Laura Purdie Salas

Writing the World for Kids

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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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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 […]

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Why Can’t I Feel the Earth Spin? Why-ku by Laura Purdie Salas [Poetry Friday]

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Happy Poetry Friday! I’m back with another why-ku–I’ve shared a few of these pairs over the past week, and it’s fun to look at them and remember just how much fun I had writing them! These are from my latest 30 Painless Classroom Poems book,?Why-ku: Poems of Wonder About the World. Here’s the final one […]

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Why Don’t We Float Away? [why-ku]

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Howdy! Today, I’m sharing (late, since I woke up and thought–Ack, did I do a post for this morning?) another pair of why-ku from Why-ku: Poems of Wonder About the World. A Note from the Poet: [Carnival] Sometimes you just have to let your weird brain take over when you write poems. The image of […]

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