 4th grade next year, I immediately emailed Tony Keefer (@tonykeefer) to recommend some great books that beginning 4th graders (especially boys) might read--books that I would not normally pick up on my own.  I love having Tony as one of my reading friends--we enjoy some of the same books but overall, our tastes are different. So I can always count on Tony to recommend good books I may not have discovered on my own.  Here are three of the books he recommended that I picked up today. They are series that I have dabbled in but I really need to commit to so I'm ready for lots of different 4th grade readers in the fall.

THE RIOT BROTHERS by Mary Amato

A CHET GECKO MYSTERY by Bruce Hale

FRANKIE PICKLE by Eric Wight

Any other suggestions for great books for early 4th graders?

April Mosaics

APRIL MOSAIC

The sky above

a yellow glove

Two observe

mushrooms curve

Long spikey

slow slippery

25 spot

3 cake pops

Bee in the window is dead

Cat in the window turns head

Tree in bloom

Vast amounts of room

River has meanders

Table has treasures

Cake plate view

(coins from 1892)

Sugar bowl twinkles

Cut glass crinkles

Flow Blue plate

Butter dish weight

Carnival glass shimmers

Tools made many dinners

Shot glass -- small

Pitcher -- tall

Pike's Peaking

Hawk's eating

Stack of three

Plate of cheese

Powell winery

Spring's green finery

Birdhouse gourds hang 

April's gone...dang!

© Mary Lee Hahn, 2012

Poem #30, National Poetry Month, 2012

All 30 poems for this month make a mosaic of their own, a different sort of glimpse into my world -- the poetic version of what I was seeing and doing and thinking about. Here is a link to my 2012 NPM Poems. (My April photo mosaic is on Flickr here.)

In March, the Poetry Tournament at Think Kid, Think! was a watershed moment for me as a writer. I changed my identity from "person who sometimes writes poetry" to Poet. I'm excited to see where this new direction in my writing will lead. I have a brand new PINK writer's notebook to start filling...beginning tomorrow!

Cathy, at Merely Day By Day, is joining me in a poem a day this month. Other daily poem writers include Amy at The Poem Farm, Linda at TeacherDance, Donna at Mainely Write, Laura at Writing the World for Kids (daily haiku), Liz at Liz in Ink (daily haiku), Sara at Read Write Believe (daily haiku), Jone at Deo Writer (daily haiku)...and YOU?

Chalk-ku

Betsy, at Teaching Young Writers, is having a chalk poetry celebration tomorrow to cap off National Poetry Month. Write a poem, chalk it up, take a picture, and send it to Betsy!

Poem #29, National Poetry Month, 2012

Cathy, at Merely Day By Day, is joining me in a poem a day this month. Other daily poem writers include Amy at The Poem Farm, Linda at TeacherDance, Donna at Mainely Write, Laura at Writing the World for Kids (daily haiku), Liz at Liz in Ink (daily haiku), Sara at Read Write Believe (daily haiku), Jone at Deo Writer (daily haiku)...and YOU?

Attitude Adjustment

Le's Flaming Poo Poo Platter

ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT

Turns out
I didn't need the Venti Awake Tea
from Starbucks after all.
All I needed
was for Lynne Rossetto Kasper to say

Flaming Poo Poo Platter.

I laughed until I cried.
When I
caught my breath and
mopped my eyes
I no longer had a headache.

© Mary Lee Hahn, 2012

Poem #28, National Poetry Month, 2012

On Saturday afternoons, as we drive here and there running errands and buying groceries, we listen to Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me and The Splendid Table (with Lynne Rossetto Kasper) and Toss the Feathers (a local Celtic music program on our NPR station).

I was in a headache-y funk this afternoon. It's been a hard couple of weeks, topped by running the Keep-A-Balloon-In-The-Air-For-A-Minute game at our school carnival last night from 6:00-8:30 (with one 15 minute break).

I'll be forever grateful to Lynne Rossetto Kasper for saying

Flaming Poo Poo Platter

in the course of her show. The extended belly laugh that resulted turned my mood right around. Now all I have to do is say to myself

Flaming Poo Poo Platter

and I grin.

Cathy, at Merely Day By Day, is joining me in a poem a day this month. Other daily poem writers include Amy at The Poem Farm, Linda at TeacherDance, Donna at Mainely Write, Laura at Writing the World for Kids (daily haiku), Liz at Liz in Ink (daily haiku), Sara at Read Write Believe (daily haiku), Jone at Deo Writer (daily haiku)...and YOU?

Flaming Poo Poo Platter

WISE INVESTMENT

I have never said this to you, but you were one of my inspirations in my life. You invested in me so much in fourth and fifth grade. I used to never talk outside of my house, but today, I want to be a confident person, confident in what I am saying and teaching. So, thank you for your investment.

Investment.

That’s what teaching is.

We invest in the future

and then lose the receipt

when we send students on

to the next grade

or the next level.

