Literacy Land: Five for Friday

Showing posts with label Five for Friday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Five for Friday. Show all posts

Five for Friday ~ Poetry Across the Grades

Friday, April 18, 2014
Hello, everyone!  Andrea from Reading Toward the Stars here today!  I have been on my Spring Break this week and am not ready to go back.  But, I am excited to share some fun poetry ideas for everyone, especially with Poem in Your Pocket Day next week!

This post is linked with Kacey at Doodle Bugs Teaching.

Poetry can be used with even the youngest of children.  Nursery rhymes and other simple rhymes are perfect to use with young children.  I use them with my own daughter and kindergarten students to help them with rhyming.  Just listening to the poems and rhyming together helps them out so much!

I also use simple poems with my kindergarteners to work on concept of word.  I use nursery rhymes and simple songs to help them know where words are in print.  We progress throughout the year as we read poems.  Here are some examples of things we do with the poems.
Using stickers to mark words
Finding words in the poems
Here is a freebie of Weather Poems that are perfect for Concept of Word from Carla at Comprehension Connection.  Click {here} or on the picture below to grab it from her TPT store.
Weather Poems for Concept of Word and Word Work

Using poetry with beginning readers is always fun!  We use the poems as repeated readings to help with fluency.  I use one poem throughout the week with the students to help with fluency practice.  We also work through other activities as well, such as locating sight words or other words they need to know.  We continue to work with rhyming words as beginning readers too.

Em from Curious Firsties has a great post on using poems for repeated readings.  You can read her post by clicking {here}.

As children progress as readers, so do their needs as readers.  Poetry lends itself well for helping students with important reading skills.  Once students are more fluent as readers and have the basics for reading, they need to hone in on important skills.  At this stage, students really need more work on prosody, the rhythm of speech.  We really have fun with this as we highlight punctuation marks and other types of print to help them focus on HOW to read the words and phrases.  I posted about this in February, and you can read this post {here}.
Of course, once students become competent readers, they work with poetry in different ways.  Once students are familiar with the ins and outs of poetry, they can begin to work with comprehension.  Students in third grade and beyond can work on reading poetry and thinking about what happens in the poem.  Sometimes poems can be tricky, but if you start out with poems they know, like nursery rhymes {yes, nursery rhymes with older students}, they can understand comprehension skills easier.  Many nursery rhymes tell a story and have some type of cause and effect.  Think about "Jack and Jill".  Kids can learn so much from that one rhyme!

Problem:  They need water.  Solution:  They go up the hill to get it.

Cause:  Jack fell down.  Effect:  He broke his crown.

And as students go through the middle and high school grades, they can use that simple knowledge on more complex poems.

Even though many of these ideas seem to be specific for each stage of reading, readers in all stages can benefit from poetry.  The ideas in the various stages can be used for other stages as well.

All readers can find imagery in poetry and visualize what is happening.  Each week when we read poems in my groups, we spend some time drawing a picture of what is happening or what the students think about when they read the poem.  Here is an example of a student's drawing based on the poem we read.

Thank you to Lauren from Teacher Mom of 3 for this wonderful set of May poems,which is where I got the poem for the above picture!  You can grab them for free from her TPT store by clicking {here} or on the picture below.
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/May-Poetry-Book-for-Fluency-242724

Students of all ages can also write simple poetry.  Many start with the simple acrostic poem and work their way into some more complex types.  I like to use the Bio Poem with my students when they study famous people.  Here is a freebie template for planning a Bio Poem.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/o47lvb0u9pefnjf/bio%20poem.pdf

And in honor of Poem in Your Pocket Day, which Lauren wrote about on Wednesday in this post, here is a freebie you can use with your students for their poems in their pockets.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/64j5orctgo617ar/poem%20in%20pocket.pdf

Bex from Reading and Writing Redhead also has a great freebie full of resources for helping to teach poetry in this blog post.

There are so many wonderful ways to use poetry in our classrooms!  What are some fun ways you have used poetry with your students?








