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Poetryaction for Please, Mr. Panda
Oh, my goodness. My writers’ group, the Wordsmiths, met yesterday for our holiday gathering. The laughing! The food! The good advice! Hope you are all enjoying some holiday gatherings with your teacher colleagues and/or writing friends, too! Please, Mr. Panda is a quirky little book! To be honest, I thought Mr. Panda was a bit
Poetryaction for Ben & Zip
OK, I know a beach book and poem isn’t exactly seasonal, but…a five-minute imaginary trip to the beach might be just what you long for, now that we’re knee deep into December! I used to be in a crit group with author Joanne Linden, and I was SO thrilled when Ben & Zip, a charming
Poetryaction for Bedtime at the Nut House
Happy Hannukah to everyone celebrating! This week, I’m going to be sharing poetryactions. Quick poems written in reaction to picture books. I hope you like them! My house feels a little like The Nut House right now, mostly because of holiday stuff and book stuff. It’s all good and cheerful! But a little bit crazy:>)
The Light, a Poem Honoring CLA and Reading Teachers and Researchers
Happy Poetry Friday! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) I’m reflecting on groups today. First up, the Poetry Princesses, aka Poetry 7, aka Poetry Sisters. We are Liz Garton Scanlon, Tricia Stohr-Hunt, Andi Sibley, Tanita S. Davis, Kelly Fineman, Sara L. Holmes, and me. And we’ve been writing poems of a selected form each
Key Lime…Pie? [15 Words or Less Poems]
Wake up your poetry brains with 15 Words or Less (guidelines are here)! Here’s the key lime pie I shared yesterday from a Lerner author dinner during NCTE. Looks a little odd, but oh my goodness, it was heaven. This picture makes me think of: My frequent cooking disasters–which both look AND taste a little…weird
Great Speeches and Great Chats — NCTE, Part 4
You’ve heard about my Friday sessions (Passion-Driven Research and Into the Poem), my Friday night, and my Saturday morning session on Revved for Research. I just wanted to share a few favorite moments here from the rest of Saturday: Marilyn Singer’s exuberant acceptance speech for the NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children, including
The Road to Hell Is Paved With Technology Problems — NCTE, Part 3
So, Friday night, Marilyn Singer pondered whether the road to hell is indeed paved with good intentions, but Saturday morning I determined the the road to hell is paved with bad technology! I was part of three panels at NCTE, and I was thrilled to be part of each. Alyson Beecher, who put together the
Penguins, Nerds, Swing Dancing, and the Road to Hell — NCTE, part 2
I shared a bit about my NCTE Friday last week, and I just wanted to tell you about Friday night, which was a great time. I went to the Penguin Nerdy Cocktail Hour, which was a cocktail party (generally, my least favorite thing in the whole world). It was fun! I now know enough people
Fierce, a Thanksgiving Villanelle
This villanelle isn’t about the holiday of Thanksgiving, but it is about how thankful I am for the wild world around me, even when I don’t get to explore that wildness very often. So I’m posting it today and leaving it up for Poetry Friday, too:>) Carol at Carol’s Corner has the Poetry Friday Roundup,
Jungle Tile [15 Words or Less Poems]
Hello, and Happy Thanksgiving! I figure we have plenty of images of turkeys and cornucopias and all that other good holiday stuff, so I just go with whatever catches my fancy:>) I’m thankful, as ever, for this 15 Words or Less community. You’re an important part of it, whether you stop in every single week
NCTE 2015: Passion-Driven Research and Into the Poem
Whew! NCTE was awesome and exhausting. What a lovely, lovely time. I’m going to share some highlights here over the course of several posts. Thursday night was my first taste of NCTE, with a lovely get-together with Janet Wong and Sylvia Vardell (aka Pomelo Publishing), Susan Marie Swanson, and Heidi Mordhorst. We celebrated the release
Inside Music [15 Words or Less Poems]
Wake up your poetry brains with 15 Words or Less (guidelines are here)! I usually share photos I take, but I couldn’t pass by this one that my husband emailed to me. This picture makes me think of: Shadows (again!) — I love them Tiny elves holding a concert INSIDE a viola or a cello
2 Kinds of Cats, a Poem by Laura Purdie Salas
I recently wrote a poem called “2 Kinds of Cats,” comparing a housecat and a tiger. I wrote this poem on assignment, for the International Fund for Animal Welfare, and they wanted something that could be used in their magazine for 1st-graders. Here’s the first half: You can read the whole poem in the magazine,
Leaf Creations by 3rd-Graders
Last week on Twitter, Madison Bailey shared some 3rd-graders’ leaf creations they made after reading A Leaf Can Be…! How awesome is that? My Can Be… books are all about seeing common things in new ways, and that’s exactly what they did. Some looked at the shapes of the leaves and thought about what they
Brinicle, from National Geographic’s Book of Nature Poetry
Happy Poetry Friday! And happy Friday the 13th! No bad luck here today, unless you happen to be a starfish. Last month, I shared my Sailing Stone poem from J. Patrick Lewis’ anthology with National Geographic, the Book of Nature Poetry — which just won a Eureka Silver Medal. Congratulations, Pat and National Geographic! Now
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Are You Looking For?
Go to my Poetry page for:
- National Poetry Month projects through the years
- Small Reads Roundups (poems grouped by topic)
- Introductions to several favorite poetry forms