Laura Purdie Salas

Writing the World for Kids

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The World’s Last Magic Bean #PoetryFriday

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Happy Poetry Friday! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) I’m sharing another poem readaloud from one of my 30 Painless Classroom Poems books. Now, today, I’m sharing another poem from Fairy Tale Garage Sale, which has the concept that all the characters in fairy tales are selling off their unneeded items. It’s another Jack […]

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Fee-Fie-Foe-Fairian: Surprise! I’m Vegetarian! #PoetryFriday

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Happy Poetry Friday! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) Last week, I shared a poem from my book A Need to Feed. Some of you asked when it was coming out, and the answer is that it’s been out for years. It’s part of a little paperback set of books I did for teachers […]

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Blue Whale’s Apology #PoetryFriday

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Happy Poetry Friday! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) A few cool things before my poem: I’m excited to share the awesome news that Snowman-Cold=Puddle is on the ILA Teachers’ Choice Reading List! Also, I recently created a bunch of #readaloud videos of some of my books and a few poems and put them […]

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Pencil Riddle-ku

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Hi, you guys! Since the Kindle edition (you don’t have to have a Kindle to read it, though) of Riddle-ku: Haiku for Very Close Reading, part of my 30 Painless Classroom Poems series, is on sale for 99 cents

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A Forest Riddle-ku

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Hiya, everyone. If you are a subscriber to the blog, you should have received an email notification about this post. My awesome web designer worked with WordPress Support yesterday and got everything straightened out. Thanks! And if you’re not a subscriber but you’d like to be, you can do that in the sidebar to the […]

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Tip #18: Let the Poet Read [Poetry Tips for Teachers]

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Happy Poetry Friday! Welcome to today’s tip in my month-long Poetry Tips for Teachers series. Tip #18: Let the poet read. If you’re self-conscious about reading poetry aloud, one way to ease into it is let the poets themselves read! I love the Poetry Speaks to Children anthology that comes with a CD of many […]

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Tip #13: Lights Out! [Poetry Tips for Teachers]

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Happy Poetry Friday! Welcome to today’s tip in my month-long Poetry Tips for Teachers series. Tip #13: Turn out the lights! Turn out the lights to help students focus. When you remove visual input, students are often able to listen more carefully. Fewer distractions. Something unexpected and new. It can add a little more focus […]

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Tip #11: Focus on Transitions [Poetry Tips for Teachers]

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Welcome to today’s tip in my month-long Poetry Tips for Teachers series. Tip #11: Focus on transition words. In narrative poems that tell a story, emphasize transition words, like “then,” or “first,” or “next” to help kids follow the chronology and make sense of the series of events. Or if the poem doesn’t use obvious […]

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Tip #6: Make a Face [Poetry Tips for Teachers]

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Welcome to today’s tip in my month-long Poetry Tips for Teachers series. [Addendum: I had a little issue with a disappearing blog post and rewriting it and–well, I’ll spare you the details. I apologize for having the same basic tip two days in a row, but this one has a bit more detail and a […]

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Tip #4: Slow Down [Poetry Tips for Teachers]

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Tip #4: Slow down. Read slowly. Much more slowly than you would read prose. Poems are dense and compact and a lot to take in! Here I am reading the poem–as slowly as I can:>)  

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