Poetry

[lucylu0508]

I have a question for anyone willing to respond: I was wondering what those of you who do poetry during your morning time (or poetry teas) actually do? Do you just read the poems? I'm assuming you discuss after you read, do you have a guide that you use to do that? How much time do you typically spend and how often do you cover it? Do you have a list of favorites or follow a predetermined list? I've never been one to really be able to read/understand a lot of poetry (sadly) so I'm feeling kind of lost here. Any input would be much appreciated.

 

Thank you ☺

[Rosie_0801]

At the moment, I read a poem or two from any old book that has taken my fancy each morning. I try to vary the topic. This year we have read one about Ancient Greece, one of tree poems, one maths, one astronomy, probably some more I don't remember. At the moment we're reading a biography including verses of a famous Japanese haiku master whom we have now heard of too. :D 

 

On Monday mornings, we meet my mum at a local cafe to for poetry and a free write. I'm reading a poem and information about different varieties of kangaroo, dd recites her memory work and Mum either prints out a poem or recites something she memorised in school.

 

Eventually we'll get to actual poetry study, but until then, we're happy reading and enjoying. :) We talk about whether we liked the poem or not, but that's about it.

[Piper]

We have done poetry during morning time, and now we are doing dedicated poetry teas instead. During morning time, I was having the kids memorize the poems, but it began to feel a bit like this:  :smash:   So now we do poetry teas instead. We simply read the poems out and enjoy them! We laugh over the funny ones, and I might occasionally make a comment about a poem, like "Oh, I just love how the poet described the snow" or "Did you get that little play on words there?"  My comments are never really deep or overly analytical, I just say what strikes me. Sometimes I might ask why someone likes that particular poem. But no, we don't really go into a lot of discussion about the poems. 

 

We have a poetry tea about once a week, and we spend about half an hour on reading poems, and about half an hour with the current read-aloud.  The kids pick out their own favourite poems to read from the poetry books we have on the shelf; I supplement with others I might particularly want them to hear. As an encouragement, my kids do like to occasionally pull the poetry books out themselves and read them on their free time.

 

Really, at my kids' ages, (and yours are a bit younger, I think), what I'm really aiming for is exposure and enjoyment. I want them just to revel in the fun of the words and the stories that poems tell, to delight in the language, and to learn to love poetry for itself. So we just read out the ones we like! When they're both a bit more firmly into the dialectic stage, then I might start introducing some more "analysis" of poems, and yes, I think at that point it might be helpful to have a guide. But I'm not quite there yet, so maybe someone with a bit more experience of that might chime in.

 

Anyway, HTH!

[lucylu0508]

Thank you both, so much, for the thoughtful replies. I'm relieved to hear that you do an informal approach to poetry, and I think that's exactly where I'm going to take ours as well. My kids are, indeed, younger (almost the same ages as yours, Piper, at 7 and 9) so the thought of trying to do an analysis was overwhelming.

 

Thank you again, ladies ☺

[Rosie_0801]

These have been my two favourites this year: 

 

http://www.amazon.com/Tan-Tamarind-Poems-About-Color/dp/0892392274/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1445122938&sr=1-1-fkmr0&keywords=T+is+for+tamarind+poetry

 

http://www.amazon.com/Cool-Melons-Turn-Frogs-Life-Poems/dp/1880000717/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1445123012&sr=1-1&keywords=cool+melons+turn+to+frogs

[aaplank]

This is one of our favorites!  It makes different forms of poetry and famous poets accessible to kids.  We easily incorporate a two-page spread during morning time and it usually takes about 10 minutes.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Childs-Introduction-Poetry-Mountains-Battles/dp/1579122825

[Hobbes]

Poetry is part of our morning time - I chose about 8 short poems for the year (one-ish per school month) and we work through them. The girls are early elementary, so there's a lot of A.A. Milne, Robert Louis Stevenson, etc.

 

I read the new poem for a couple of days and we talk about anything that occurs to us, or I explain unusual words. No deep analysis. Then we memorize stanza by stanza, which is normal for us because they are used to long Bible passages and other memorization during that time as well. We work on the new poem and review one old one... always under ten minutes for sure.

 

I've been surprised by how much they love the poems and love knowing them! Milne and Stevenson especially come up in our read alouds as well and they love it when we read a poem they know!

[Carol in Cal.]

Here is a great intro to poetic forms, each with an example:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Kick-Head-Everyday-Guide-Poetic/dp/0763641324/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1445127527&sr=1-1&keywords=poetry+children+on+the+head

[Caclcoca]

We take turns reading poems while we eat a yummy snack (usually once a week).  We may make a comment about something that strikes us, but for the most part, we just read and enjoy.  My kids are 14, 12, 9, and 7.

[Heidi]

I pick a poem for the month and we recite it during morning time. We also use English Lessons through Literature which has a poem every lesson. I require my kids to read them aloud to me. Sometimes we'll talk about the meaning and sometimes it is just over their head.

The kids love poetry teatime. We average once a month whenever we feel like it. During poetry teatime we'll grab a few books of poetry and take turns reading them aloud. The kids pick out the ones they want to read, or if they can't read, they will pick one out for me to read. We drink herbal tea in our little tea cups and eat toast.

[newhsmom]

We share poetry at least once a week in our morning time.  It is always a popular part of our week.  I try to plan a special poetry tea about once a month.  Some of our favorite poets include: Kalli Dakos, Douglas Florian, Georgia Heard, Bruce Lansky, Mary Ann Hoberman, Lee Bennett Hopkins, Paul Janeczko, Shel Silverstein, Jack Prelutsky, Marilyn Singer, Janet Wong, and Jane Yolen. 

