April is National Poetry Month. It is the largest literary celebration in the world and a wonderful opportunity to expose students to the wonder, fun, and beauty that is poetry.
Poem in Your Pocket Day
If you haven’t been able to do much with poetry yet this month, there’s still time! Coming up on April 30th is “Poem in your Pocket Day.”
Every year on this day, people throughout the United States choose a poem and carry it around with them and share it with others throughout the day. Many places provide an opportunity for open readings of poems from pockets; you could even hold one in your own classroom!
Be sure to share your poem selection using the hashtag #pocketpoem
Podcast Connections
It’s also a great time to listen to those poetry and figurative language podcasts for the first time this year or as a review! We’ve included a quick list below:
Program 4:
Idioms (4-#7, Combined-#3)
Rhyme Scheme, Meter, and Verse (4-#9, Combined-#9)
Simile and Metaphor (4-#11, Combined-#4)
Maya Angelou (4-#17, Combined-#37)
Robert Frost (4-#23, Combined-#33)
Emily Dickinson (4-#38, Combined-#28)
Jack Prelutsky (4-#39, Combined-#38)
Program 5:
Idioms (5-#3, Combined-#3)
“Casey at the Bat (5-#5, Combined-#29)
“The Echoing Green” (5-#10, Combined-#25)
William Shakespeare (5-#13, Combined-#45)
“O Captain! My Captain!” (5-#61, Combined-#90)
“I Hear America Singing” (5-#66, Combined-#26)
Alliteration and Personification (5-#67, Combined-#5)
Extension
Laura Henderson’s 5th grade class completed idiom puzzles after listening to the podcast. Students wrote the idiom in one corner, drew the literal image in another, explained the origin, and wrote the figurative meaning in the last corner! To get a copy of this great activity, click here!
My students LOVE “Who’s On First” ! They giggled so much through out the podcast and worked to get all the positions correct as we finished our walk. When we took our 4th grade Buddies on a walk with us, that is the podcast they voted to share with them! They wanted to know if they could find it on the internet to share with their families at home, so we got back to the classroom and did a search for it also! Now when we use pronouns in class, they refer back to the podcast!
Love the idea for the pocket poem, cannot wait to send my students off to find a pocket poem to share!
I think this is a great way to get poetry in the pockets (hands) of our kids. I have a lot of students who love the “Casey’s at Bat” pod cast, and this taught them that poetry can be about the topics they love!
My Pocket Poem would be “This Is Just to Say” by Williams Carlos Williams.
I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox
and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast
Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold.
It’s a personal favorite and makes me think of growing up with my little brother!