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Poetry Lesson: Thanksgiving Poem

1/8/2016

oday my son and I did a lesson from Poetry Patterns and Themes.    The Lesson was on Thanksgiving Poetry.

"Thanksgiving Poetry challenges students to record their feelings in a beautiful and inspiring way in 12 lines. Each line bgins with one of the letters in the word "Thanksgiving". It be written as an expression of thankfulness or as a prayer.

You can use old language (with thee's and thou's),
If writing it as a form of prayer, try to encourage good prayer form. With an opening and a closing.

If writing it as an expression try to encourage an ending that proves a good ending for the poem.

Points that might be of concern
1. Does it have to rhyme asked my son. No. It does not have to rhyme
2. Can I just list off things?   No, be descriptive and try to make sentences.
3. Does it have to be a prayer?   No, it can be you describing things that you are thankful for.
4. Can you help me with spelling?   Sure, no problem. :)
5. Brainstorming descriptive words and objects should prove to be helpful.
6. You may wish to have your student illustrate their poem.

My son asked me not to share his poem with you today, so I thought I would share mine.   :)

Poetry Lesson: Foul Shot

12/2/2015

Foul Shot
by Edwin A. Hoey

With two 60s stuck on the scoreboard

And two seconds hanging on the clock,
The solemn boy in the center of eyes,
Squeezed by silence,
Seeks out the line with his feet,
Soothes his hands along his uniform,
Gently drums the ball against the floor,
Then measures the waiting net,
Raises the ball on his right hand,
Balances it with his left,
Calms it with fingertips,
Breathes,
Crouches,
Waits,
And then through a stretching of stillness,
Nudges it upwards.

The ball
Slides up and out,
Lands,
Leans,
Wobbles,
Wavers,
Hesitates,
Plays it coy
Until every face begs with unsounding screams--
And then
And then
And then,

Right before ROAR-UP,
Drives down and through.

Step one: after reading poem ask this: What is the poem all about?

My non-team sports mined child had NO clue what this poem was all about. So I found this video of a foul shot and then it made sense to him. :)

Ask these questions:
What do the two 60's mean? (tied game)
Two seconds hanging what does that mean? (game is almost over).
Why is the boy wiping his hands on his clothes? (calm himself, soothe)
How do you think the people watching felt as the ball went up in the air?
        Why?   What words are used to tell you this?
             (hesitates, exasperates, plays it coy)

What does it mean to play it coy? (to show reluctance in revealing what one will do)
Do you really think that a ball can play it coy?   When they use human terms to describe what a non-human object is doing it's called personification.

What do you think the ROAR UP is all about?   Why do you think the author puts those words in capital letters?   How to you think it would sound?   What might people be doing?

You can dissect the poem as well looking for items such as action words and accompanying nouns such as "Seeks out... the line".

Pay attention to how the poem is written, the line breaks, the in and out to length and spacing of the lines.

Animal Prayer Poem

11/26/2015

We are continuing to work our way through the book "Poetry Patterns and Themes".

Today's lesson was on Animal Prayer.

In this type of poem you start with the animal, you state the environment that the animal lives in and then have the animal make a request. Because we take our faith seriously, I asked my lad if he thought animals could pray? or if we would going to do a prayer should we have thankfulness to God for what he has given us?

Poetry Lesson: Bananananananana

11/12/2015

I opened my book of poems and said Okay lad, pick a poem.

And this poem is the one he picked.

After I read the poem to him, I set it up like this:
Bananananananana
by William Cole

Line A I thought I'd win the spelling bee
Line B    And get right to the top
Line C But I started to spell "banana"
Line D And didn't know where to stop.

I asked him to read it himself, which he did quite nicely.
Did the normal thing of what's it called, who wrote it.   Then asked what he noticed.

1. MOM.. It's funny! :)   Right off the top he giggled at the silliness of this poem.
2. Lines B and D rhyme.   Top and Stop.

I asked if there was anything he didn't understand.
His response:
Nope.
Though mom, what's a spelling bee?
My response
Oh.. what where people have contests to see who can spell the most words correctly.