 

http://poetryforchildren.blogspot.com/

This website has lots of great information about sharing poetry with kids.  We love the Friday Poetry Anthology written by Vardell and Wong. 

[kalusignan]

This is one of our favorites!  It makes different forms of poetry and famous poets accessible to kids.  We easily incorporate a two-page spread during morning time and it usually takes about 10 minutes.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Childs-Introduction-Poetry-Mountains-Battles/dp/1579122825

 

We just finished this during our morning time! Loved by all. :)

[Holly]

We read poetry for enjoyment.  Sometimes I explain what a word or two means, but that's about it for discussion.  We've done poetry differently each year.  Some years we spent 5 minutes a day on poetry, other years we had a poetry tea time once every week or two (with tea and snack).  This year we are using ELTL and each child has a poem for each lesson (with 3 lessons per week).  I read all 3 poems aloud to everyone, so we're basically reading 9 poems per week.  In addition to this, they are memorizing poems.  For this, I have them read their poem aloud on our poetry days.  My 5yo is memorizing a poem each month from the Wee Folk Art's program.

 

Once a year we focus on a poet for a week or two.  We've studied Robert Louis Stevenson, Lewis Carroll, A.A. Milne, Christina Rossetti, and this year we are studying Shakespeare.  The Poetry For Young People series is great for this.  For other poetry books, we've enjoyed AO's Year 1 poetry selections (this are divided by months of the year), Helen Farris' Favorite Poems Old and New, Random House Book of Poetry, and Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices.  Sometimes we get out the Shel Silverstein poetry books for a fun change.

[BooksandBoys]

I hated poetry as a child and young adult because my only exposure to it was within the context of analyzing and discussing and meaning and pentameters and blah blah. I accidentally stumbled upon reading poetry for pure enjoyment about 8 years ago and I was hooked. To be instantly hooked on something I previously hated made an impression on me. I realized two things: analyzing should be a very, very minor part of poetry reading, and reading poetry aloud is essential to enjoyment. I want my kids to love it now, not spend 25 years thinking they hate this delightful genre.

 

So, we read a lot of poetry (I have a weakness now for poetry collections), we read both "classic" and funny poetry (my kids prefer classic), we reread poems often, and we memorize what the kids want to memorize, not what they "should" memorize. My kids love it. My two year-old even begs for "more poe-mmmms." We don't analyze, although I occasionally point interesting things out.

[HLDoll]

We are always working on one poem for memorization during our morning meeting, but during our weekly poetry and tea times, we just read for enjoyment. Sometimes I'll chime in if there is a line or literary device that I find particularly moving, and occasionally the kids will ask questions about something, but that time is really just for pleasure. I've found that since we started doing poetry for pleasure each week, the kids are much more enthusiastic about poetry memorization when it comes up in their writing/grammar curricula. They love coming to poetry tea with something memorized to surprise the rest of the family. 

[TX Native]

We keep some type of collection of poems book going all the time. Currently, we are loving Julie Andrew's Collection of Poems, Songs, and Lullibies. We start our school day reading one or two of the poems. If the selection of the day is lyrics to a song, we look the song up on the Internet and play it, usually via YouTube. We have learned so many new to us/older classic songs going through this book. I have a few shorter one author poetry books that I read instead when we want a change of routine for a few days. I also have my children memorize and recite a poem every couple months if we aren't drowning in other things.

[pehp]

We read a couple days a week, and do not typically discuss (I may explain something that looks confusing).  We also like to memorize.  I don't like to deconstruct poetry too much.  I like for it to work its magic on its own terms. 

 

Once my son is older--middle school?--we will start to explore poetry more, in terms of analysis.  But not yet! And not too much, even then!

[TheAttachedMama]

We don't do a morning time.  We start right in with the 3r's in the morning.    Instead I read from various books everytime the kids sit down to eat.  (Which is often in our house!  They eat a meal every 2-3 hours!  It gives us a nice little break from our book work.)  

 

For poetry, I keep a book of poems near our kitchen table.   I choose one or two a day to read aloud for enjoyment.  I do this before I start our chapter book read aloud every day.  This normally happens during lunch.  I eat before I call the kids to the table, and then I read while their mouths are full and chewing.   (We call it Lunch and Lit!) 

 

Recitation of memorized poetry happens at another time.   We use ANKI for all of our memory work.  (A very sophisticated electronic flashcard system that is really cool.)  And a few of their electronic flashcards have things which say, "Recite the poem <title>."   The program is smart enough to review the poems only as may times as necessary based on how hard/easy it was for the kids to remember.   We use IEW's poetry program as the list of poems we are memorizing.  

 

ETA:  As far as understanding or explaining the poems, I read poetry that is simple enough for my children to understand without explanation.  If I have to explain what is happening, I may be reading something too advance.   Our goal is enjoyment.  I start them off with many years of nursery rhymes starting at 3-5.  This gives them many years to learn to enjoy the rhyme, rhythm, and pattern of language in poetry.   Then I start them off with poems easily understood by kids.  (Authors mentioned above are great!  As are the suggestions in the IEW poetry program).   Then the poems might get increasingly more difficult as the kids age. 

 

If you really want a book, check out some of the resources on Simply Charlotte mason.   Another great book is the MCT Music of the Hemispheres.  

[barnwife]

I try to do a poetry lunch once a week. Our kids are 5, 3, and 2. We have been packing a picnic and doing "picnic and poetry" at a park somewhere, but I think it's too chilly to do anymore.

Obviously, as ours are still so little we don't analyze anything yet. Well, sometimes I do ask them to listen for rhyming words or alliteration or something, but only if it really pops out at me. I have no idea when we will get to serious, formal study of poetry, but I'd guess that's still a long time away.