My Little Free Library! and a poetryaction to Fall Leaves, by Loretta Holland

 

Laura's Little Free Library

 

Look what I got for my birthday! More on my Little Free Library next week!

And here’s another poetryaction, this one inspired by a beautiful book that Mary Lee Hahn at A Year of Reading raved about, Fall Leaves.

poetryaction to fall leaves

After I read this gorgeous book, I brainstormed a list of simple words that could be both nouns and verbs and tried my hand at a similar form, using one of the two title words in every single line. I had only limited success! But it was a fun language exercise:>)

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I’ve been doing something new. After reading a picture book, sometimes I jot down a quick poem based on something in the book. It could be inspired by the entire book, the setting, a character, or even just a tiny detail in a picture or a single phrase from the text. I’m using picture books as a jumping off point for poems. I thought this might be something interesting for you to do in your classroom, so I’m going to share some of them here.

24 Responses

  1. What a great poetry writing challenge, Laura. Love the outcome. What a super birthday gift too. Happy belated birthday, by the way!

  2. What a great poetry writing challenge, Laura. Love the outcome. What a super birthday gift too. Happy belated birthday, by the way!

  3. wonderful poem I like the thought of writing a poem based on a book
    and you have done something I had always wondered if it was okay to do when writing a poem ( using the same word several times in the same poem) I always purposely try not to do that but it must be okay to do

  4. wonderful poem I like the thought of writing a poem based on a book
    and you have done something I had always wondered if it was okay to do when writing a poem ( using the same word several times in the same poem) I always purposely try not to do that but it must be okay to do

  5. I like the two word per line poems and this fits so well with comparing spring and winter. I especially like how the “snow hovers and spring hides”…it’s always around the corner so to speak! Meanwhile I am pledging not to turn on the heat until Nov.! Thanks for sharing this idea for teachers, Laura! I am forwarding it to my friends!
    Janet

    1. Thanks, Janet. And thank you for sharing with teachers:>) This particular one was a challenge. Have you read FALL LEAVES? It’s a cool structure. Students would struggle with it as a mentor text, I think–at least I did–but it was fun to give it a try! And I’m having a blast with poetryactions for picture books I read!

  6. I like the two word per line poems and this fits so well with comparing spring and winter. I especially like how the “snow hovers and spring hides”…it’s always around the corner so to speak! Meanwhile I am pledging not to turn on the heat until Nov.! Thanks for sharing this idea for teachers, Laura! I am forwarding it to my friends!
    Janet

    1. Thanks, Janet. And thank you for sharing with teachers:>) This particular one was a challenge. Have you read FALL LEAVES? It’s a cool structure. Students would struggle with it as a mentor text, I think–at least I did–but it was fun to give it a try! And I’m having a blast with poetryactions for picture books I read!

  7. Oooh! I just got my Little Free Library a couple of weeks ago. I have some work to do on it still, painting and getting a plexiglass door. It will go up in spring now, I think. So exciting to get that started!
    Cute Spring Snows poem! I wrote poems for the AtoZ based on book titles, which was also a fun exercise.

    1. Cool! Yeah, we barely got ours up in time. It was quite an ordeal for Randy, installing it in our clay-heavy soil. Post-hole digger did nothing. It IS exciting to get it started:>) Poems inspired by book titles are definitely fun. Some of poetryactions will be those or poems inspired by one line from the book.

  8. Oooh! I just got my Little Free Library a couple of weeks ago. I have some work to do on it still, painting and getting a plexiglass door. It will go up in spring now, I think. So exciting to get that started!
    Cute Spring Snows poem! I wrote poems for the AtoZ based on book titles, which was also a fun exercise.

    1. Cool! Yeah, we barely got ours up in time. It was quite an ordeal for Randy, installing it in our clay-heavy soil. Post-hole digger did nothing. It IS exciting to get it started:>) Poems inspired by book titles are definitely fun. Some of poetryactions will be those or poems inspired by one line from the book.

  9. This is that push pull that always goes on between winter and spring. Looks like a lovely book. I like how you push yourself to write every day.

    1. Thanks, Margaret. It’s always amazing here (in MN) how it’ll feel like spring is here to stay, with warm days and such, and then BOOM, a spring snow and cold weather for a week. Spring is actually brown, muddy, and kinda ugly up here, so I sure don’t mind one last beautiful snowfall:>) It IS a lovely book!

  10. This is that push pull that always goes on between winter and spring. Looks like a lovely book. I like how you push yourself to write every day.

    1. Thanks, Margaret. It’s always amazing here (in MN) how it’ll feel like spring is here to stay, with warm days and such, and then BOOM, a spring snow and cold weather for a week. Spring is actually brown, muddy, and kinda ugly up here, so I sure don’t mind one last beautiful snowfall:>) It IS a lovely book!

  11. I just shared your first poem and idea with a teacher yesterday, Laura, and now this one is terrific too. The librarians and I have been loving this new Fall Leaves book. How gorgeous are those illustrations and the unusual wording is terrific. I love that you tried it, and it’s good! Thanks for the inspiration!

    1. Thanks, Linda–and for sharing with someone else. That book is simply beautiful. Really, really hard to write. I brainstormed a list of words that can be nouns or verbs, and I played with a few. Then I thought, “What the heck? I’m only supposed to spend 10 minutes on this!”

  12. I just shared your first poem and idea with a teacher yesterday, Laura, and now this one is terrific too. The librarians and I have been loving this new Fall Leaves book. How gorgeous are those illustrations and the unusual wording is terrific. I love that you tried it, and it’s good! Thanks for the inspiration!

    1. Thanks, Linda–and for sharing with someone else. That book is simply beautiful. Really, really hard to write. I brainstormed a list of words that can be nouns or verbs, and I played with a few. Then I thought, “What the heck? I’m only supposed to spend 10 minutes on this!”

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