Poetry work?

[Soror]

My incoming 3rd grader (almost 9) has a real love for poetry. So far we haven't done anything formal and I'm trying to decide if I want something for him. We have memorized some poems and read them at times but I think he would really enjoy going deeper than this. I don't want to go so deep that we suck all the fun out of it though. Can anyone give me an idea of what is out there? I know MCT has a poetry program for the Island level, which we are using part of next year, but I've heard that perhaps it goes too deep for many. Reviews or recommendations?

[8filltheheart]

We are not fans of MCT's poetry (though I haven't seen the lower levels)

 

At that age I would keep poetry studies light by reading lots of fun poems and discussing the precise language of poets. Simple discussions around simile, metaphor, personification, colorful words, etc as well as visual construction and simple rhyme would be about all I would really focus on.

 

The guide for Journeys through Bookland does have some content that might appeal to you.

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/24857/24857-h/24857-h.htm

[Soror]

Thank you for the link, I think I may have that downloaded somewhere. I will check that out today. What you are talking about is precisely what I think he would enjoy but I don't know enough about it myself to do it unguided.

[Momof3littles]

We used MCT's materials this year in a co-op setting, and the kids absolutely thrived with it. My eldest is a reluctant writer and while there was teeth gnashing at times over the output, he did some amazing stuff that he's so proud of. Even some of the more complex topics covered in Island were well within their grasp. They were identifying the various types of meter covered quite well, which was one thing I was wondering. Writing in various meter was not necessarily the easiest, but they got so. much. out of the program IMO. We also did BL, and that tied in well with the MoH class. BL asks them to use various stems in poems and to produce similes using stem words. The kids pulled in a lot of their knowledge from MoH and applied it to their BL poems. Seriously, MCT's materials were absolutely fantastic for our group (mostly 3rd grade and one 4th grader.) It was awesome to see that by the end of the class, they could do impressive analysis and find most of the devices used (assonance, consonance, alliteration, simile, metaphor, end rhyme, near rhyme, internal rhyme, eye rhyme, meter, stanza, etc.). The kids also incorporated most of those into poems they wrote themselves, so I think their understanding really was there. We did not find it too deep and it was within their capability.

[SilverMoon]

My 7.5yo/rising 3rd grader has loved poetry since she was old enough to listen to them being read. She's memorized many, used them for copywork and studied dictation, and played around with writing her own. She reads them on her own time, but what she really loves is hearing them read aloud. They sing to her.

 

Last summer she requested poetry be a subject for her second grade year. She started out with Jack Prelutsky's Pizza, Pigs, and Poetry. Each "lesson" has a humorous story, a poem to go with it, and a writing tip. It doesn't go into parts and pieces of poetry. This is getting young kids writing their own without worrying about the way it ought to be done. If your DC is too mature to laugh about dad's undies being pinned to a wall-- skip this one. It's quite silly in places. (It did get her 4th grade brother, who wasn't a huge poetry fan, making some delicious poems with illustrations.)

 

We also did a sharing time, where the kids would all share a favorite one they'd read recently (or scrambled to find the morning of that sharing time in some cases). We read them aloud frequently, made our own illustrations for them, or did something to intentionally work with them. DD wasn't satiated and wants more next year.

 

For fall I've collected Poetry Matters: Writing a Poem from the Inside Out (Ralph Fletcher), A Writing Kind of Day: Poems for Young Poets (also Fletcher), and Read a Rhyme Write a Rhyme (Prelutsky). You can see samples of all three on Amazon.

 

Wishes, Lies, and Dreams by Kenneth Koch is a book for you to read on teaching poetry, written by a poet himself. I purchased it last fall. It's a good read, but not what DD had in mind. She'd rather have something written to her. Koch also wrote Rose, Where Did You Get That Red.

[sleeplessnights]

Memoria Press has a poetry book that is for grades 3-6 (you use it for 4 years). You learn the poem, do some copywork, determine the rhyme/meter of the poem, answer some questions, and there is room for a sketch too. We have enjoyed it for the last year and half, but it is not super-fun. The poems are age-appropriate though, and interesting.