Poetry Friday Roundup is HERE!

Happy Thanksgiving!



Welcome to the feast of Poetry Friday Posts:
(leave your link in the comments and I'll round up the old-fashioned way)

April Halprin Wayland at Teaching Authors is thankful for a whole host of angels.

Renee LaTulippe at No Water River is hosting a poet-a-palooza with an interview and FIVE poetry videos from around the world.

Snow is falling and Robert Frost is evoked at Charles Ghinga's Father Goose blog.

Steve Peterson at inside the dog... shares a poem about change.

Winter is on its way in Matt Forrest's poem at Radio, Rhythm and Rhyme.

Linda Kulp at Write Time took the Teaching Authors' challenge and wrote a "Thanku."

Just for a change of pace, Myra Garces-Bacsal shares a book of pirate poems at Gathering Books.

Carmela Martino at Teaching Authors is thankful for her colleague and friend Esther Hershenhorn.

Laura Purdie Salas spotlights Michael Hall's CAT TALE and brings us this week's 15 Words or Less Poems inspired by pumpkins.

Linda Baie at Teacher Dance is in the midst of change -- specifically, a move to a new house -- and finds a deep connection to Ralph Fletcher's book MOVING DAY.

Yum. Jama's sharing some more peanut butter poems at Jama's Alphabet Soup.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

I'm not quite caught up with the first round of linkers, but Jama mentioned the peanut clusters so it seems appropriate to stop here and describe the disaster that is my kitchen right now. (This by way of apology for the lack of inspiration in this roundup post.)

We'll start with the counter, then, where there are 25 candy bags, loaded with peanut clusters, awaiting the graham cracker toffee that is chilling on the card table in the garage. These 25 bags will join the 25 that are complete, and that will mark about the halfway point of the yearly candy making craziness/fun.

The rest of the counter, sink and stove areas bear the evidence that I very nearly spent too much time yesterday afternoon trying to find inspiration for this roundup post and came dangerously close to not having the roasted brussel sprouts (with bacon and toasted pecans) ready to take to our evening feast. Lordy, what a mess!

And now let's consider the kitchen table before me. The cornucopia flower arrangement was delivered last Wednesday, just before I left for the airport to go to NCTE. It is a bit past its prime here and there, but by golly, I'm going to pretend it's fresh for a few more days. Just about the entire rest of the table is covered with piles -- a couple are AJ's, but most are mine: NCTE pile, CYBILS pile, school pile, TBR pile, to-do pile...and the button that needs to be sewn on my jacket sleeve.

Behind me are the bags full of books from NCTE, plus a school bag filled with papers to grade and lessons to plan.

Thanksgiving is a time when every one of my plates is too full...and for this bounty of food, I give thanks. And for this bounty of work that I love, I give thanks. And for a table and a counter to hold my messes, I give thanks. For too much to read, I give thanks. For the tradition of Poetry Friday and for the community of bloggers who join the weekly party, I give thanks.

Now then. Back to the roundup.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

Joy Acey imagines "Thanksgiving in the Barn" at Poetry for Kids Joy.

Black Friday, anyone? Violet Nesdoly has a shopping list for poets!

Laura Shovan at Author Amok gives thanks for yoga, football (and the halftime show!), words, and time.

Random acts of poetry epitomizes The Opposite of Indifference. Brought to you by Tabatha.

Matt Goodfellow at Poems and things! has two poems for us today, a chestnutty one and rain snake one.

Diane Mayr has posts up at Random Noodling (a rant I agree with COMPLETELY), KK's Kwotes (a cautionary quote for poets who are tempted to rush), and The Write Sisters (art that dances on our heads and holds our PJs).

At Growing Wild, Liz Steinglass serves up three dishes and a delicious-looking pumpkin pie.

Sylvia shares a Week 13 poem from The Poetry Friday Anthology at the PFA Blog, and information about a 12/12/12 e-book give-away.

Carol is contemplating necessity and wealth at Carol's Corner. She's raking leaves and letting Black Friday pass her by.

Thank you, Ruth (at There is no such thing as a God-forsaken town), for Neruda and Cold Play in the same post. For a beach and stars and a fugitive ode to laziness. I think I'll let the rest of today's work go untouched and instead get some sand in my shoes.

