Poetry

[RainbowSprinkles]

I'd like to add in some poetry this coming school year. I was wondering what is out there that can be done once a week. Anyone have any recommendations? This will be mostly for my dd8. Thanks!

[SnegurochkaL]

Last year we were using Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization from IEW and my daughter(being 7 last year ) really learned a lot. We finished level 1 and 2 and ready for more poems to learn:) We used it only for 3 months so it wasn't really a whole year of poetry, but she did her memorization 5-6 days per week. Some poems are long:) We have a complete set (a book and CDs), but we actually used only the book. In September I will ask my daughter to resite all 40 poems of Level 1 and 2 to be sure she remembers them before she goes into Level 3 of the program.

[Pongo]

I have used Harp and Laural Wreath for K-5. I do it orally, once a week and then I use a Poetry Comprehension workbook. It's 1 page a day, about 10 minutes. My kids use this until about 5th grade then I use Imitation in Poetry, which was awesome. My oldest learned so much from it, as did I.

[1Togo]

Check out Michael Clay Thompson's poetry books. You can read through them and work the exercises at your own pace. They are best explained by MCT's preface from the first book, The Music of the Hemispheres. "Poetry, real poetry, is an extraordinary art form. Being a poet is much like being a composer of symphonies. Just as a composer writes each note on a musical staff, and composes harmonies for the different instruments...., a great poet has an array of tools and techniques at hand, and puts each sound on the page, one sound at a time, in a deliberately chosen rhythm...The purpose of this book is to find ways to reveal the reality of poem power..."

 

MCT's books are a lovely way to encourage understanding and love of poetry which will make memorization more meaningful.

 

Bonita

[Hedgehogs4]

I have had an interest in poetry for my kids, too. with all the talk about tea-time (and i don't mean "tea-time"), at the end of the year we instituted tea-time at 3:00. at that time we all settle down at the kitchen table with a cup of something warm and a little snack, and read poetry together. THE KIDS LOVE IT, because it is a very cozy and together way to end our school day. i don't want poetry at this point to be something that is too analyzed. i just want them to learn to love it and have lovely associations with it. we read selections from great poets, poetry for children, and our favorite, Runny Babbit, by Shel Silverstein. we like this book if we're digging deeper.

[NanceXToo]

Not this school year that just passed, but toward the end of the one before, my mother found me a used book called:

 

"Teaching Poetry Yes You Can!" by Jacqueline Sweeney.

 

After reading through it (I found it very helpful!), I was inspired to start a summer Poetry Workshop. My daughter (then 8) and I contacted just a few other kids in the 8-10 year old age range, from our homeschool group and neighborhood, and put together a small group of six kids who would come over Thursday evenings in the summer for an hour and a half or so each week.

 

We'd talk about different aspects of poetry each week, I'd read them examples of poems written by other kids and famous poets (which you get right in this book I mentioned), and then I'd get them to write their own poems. Usually individually, sometimes cooperatively. Afterward, whoever wanted to could share their poems, reading them aloud to the rest of the group. Then they'd have a snack (moms alternated providing them) and they'd play for a little while before everyone went home.

 

Their notebooks stayed here and each week after they'd gone, I'd type their poems into a Word document. At the last gathering, we had a pizza and ice cream party, and I gave each kid a finished booklet of all of their poems. I think we did our workshops for like 10 weeks.

 

Not sure if you are looking to do something like that, but it was a lot of fun. In fact, not that long ago, one of the girls who attended (who goes to Girl Scouts with my daughter) asked me "Are we gonna do poetry again this summer?" I said I didn't know if we'd do poetry but maybe we'd do short stories or something!

 

On the other hand- if you mean just reading poetry in general, well, then, all you need are weekly trips to the library where you can take out different books of poetry each week and read them to each other :)

[creekmom]

I used Read and Understand Poetry last year on every Monday. We would read the poem and talk about the literary elements (the book pointed them all out). Then, in the poetry section of their notebook, they would write the def. and give example from the poem the lit. elements we discussed. They also wrote a poem that was similar in format (Haiku, or concrete poem, etc.) to put in their notebooks. Doing it on Mondays was a nice break from copywork/journal writing, and I felt like we got in some good, quality poetry during the year. I used the 4-5th grade book because I had a 3rd and 5th grader last year, but I linked you to the 3-4th grade book.

http://www.currclick.com/product_info.php?products_id=16054&it=1

[Kareni]

There were some good anthology recommendations in this thread.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Caitilin]

Check out Michael Clay Thompson's poetry books. You can read through them and work the exercises at your own pace. They are best explained by MCT's preface from the first book, The Music of the Hemispheres. "Poetry, real poetry, is an extraordinary art form. Being a poet is much like being a composer of symphonies. Just as a composer writes each note on a musical staff, and composes harmonies for the different instruments...., a great poet has an array of tools and techniques at hand, and puts each sound on the page, one sound at a time, in a deliberately chosen rhythm...The purpose of this book is to find ways to reveal the reality of poem power..."

 

MCT's books are a lovely way to encourage understanding and love of poetry which will make memorization more meaningful.

 

Bonita

 

:iagree:I taught this once a week in a co-op last year, using the World of Poety book with 4th-6th graders. It worked extremely well in that setting, and it could easily be used as a stand-alone poetry book at home as well.