Laura Purdie Salas

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Read Across America with 50 State Poems!

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I am so excited to share the cool way that Catherine Flynn’s school, Sherman School in Sherman, CT, is celebrating Read Across America. You might remember that Catherine wrote the activity guide in my book Wacky, Wild, and Wonderful: 50 State Poems. Check out the plans her school has made! I’m honored to think of my book being used across an entire school like this! Despite the fact that my State Poems book has 51 poems rather than 30, I want to share that a big part of the reason I made these collections (almost all) have 30 poems was because I know a lot of teachers are looking for short accessible, easy ways to share more poetry during April, National Poetry Month. So I hope Catherine’s fabulous plan might inspire you to choose a poetry book to share in your classroom this April, one poem per day. Of course, I know many of you already go way above and beyond that, sharing poems year-round (hurray!) and creating elaborate projects and celebrations in April. I love that! But if you have no poetry in your classroom now, sharing one poem per day in April is at least a way to start. Thanks, Catherine, for creating and sharing your plans!

Catherine_Flynn

Catherine Flynn

At Sherman School, we make March a month-long celebration of reading. We always pay homage to Dr. Seuss on March 2nd by reading old favorites such as Green Eggs and Ham and The Cat in the Hat. But we also use this day to launch a month-long theme related to reading. What better way to celebrate Read Across America than by doing just that…reading about each of the 50 states.

This year, we are incorporating poet Laura Purdie Salas’s new collection Wacky, Wild, and Wonderful: 50 State Poems, part of her 30 Painless Classroom Poems series, into the festivities. This wonderful collection of poems is as diverse as the country it celebrates. There are poems about geography, geology, and weather. There are poems about ecosystems, food chains, and history. In short, there is something for everyone in Wacky, Wild, and Wonderful: 50 State Poems.
Wacky, Wild, and Wonderful: 50 State Poems

Wacky, Wild, and Wonderful: 50 State Poems

Each class will choose a poem that supports a topic they have been studying. For example, second grade might choose ?Wisconsin: Catch!? This poem, about a bald eagle’s swooping down to the water of the Mississippi to catch a fish, is a natural to use in their study of food chains. Students could illustrate Laura’s poem or use this as a mentor for their own food chain poem. The form, cinquain, is very accessible for second graders.

To share their learning with the rest of the school, each class will decorate their classroom door to highlight their study of Laura’s poem and its related curricular topic. I can’t wait to see what each class comes up with. The possibilities are limitless. Best of all, the classes that create the best doors will Skype with Laura later this spring.

We are so excited to be pairing Laura’s poems with Read Across America, and can’t wait to see kids’ responses. We’ll be sharing photos of the doors and the kids? work throughout the month.

–Catherine Flynn

You can check out my Wacky, Wild, and Wonderful: 50 State Poems Pinterest Board to read four poems from the book as well as see a photo that relates to each poem in the collection.

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Comments

  3. Laura and Catherine,
    I posted this to Facebook. One friend, a school counselor, has given it a like already. The word is spreading, hopefully all across America.

  4. Laura and Catherine,
    I posted this to Facebook. One friend, a school counselor, has given it a like already. The word is spreading, hopefully all across America.

  7. Laura, this is wonderful. Just think of all the subjects derived from one poem – geography, history, climate, food production, language, names and their origins, etc. Toss in a bit of your “wacky, wild and wonderful” and the children will receive a medicinal dose of laughter.

    • Thank you, Martha–and Catherine, who wrote the activity guide for this collection, will guide them through all sorts of cool ways to connect with the poems!

  8. Laura, this is wonderful. Just think of all the subjects derived from one poem – geography, history, climate, food production, language, names and their origins, etc. Toss in a bit of your “wacky, wild and wonderful” and the children will receive a medicinal dose of laughter.

    • Thank you, Martha–and Catherine, who wrote the activity guide for this collection, will guide them through all sorts of cool ways to connect with the poems!

  13. All that hard work was worth it, Salas! It’s going to keep getting better and having more and more reach with teachers and students. 🙂

  14. All that hard work was worth it, Salas! It’s going to keep getting better and having more and more reach with teachers and students. 🙂

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