I challenged him to spell Banana.
And he got it correctly. :)

What words could you use if you wanted to continue this poem?
Hop and pop.   Or... DROP....

W is for Webster, Noah Webster that is.

11/8/2015

You know what this is right?

It's the Webster's Dictionary, so now I need to ask you this. Do you know the story behind the Webster's Dictionary?

You don't?

Well.. allow me then to tell you what I have learned about Noah Webster who made the first dictionary of the Americas. Noah Webster was a man who was full of opinions, and once he became a teacher he quickly developed the opinion that American Students needed to learn American words and American ways of doing so. AND not being one to count on others to do something about it, set out to do so himself. He wrote the blue-backed speller called " A Grammatical Institute of the English Language.'

This speller became one of the most important learning tools for schools for a long time, introducing children to the American way of spelling words, using words that were important to them at the time.   This was Noah's approach to many issues in life: He'd write an essay about it, clarifying his thoughts, then he would talk about it and act upon it.   It was simply a way of life for this smart man.

In 1789, Noah married Rebecca Greenleaf, they had eight children.     They were married for 54 years.      He taught in various schools and eventually became a lawyer. He also served as a newspaper editor and a justice of the peace.   He was one of the founder of Amherst College.

Noah was an outspoken man who was involved in many causes such as: copyright laws, a strong federal government, universal education, and the abolition of slavery.     Words were very important to him throughout his life and he spent years writing his dictionaries.   The first "A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language" was published in 1806 and contained about 37,000 words.   The second contained 70,000 words and was called "American Dictionary of the English Language". In it he removed excess letters (the "u" from words like colour, and the "K" from the end of music for example) and added particularly American words like skunk and squash.

You can find a timeline of his life by clicking HERE.

Tracey Fern has written a neat book about Noah Webster. It's called W is for Webster.

It's a fairly wordy picture book with lots of details about Webster's life and habits, and showed his love for his family. It showed how people both liked, hated, and then appreciated Noah Webster at different points throughout his life.

AND BOY OH BOY did we learn a lot about Noah Webster. Got my boy interested in learning more (hence the reason for this post) and it is filled with great illustrations.

"MOM.. why would he have raisins and peppermints ready whenever he had visitors in his office?" was a blurted out question.

I have to mention how I liked the introductory page where they had the alphabet lined up. My lad and I enjoyed chatting about what they looked like and just what the book might be about.

Product Details:
Received: softcover picture book
Title: W is for Webster
Author: Tracey Fern
Illustrator: Boris Kulikov
Publisher: Margaret Ferguson Books
Pages: 40
Age Range: 4-8, though my 10 year old was quite intrigued
Price: $20.50
Reviewed for: Raincoast Books

Social Media Links for Raincoast Books are as follows.

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Poetry Lesson: The Troll

11/1/2015

Before reading this poem ask the question:
If a poem is called "the Troll" what do you think it will be about?
If you were going to describe a troll what words would you use?

The Troll was written by Jack Prelutsky,
This poem was a great start to learning about rhyming couplets with my son. It was so easy for my lad to hear the rhymes being made.

If you read it you'll notice that it rhymes in an A-B pattern (every other line rhymes).

Reading this poem with my son elicited comments of :
"Mom, do you suppose trolls really want to eat people?"
"Do you think trolls are ugly?   This poem makes them sound ugly".
"I bet that trolls are smart!"
"Did you see mom, how they are sneaky and wait for just the right moment"?
"How can a troll live if his blood is boiling"?

This poem was kinda of odd, and I have to admit, that if my introduction to had been this video below I probably wouldn't have liked it based it how it was read, but reading it to my lad and watching his reaction, made it seem just right.   :)   I loved how he just perked up with it, asking questions and just being very intrigued.

We looked at all the descriptive words in this poem. Did you notice how it's filled with them?

Loathsome
Slyly
Dingy
Boiling
Ghastly
Clutch
Grind
Scrambled

What emotions do these words evoke?
What do they even mean? Before looking at definitions I had my lad guess at what he thought they meant and he did a good job. :)

I find it fascinating how even if one doesn't really understand what a word means, that context can give you clues.

