Small Reads for Brighters Days
I bet you thought this Friday was just a shopping day. Wrong! It’s Flossing Day (no, not the dance). So grab your dental floss and review good techniques…and celebrate with this poem from In the Middle of the Night. Bet you didn’t know dental floss had so much fun without us! I had a good […]
September 8 is International Literacy Day! This year’s theme is Teaching and Learning in the Covid-19 Crisis and Beyond. It’s a great time to thank all the teachers you know for the extra work they’re doing to reach and teach your kids during challenging times. Thanks, teachers! Here are just a few activities I offer […]
If you’re an educator who shares and reviews books online or in person, Lerner is offering a digital peek at my next picture book, LION OF THE SKY: HAIKU FOR ALL SEASONS. Haiku meet riddles in these 24 poems. From baseball to apple, snow angel to kite, seasonal hallmarks speak in haiku to give clues […]
I got an envelope from Boyds Mills Press on Saturday, and I opened it to find an advance copy of their Spring 2019 catalog. And guess what’s on the cover (which was a wonderful surprise to me!)? That’s right! It’s art by the wonderful Angela Matteson, and it just happens to be the cover art […]
Welcome, everybody! I’m excited you’re here for the Poetry Friday Roundup! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) A couple of weeks ago, I made a Facebook faux pas in replying to a comment on my phone that I thought was to me, but wasn’t. The happy upshot of a long, boring story is that […]
Happy Poetry Friday! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) I love a poetry collection that’s a good mash-up, so Leslie Bulion’s latest, Random Body Parts (Peachtree, 2015), makes me squeal with joy! First, it’s poems about body parts. Yes, please. Annnd, it’s poems in a ton of different poetic forms. Excellent. But wait. There’s […]
Happy Poetry Friday! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) I hope you had an awesome Poetry Month. I did. It was super busy with lots of visits to schools and libraries. However, I’m way behind on blog reading, and I especially am a bit sad that I missed out on so many terrific online […]
Welcome to today’s tip in my month-long Poetry Tips for Teachers series. Tip #15: Echo read. Try echo reading. You read a line, and then the students echo it back to you. This is great for helping students’ fluency, and I’m always amazed at how quickly and how well they pick up on performance nuances. […]
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 […]
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 […]
