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Bs Are a Few of My Favorite Things, and an Uplifting Anthology

Happy Poetry Friday! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) Howdy, friends. This week, I’m sharing an old poem, because it recently found a new little audience. I wrote this spoof in 2009, inspired by Tricia Stohr-Hunt. (More details back here.) Now this poem is included in a new anthology created by Jayne Jaudon Ferrer.

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How to Make a Rainbow

How to Make a Rainbow #ClassroomConnections

When you’re studying colors and/or weather, check out my How to Make a Rainbow. I featured this book at a storytime recently, and the kids had fun identifying some of the objects of each color. Then we did a little motion song to the tune of “Farmer in the Dell.” If you are wearing [green]

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Apart But Part

Happy Poetry Friday! Welcome, everyone! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) You guys, this has been a rough writing week. Last weekend, I wrote live with my Poetry Sisters, and it was great. Although our challenge, a villanelle around some kind of dichotomy, was tough, I thought I had at least a start on

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Welcome, Panther — a Tangled Poem #PoetryFriday

Happy Poetry Friday! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) Well, I thought my life was in sufficient order that I could be a contributing member of Poetry Friday again, but I seem to be lacking! At the end of June, my Poetry Sisters posted tangled poems. That is, found poems that we doodled on.

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Freeze-Up #PoetryFriday

Happy Poetry Friday! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) My sister Patty is visiting this week, and I am SO excited! I haven’t seen her in almost two years! But I really am trying to get back into my PF routine, so I got this post ready before she arrived :>) I borrowed a

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Got My Summer Bucket List from a Book! #ClassroomConnections

As time flies faster and faster, sometimes whole seasons seem to disappear in a blur of whirling calendar pages! We’ve just moved, and home is chaotic. But summer is short, and I want to make sure I don’t miss the whole thing. So I’m looking at my book, Lion of the Sky, to identify iconic

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Why You Cry When You Read Me [Poetry Friday]

Happy Poetry Friday! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) You guys, I have so missed you! I hope you’re all well, and I’m excited to start catching up on all I’ve missed over the past month or two. We’re still getting settled in, but I’m going to try picking back up my Poetry Friday

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Defining the Seasons #ClassroomConnections

While writing Snowman-Cold=Puddle, I thought about the many different ways seasons are defined, including agriculturally, by temperature, by planetary alignment, etc. Many regions of the world have rainy and dry season instead of our four North American seasons. For me, as a kid and then a teacher, summer always started on the first non-school day,

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Bringing Home with You (Books and Moving) #ClassroomConnections

We’ve just moved–third time in five years. I’m exhausted, and I don’t know where anything is! Since I read so many books, I largely rely on library books (and novels are usually on Kindle) to feed my habit. But there are still those owned, physical books that must come with me. They’re old friends. A

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A Summer Poetry Journal Project #ClassroomConnections

It’s almost the end of the school year, which makes me think of both summer writing projects and What I Did This Summer back-to-school projects. Ugh. Those projects result in boring summaries, in my experience. Wouldn’t it be fun to ask students to pick one small moment each week and write an equation poem or

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The Dance of Being Human [Poetry Friday]

Happy Poetry Friday! Welcome, everyone! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) It’s still moving chaos in the Salas household! Today (Thursday), we closed on both our old place and our new place. Now we’re in a hotel nearby this coming week as we get some work done in the new place and do some

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Bald Head

National Cancer Survivors Day #ClassroomConnections

Did you know the first Sunday in June is National Cancer Survivors Day? I didn’t, either. But it is. Like just about everyone, my life has been touched by cancer, and an editor friend who is smart and wonderful and compassionate is going through treatment right now. I’m re-sharing this poem from quite a few

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Happy Retirement to Mary Lee Hahn! #PoetryFriday

Happy Poetry Friday! And, more importantly, happy retirement to Mary Lee Hahn, longtime unofficial leader of our Poetry Friday community. (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) I was so tickled to get Irene Latham’s note about honoring Mary Lee today. Here’s how I feel about you, Mary Lee: If I were still a student,

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