We rarely know what our shaping

of each of these lives

will result in.

But we are certain,

absolutely certain,

that each and every one of them

is worth the investment.

© Mary Lee Hahn, 2012

Poem #27, National Poetry Month, 2012




Cathy, at Merely Day By Day, is joining me in a poem a day this month. Other daily poem writers include Amy at The Poem Farm, Linda at TeacherDance, Donna at Mainely Write, Laura at Writing the World for Kids (daily haiku), Liz at Liz in Ink (daily haiku), Sara at Read Write Believe (daily haiku), Jone at Deo Writer (daily haiku)...and YOU?

POETRY READING

POETRY READING

I am listening
to the poet George Bilgere
and imagining my first poetry reading,
someday in the unknown future.

I, too, will walk right up to people
at the wine and cookies reception.
I will introduce myself
as the guest of honor and ask them
about their interest in poetry.

The first poem I read
will be the one about the lucky day
when I started a new roll of toilet paper
in two different public restrooms.

That was a day that started with
strong tea
and ended with
salty French onion soup and
a perfect
strawberry
tart.

Just before the onion soup on that lucky day,
I listened
to the poet George Bilgere
and imagined my first poetry reading,
someday in the unknown future.

© Mary Lee Hahn, 2012




Poem #26, National Poetry Month, 2012


Art imitates life.







Tabatha has the Poetry Friday roundup this week at The Opposite of Indifference.

Cathy, at Merely Day By Day, is joining me in a poem a day this month. Other daily poem writers include Amy at The Poem Farm, Linda at TeacherDance, Donna at Mainely Write, Laura at Writing the World for Kids (daily haiku), Liz at Liz in Ink (daily haiku), Sara at Read Write Believe (daily haiku), Jone at Deo Writer (daily haiku)...and YOU?

Faith: Five Religions and What They Share

Faith: Five Religions and What They Share
by Dr. Richard Steckel and Michele Steckel
Kids Can Press, 2012
review copy provided by the publisher

I'm always on the lookout for books in which my many-shades-of-whitetanbrown students from the U.S.-Mexico-Bangladesh-Jordan-Iraq-Somalia-China can find themselves.

This is one.

Illustrated lavishly with photographs of children around the world, the topics of faith, religion, the Golden Rule, religious leaders, worship, and prayer are explained with clear and unbiased language. This is a book that teaches about religion. It is not a book that tries to change the religious beliefs of the reader.

The table of contents helps the reader find information efficiently, and there is a glossary, an index, and a note to parents and teachers ("Ideas to promote tolerance and understanding") in the back.

Area, Perimeter, Volume -- a math poem

AREA, PERIMETER, VOLUME

Gardens and fences
and new tile floors,
towers of blocks
and a bulletin board border.

Perimeter says "RIM"
and area is flat,
volume takes space...
I know all of that,

but keeping them straight
in my head is a problem:
square? cubic? units?
perimeter? area? volume?

Some day I'll grow up
and need carpet and tile,
frame art and fill boxes...
THEN this will be worthwhile!

© Mary Lee Hahn, 2012




Poem #25, National Poetry Month, 2012


Area and perimeter are SO hard for fourth graders to keep straight!




Cathy, at Merely Day By Day, is joining me in a poem a day this month. Other daily poem writers include Amy at The Poem Farm, Linda at TeacherDance, Donna at Mainely Write, Laura at Writing the World for Kids (daily haiku), Liz at Liz in Ink (daily haiku), Sara at Read Write Believe (daily haiku), Jone at Deo Writer (daily haiku)...and YOU?

unBEElievables

unBEElievables: honeybee poems and paintings
by Douglas Florian
Beach Lane Books, 2012

Douglas Florian does it again! A perfect trifecta of illustrations and poems and just enough information on every page.

I wish I would have had this book to show my student as a mentor text when they were writing their weather poems and including science information on the page with each poem.

Here's a favorite:

BEE ANATOMY

Lovely legs,
Lovely hue.
Lovely long
Antennae, too.
Lovely eyes,
Lovely wings.
But ouch!
How in the end
It stings!

Cause and Effect -- a poem

CAUSE AND EFFECT

Someone stole

my teacher.

They took my

favorite one.

She helped me 

patiently,

she was cheerful

and great fun.

She's replaced 

by a big

meany who is

giving me more work.

Do you think

this could have happened

'cause the class just went

berserk?

© Mary Lee Hahn, 2012

Poem #24, National Poetry Month, 2012

It was one of those days...

Cathy, at Merely Day By Day, is joining me in a poem a day this month. Other daily poem writers include Amy at The Poem Farm, Linda at TeacherDance, Donna at Mainely Write, Laura at Writing the World for Kids (daily haiku), Liz at Liz in Ink (daily haiku), Sara at Read Write Believe (daily haiku), Jone at Deo Writer (daily haiku)...and YOU?