**Thank you to Ashley Hughes for the cute kids in this post!

Freebie Fridays

Classroom Freebies Manic Monday
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Five for Friday...Lighting up Learning Family Style

Friday, February 7, 2014


If you visited yesterday, then you've already had a sneak peek at today's topic.  We are continuing our discussion of how we can get parents engaged in the learning process as we link up with Doodlebugs for her Five for Friday.  School can and should be fun, and it should be a place where everyone is included in the process and welcome regardless of ethnicity, socioeconomic status, or level of education. Our school district's motto speaks to this, "Every Child by Name and by Need to Graduation", and educating our children takes a village.  Here are a few ideas from my fellow contributors that you might consider to help improve the home-school-community connection.
Cartoon Number OneDeniece at This Little Piggy Reads shared this, "I teach in a school that is 8 years old (not the building, it is a former Jr. High School from the 80’s), and we have had a tough time establishing a supportive and involved parent base. Re-Zoning played a major factor in this hardship. I've been teaching at this school since it opened, and I feel as if in the last couple of years we've finally established yearly events. I am on the parent involvement committee, and we were BLOWN AWAY by the success of two events we began three years ago – Muffins for Mom and Donuts for Dad. Muffins for Mom is an event that takes place the week prior to Mother’s Day. We invite Mothers, Aunties, Grandmothers and Great-Grandmothers to enjoy a pre-wrapped muffin with their child 30 minutes before school begins. Honestly, you can’t find parking that morning!! Donuts for Dad is just as crowded. We normally host this event around March Madness. You would be surprised how many parents show up. We send home a flyer with an attached note requesting a headcount. Then, we gather up each family and take a picture. Mom’s picture has the kids sitting on a bench, holding flowers and the Dad’s picture has the kids on the basketball court holding a basketball. We upload them to Walgreens – add a cute border and give it as their gift for attending. The parents just love it!!"

Cartoon Number TwoFrom Em at Curious Firsties, "Our families were invited this year to attend a “Fancy Tea Party” where they had the opportunity to listen to their child’s “how to” writing.  Each first grader made themselves fancy using dressy clothes, elegant jewelry, top hats, canes, and decorative scarves!  Then they wrote about it.  To prepare for the tea party students participated in an "Ooh La La Beauty Spa."  This included nail painting, upscale hair bows, mustaches (drawn or stickers) and (sticker felt) bow ties. Here's a glimpse of our fun.




We have had a few other writing celebrations this year too, and you can check them out here.

Cartoon Number ThreeWendy from Read With Me ABC shares this, "In our elementary school, families are invited to attend Book Fair Bingo early in the school year.  We transform the cafeteria into a giant bingo hall.  In the lobby nearby, the Book Fair is set up with fancy decorations and is open for shopping.  Parents can order a pizza for their family, play bingo, and win gift certificates for free books.  It's a fun-filled night for everyone!"

Cartoon Number FourNext up is Emily from The Reading Tutor/OG with Mystery Readers.

Hi Everyone! Emily, from The Reading Tutor/OG here! One of my favorite ways to get parents involved in the classroom was to host a weekly Mystery Reader. Having a Mystery Reader join us on Fridays was one of the fun ways we would wrap up our week. Beth Newingham, a teacher blogger for Scholastic, shared her ideas for how to set it up in your classroom very easily. You can access the link to those directions [here] I posted a sign up list at Open House night in September with all of the Friday dates. When it was a parent’s turn, they would email a small list of clues about themselves ranging from general to specific. Each day I would read a clue to build anticipation for our guest’s arrival. By Friday, they would be brimming with excitement trying to figure out who was coming to read! We didn't just have parents sign up either. Close friends or relatives came as well. I especially loved when my Dad came to be the Mystery Reader right before Christmas to read a beloved story of mine as a little girl. I hope you’ll consider arranging Mystery Readers in your class too!

Cartoon Number Five
The last event is for our Middle School readers.  You do Parental Involvement activities too, and this one is sure to keep things fun.  Lauren from Teacher Mom of Three  is here to share the details.

Back in 2002, I was our middle school’s Literacy Resource Teacher where I worked with struggling and gifted students in reading across the content areas. Along with my media specialist and my Lunch Bunch students, we planned a Family Literacy Night to celebrate Dr. Seuss’ birthday.  We invited entire families and made sure to have interesting activities for younger siblings.

We held our event on a Friday night from 7 to 9 p.m.  Parents and students selected two out of five stations to visit for the first half of the evening. Some of our stations included a retired teacher reading ghost stories, Dr. Seuss picture books read by our middle school students, make a Seuss bookmark and hat, a Poetry Slam where our students read their original poems, and a read-aloud of The Hobbit by one of our language arts teachers who was dressed as Gandalf.  During the second half of our celebration, we had a Read-In, collected gently used books and school supplies for a local women’s shelter, and ate birthday cake and drank punch in the cafeteria.  A good time was had by all, and we met our goal of not only celebrating Dr. Seuss’ birthday, but also of celebrating reading as a community!

Wow, I don't know about you, but I sure have enjoyed the exchange of ideas the past two days.  I can't wait to share a few of these with the staff at my school, and I hope you found a few you might put into action too.  Then, set the lights and grab the cameras so you can capture the excitement and share it.  Have a great weekend readers, and until next time, happy reading!













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