Gregory K. at GottaBook has a timely poem -- "The Day After Thanksgiving."

Author Susan Taylor Brown shares her debut as an illustrator of Haiku Diem.

Lori Ann Glover at On Point has an original haiku today.

Lucky Jone! She got to attend a writing workshop led by Oregon's Poet Laureate! Two of the poems Jone wrote that day are shared at Check it Out.

Dorothy Parker is waiting for you at Douglas Florian's Florian Cafe.

Julie Larios at The Drift Record shares a poem by Jack Gilbert titled "Horses at Midnight Without a Moon."

Little Willow shares Emily Dickinson's "The Cricket Sang" at Bildungsroman.

Ramona at Pleasures from the Page has written a trio of "thankus," inspired by the bloggers at Teaching Authors.

Poetry Friday -- YAM

YAM

by David Guernsey

The potato that ate all its carrots,
can see in the dark like a mole,

(the whole poem is at The Poetry Foundation)

I don't know about you, but my favorite part of Thanksgiving is the side dishes. Yams? Green bean casserole? Mom's cranberry jello salad? BRING THEM ON!!

Happy Thanksgiving a week early! See you back here next week for the roundup. This week, head on over to Anastasia's Booktalking blog.

Visuals in Nonfiction

I See What You Mean: Visual Literacy K-8
by Steve Moline
Stenhouse, 2011

It is definitely going to be worth the two weeks we spent in reading workshop looking at the structures of nonfiction (description, sequence, compare/contrast, cause/effect) and in writing workshop looking at and trying out the visuals that support those structures. There's an excellent chart in Moline's book that we have used as a reference guide over and over again. He gives examples of diagrams and maps (description), timelines and flowcharts (sequence), tree diagrams and Venn diagrams (compare/contrast).

I knew it was going to be worth the time when, as we discussed the Poetry Friday Anthology poem of the week last Friday, someone said, "That poem's a sequence." YES! And when the new copy of American Girl magazine came, and the three readers brought it to me to say, "Look! Here's a diagram!" And then, of course, when the new Scaredy Squirrel came, we found nearly EVERY kind of visual we had studied!

Don't you love it when that happens?!?

Scaredy Squirrel Prepares for Christmas: A Safety Guide for Scaredies
by Mélanie Watt
Kids Can Press, 2012

Here are pictures of our hallway display and some of the students' work. They had a lot of fun with this. As you see, they could use their life and their interests. I'm hoping that when we do more nonfiction writing, they remember that they don't need to do research to write nonfiction!

Some of the students had lots of fun with expanded/exploded diagrams.

(see map of Snoopy's Doghouse below -- this diagram goes with that map!)

Instrumental

Flickr Creative Commons photo by Jana Obscura

Startled, I silence my alarm
Get up and feed the cat
Turn off the porch lights
Turn up the heat
Fill the teakettle and light the burner
Check email
Decide on cereal for breakfast

And still
I cannot for the life of me
Decipher the phrase that was in my head
Just before the alarm went off:

This is the kind of test with mandolins in it.


© Mary Lee Hahn, 2012




Ed DeCaria has the Poetry Friday roundup this week at Think Kid, Think.

Getting Ready for NCTE!

We'll be posting infrequently as we get sub plans ready, finish report cards, polish our presentations and pack, so you won't see much of us here on the blog in the next two weeks, but maybe we'll get a chance to say hello in person at NCTE! See you in Vegas!!

LEMONADE IN WINTER by Emily Jenkins and G. Brian Karas

The book Lemonade in Winter: A Book About Two Kids Counting Money struck me as a very cute story. Two siblings stuck inside during a cold winter day decide that it is the perfect day to have a Lemonade Stand! Their parents warn them that on a cold day, no one will want a cold drink. And there is really no one outside to buy the drinks. But the children are determined and they make their lemonade, limeade and lemon limeade. They buy the ingredients and decide to charge 50 cents per cup.

The story is a fun book to add to my math picture book collection. It is a fun story with a great plot. The characters are quite adorable in the way they carry on on such a cold, winter day. Their enthusiasm is quite contagious.

