Poetry on Display

Today I went through my poetry basket to remind myself of the newer books I have added this past spring and summer. I want to remember what worked for my students as well as place out some new finds. The first book I wanted to set on my display shelf is Button Up! by Alice Schertle. I fell in love with this book after read the first few poems. Each poem is written from the perspective of a piece of clothing. I happen to have a student in my class who used this book as mentor text as he wrote poetry for the second half of the year. By reading poetry aloud, I will be reminding my students of all the strong mentor texts we have in our room as writing workshop begins again! A favorite in our room last year, Jack's Soccer Jersey, begins like this:

When Jack plays soccer we get our kicks

I'm Jack's jersey.

I'm number 6.

I show the number for me and Jack

6 in front

and 6 in back.

Another poetry book I will be displaying is SCORE! 50 Poems to Motivate and Inspire by Charles Ghigna. When I first saw this last spring, I knew I needed it. It was when Mandy at Enjoy and Embrace Learning reminded me of it again. Here is her review. I flipped through and found a poem that I will post in my second grade classroom and we will read together for a number of reasons. I love to have short pieces that we all read and think about as I think second graders will still benefit from the practice of shared reading. Also, we will not only explore the meaning for each of us but I will use this text to notice words and features of words that will guide word study. The poem is called DREAMS ALLOWED. I am anxious to hear what dreams my second graders have for this school year.

The third book of poetry that I have set out to highlight is Falling Down the Pages A book of list edited by Georgia Heard. I grabbed the advanced copy of this at NCTE last fall and was fortunate enough to have Georgia sign my copy. There are many school poems that seem appropriate for the beginning of the year. Poems like: Ways to Greet a Friend, On the Menu for School Today, In My Desk and Booktime. One of my favorites is "Things To Do If You Are A Pencil" written by Elaine Magliaro of Wild Rose Reader. This book of poetry is unique yet simple and I am hoping my kids will want to slip this in their reading bins.