At the end of the poem I asked my son what he thought about trolls. His response was that trolls are smart and you have to be careful around them. Too bad for people who don't pay attention when out for a walk though.

Poetry Lesson: A Bug Sat in a Silver Flower

10/20/2015

What did you think?

I really didn't have to ask this... my boy let out a chortle of glee. :)

What made you laugh?
"Mom! Bugs don't have underwear!!!"

Words you don't know

Stalk: noun
stalk; plural noun: stalks
1. the main stem of a herbaceous plant.
"he chewed a stalk of grass"
"the stalk of a plant"
2. the slender attachment or support of a leaf, flower, or fruit.
"the acorns grow on stalks"

click image to go to source: Mr.Clay

The lad was able to determine the stem and leaf section make up the stalk of the plant. He added that it's easier to think of a stalk as being part of a piece of grass or the wheat we have come up from bunny leftovers growing in the compost.

Do you think it was fair?

Fair doesn't matter to bugs mom. He was hungry and the little bug wasn't paying attention. Bugs should always pay attention.

What do you see/hear when you look at and listen?

Some lines rhyme but others don't.
The poem moves in and out.. not all the lines are the same length.

Mom... are there really silver flowers?
That got me searching and I was able to find pictures of plants with silver foliage but none of a really silver flower (except fake ones). You can see them HERE.

Knowing this I asked the lad if he thought the flower was real or if the author was just using colourful language?

He really didn't know. Because either scenario would work. Bugs can be found everywhere...even on fake plants. BUT most likely, he thought, it was the author just using colourful language.

What does YOUR child see or hear with this poem??

Review: Progeny Press

10/9/2015

Do you like to read books with your children? Do you need help sometimes in assisting them to understand what they are reading, or would you like to help them delve into those books just a bit better? Allow me to introduce you to Progeny Press, producer of quality Study Guides. I reviewed the Stone Fox Study Guide.

Progeny Press is a company that specializes in producing study guides for literature.   They work from a Christian Perspective.   They offer study guides for lower elementary through to high school level, teacher resources, and audio books. Their study guides come in a variety of formats such as a physical book, a cd with a PDF ebook, or a downloadable PDF file with many of the PDF files being interactive

In the Stone Fox E-guide I found an interactive study guide with questions about what happened in the story, questions that encouraged thought, vocabulary, bible tie-ins, and much more.   It was interactive, allowing students to type in their answers rather than having to print it out for children to write on (though that's an option as well).

When you purchase the study guide you are not purchasing the book.   Many of the books they use are readily available at your local library.   We bought ours, promptly lost it, and then borrowed it from the library. (silly us eh?)   :)

How did we use it?

I have to admit, we proceeded through this study guide quite slowly. It's the first time we've done a formal study guide. Change is difficult for my boy, ergo proceeding slowly so it doesn't seem such a huge shock/change is best in our household.    I would have him read a chapter, tell me what he thought, then read the second chapter.

Then we would answer one page of questions, and another day answer another page.   MOST of the time he did all his answers using the interactive study guide.   The blue area above shows the students where they are to type. I have to tell you how much my boy LIKED this. "I can do it here mom"? was his delighted response.

BUT occasionally I would print off a page (especially if I thought my lad could do the work while on the road somewhere). (see below)

I deliberately didn't read the book before giving it to him to read.   I want him to be able to answer the questions as much as possible without my intervention.   If I know all the details it's too easy for me to "help, or lead" so it was good to see how well he could read and think on his own.

He did well.

I have to admit though, the "read the bible verses and see how they relate to the passage" section, completely stymied him and we chose to set those aside for now.    I will occasionally bring them up again in a less formal way.   When asked to say what he thought a bible passage meant he did a good job, it was just the applying it to the book that caused him to struggle. I liked the interweaving of faith with thinking about a book.

Would I recommend Progeny Press?
Yes.
Although my lad is not keen on doing study guides (but seriously...does any child who'd rather build and create like taking the time to think his way through a book?) it worked for him.   He thought, he considered, his vocabulary comprehension grew and this was good.