The money counting part of this book is quite fun. There are lots of opportunities to count quarters and there are some pages that show the math behind figuring out total sold.  There is also a final page with more math explanations.

I think this is a perfect book for primary students who are learning about change. Teachers can create some great problems around this book to help kids understand the concept of money. I plan to use it with a small group of kids who need a little bit of extra help with counting money. Quarters are a perfect place to start when counting change and we can build from there.

So glad I took the time to read this book once Beth at Cover to Cover suggested I did!

October Mosaic

Fall colors, Fairfield County Fair. Other than that, October was a blur of schoolwork.

Photos can be seen full size on Flickr.

Poetry Friday -- Writer's Notebooks

What's in My Journal 

by William Stafford

Odd things, like a button drawer. Mean
Things, fishhooks, barbs in your hand.
But marbles too. A genius for being agreeable.
Junkyard crucifixes, voluptuous
discards. Space for knickknacks, and for
Alaska. Evidence to hang me, or to beatify.

(the whole poem is at The Writer's Almanac)

There's even room in my journal/writer's notebook for a bizarre gigantic "Siamese-Triplet" heirloom tomato.

Here's to all the bits of this and that which go into a notebook, and all of the brilliance which (sometimes) comes out!

The Poetry Friday Roundup is in Maine this week, hosted by Donna at Mainely Write.

Finicky

Finicky (The Aldo Zelnick Comic Novel Series)
by Karla Oceanak
illustrated by Kendra Spanjer
Bailiwick Press, 2012
review copy provided by the publisher

It's hard to believe we're already to the sixth book in the Aldo Zelnick series! I have a student who is waging a one-man boycott of our school cafeteria over the very same issue that moves Aldo and his friends to protest -- no more pizza day on Tuesdays!

This volume is sure to please food lovers and finicky eaters alike, and the feast of words that begin with F fairly overflows!  Aldo and his fellow endomorph of a dad get a little more serious about their health and weight, and Aldo serves up a steaming banquet of remorse when his protests get a little out of hand.

Another must-read for Aldo Zelnick fans, and also for the Nate the Great and Wimpy Kid crowd.

WHY SCHOOL by Will Richardson

I just finished Will Richardson's new ebook, Why School?: How Education Must Change When Learning and Information Are Everywhere (Kindle Single) .  Will Richardson is someone I have been learning from for years. I've read his books, I read his blog regularly, I follow him on Twitter, I've watched his Ted Talks and I was able to hear him speak in person this summer.  I have learned so much from his groundedness about teaching and learning combined with his knowledge of technology and connected learning.

Why School is a must read for educators and parents, I think.  I love this book for a lot of reasons. First of all, it is not about school bashing or teacher bashing but pushing us to think about where we are going with school. Richardson believes in public education and the institution of school but knows things have to change.

I also like that Richardson ends the book with some very concrete things we, as individual teachers can do to move things forward and to give our students the school experiences they deserve.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from WHY SCHOOL. I have 59 things highlighted according to my Kindle notes page but thought these would help you get a sense of the message Richardson conveys in this book. 

"I’m suggesting that this moment requires us to think deeply about why we need school. Or to ask, more specifically, what’s the value of school now that opportunities for learning without it are exploding all around us?" 

"Right now, we are at the precipice of two very different visions of what modern education should look like — two very different answers to the “why school” question. One bodes well for our children, and one bodes not so well, as I’ll explain."

"I contend that our focus on passing the test is not nearly enough any longer. I insist that the “test” doesn’t come close to capturing what our kids need to know and to be able to do at this moment of rapid and radical change, and that the longer we wait to start a conversation around doing school “differently,” instead of simply “better,” the more we’re putting our kids at risk."

"Just imagine the learners they could become if we made these skills the focus of our work; if, instead of passing the test, we made those ever-more important skills of networking, inquiry, creation, sharing, unlearning, and relearning the answer to the “why school” question. Imagine what our kids could become if we helped them take full advantage of all they have available to them for learning."

It is a great read.  And if you are going to NCTE's Annual Convention next month, Will Richardson will be speaking there.   (Did I mention that this book is only available in a Kindle Edition with a great price of $2.99?)

And my friend sent me a connected article that is worth a read too!