Did he struggle with some aspects?   YES.
But that's good too. It's good to be stretched when you are learning, and if it's too much, to set it aside and approach it from a different angle.   It's part of the beauty of multi-age materials.

Product information:
Received: Digital copy of Study Guide for Stone Fox.
Vendor: Progeny Press
Item: Stone Fox E-Guide
Price: $23.30
Grade Range: Upper Elementary (grades 3-6)
Length: 60 pages with separate answer key

To learn more about study guides from Progeny Press CLICK HERE or click on the banner below.

Social Media:

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Swift Things are Beautiful - A Poetry Study

10/8/2015

Swift Things are beautiful
by Elizabeth Coatsworth

Swift things are beautiful:
Swallows and deer,
And lightening that falls
Bright-veined and clear,
Rivers and meteors,
Wind in the wheat,
The strong-withered horse,
The runner's sure feet.

And slow things are beautiful:
The closing of day,
The pause of the wave
That curves downward to spray,
The ember that crumbles,
The opening flower,
And the ox that moves on
In the quiet of power.

What is this poem about?
That is the question I asked my lad BEFORE I actually read the poem.
His response:
Spiders jumping, flies zooming, jumping spiders leaping

Was the Poem about what you thought?
No. It wasn't a good poem mom. It wasn't about what I thought it would be.

Can you think of how it was kinda like what you thought?
With a wrinkled brow he thought and said... well Spiders weren't mentioned...THEY SHOULD HAVE BEEN... but she did talk about some things that were fast, and jumping spiders are slow to when they creep up on something.

BUT why he asked, did she start her poem off talking about fast things when she had slow things in it?

We didn't know the answer.
We did talk about comparison though and that perhaps that might have been her point.

Vocabulary
Withers: the highest part of a horse's back, lying at the base of the neck above the shoulders. The height of a horse is measured to the withers.

What do you see in the poem? How is it set up?
Some of the words rhyme... every other line. But not every other line, just some of them.

Poetry: Wanted- A Witch's Cat - a lesson

9/24/2015

I am a firm believer that poetry is best learned by simply reading it and taking time with it. Why does an author use certain words? How does it make you feel? How it is set up? So I like to read poetry with my lad. :) Here's a sample of one we did today.

Wanted--A Witch's Cat
by Shelagh McGee
taken from Childcraft: The How and Why Library, Volume 3-Stories and Poems page 245

Wanted--a witch's cat.
Must have vigor and spite,
Be expert at hissing,
And good in a fight,
And have balance and poise
On a broomstick at night.

Wanted--a witch's cat.
Must have hypnotic eyes
To tantalize victims
And mesmerize spies,
And be an adept
At scanning the skies.

Wanted--a witch's cat,
With a sly, cunning smile,
A knowledge of spells
And a good deal of guile,
With a fairly hot temper
And plenty of bile.

Wanted--a witch's cat,
Who's not afraid to fly,
For a cat with strong nerves
The salary's high
Wanted--a witch's cat;
Only the best need apply.

What we did with this poem

Discussion:
What did you think of this poem?   I liked it!
What do you think about the cat wanted?
"I wouldn't want that cat.   I want a cat that would be nice and kind with me, like Milo, but I would also want a cat that would attack people who wanted to hurt you.   Milo doesn't do that mom".

Observation:
When you look at the poem, what do you see?
It's broken into sections.
Each section has six lines.   "MOM?   Do you think she did that on purpose"?
It doesn't rhyme.

Can you find words you don't know?

tantalize: torment or tease (someone) with the sight or promise of something that is unobtainable.
mesmerize: hold the attention of (someone) to the exclusion of all else or so as to transfix them.

guile: Sly or cunning intelligence
hypnotic: of producing or relating to hypnosis
poise: graceful and elegant bearing in a person.
adept:very skilled or proficient at something.
bile: anger, irritability

What kind of words were they?
They described the cat.
Which means they are what? Adjectives.

How did the poem make you feel?
This type of question is always hard for my boy.
He said "the poem made me feel interested sort of". :)