M is for MACARONI

MACARONI

Photo by Amy LV

Today is Day #13 of the Dictionary Hike! This means that we are halfway through the alphabet, and honestly, I've been quite happy with most of the letters my finger has pointed to.  This poem is a bit on the silly side, and if you didn't notice, it is to be sung to the tune of YANKEE DOODLE.

Teachers - This week I have been reading Sylvia Vardell's fabulous book THE POETRY TEACHER'S BOOK OF LISTS (watch for words from Sylvia and a giveaway of this book on Friday), and one page stuck in my head.  The page was about writing poems from meters of well-known songs.  For some reason, that page resonated this week, and so when I opened to MACARONI, YANKEE DOODLE popped right up.  There was no other choice.

Students - Sometimes our silly sides get the better of us when we write, and it's clear that this happened to me today!  It's not my favorite poem ever, and I had some struggles with getting the meter right (this song may be forever in my head now), but it sure was fun.  There are times when the experience of writing a poem is better than the poem, and so it was for MACARONI.

Georgia and Hope and I had a lot of laughs trying to sing this yesterday afternoon. In between giggles, I kept saying, "This is a very dumb poem." Georgia laughed back and said, "It's dumb and funny and clever at the same time."  And then we laughed even harder.

Later last night, Henry found me with an old song book from a wagon train vacation we once took.  He'd found the words to "all six verses of YANKEE DOODLE."  So he and I sat on the couch and sang YANKEE DOODLE, POP! GOES THE WEASEL, AMAZING GRACE, and more songs too.  

The laughs and the singing make this poem a good memory in my mind.

Did you ever consider writing a poem from a song?  If you want to try it, I recommend writing out the original song on a facing page of your notebook. Then you can count out all of the syllables and write your own version next to the original, trying to make everything match.  Some parts may get tricky!

If you want to more about the history of the song YANKEE DOODLE, click here.

In case you are new to The Poem Farm, this month I am walking, letter-by-letter, through the dictionary, (closed-eyed) pointing to a letter each day, and writing from it. You can read poems A-L by checking the sidebar, and you visit Lisa Vihos and read her accompanying daily haiku at, Lisa's Poem of the Week.  She and I are Dictionary Hike partners, and we have enough trail mix and water to share.

Yesterday, for Poetry Friday, we heard wisdom from and sang birthday wishes to Lee Bennett Hopkins!  You may still leave a message (until 11:59pm on Sunday night) on that post to enter a giveaway for Lee's most recent anthology, NASTY BUGS. 

Please share a comment below if you wish.

Like The Poem Farm on Facebook for more poems, articles, and poemquotes!

L is for LIVELY & L is for LEE!

LIVELY

Photo by Amy LV

Happy Birthday!
by Amy LV

Happy birthday to Lee Bennett Hopkins!

Students - Today's poem is a celebratory poem for the birthday of my teacher and friend.  Throughout history, people have written verses and sung songs to commemorate special days.  That's what I have done today, written to celebrate!  In time, I hope to put a tune to this little poem, to make it a birthday song.

Lee Bennett Hopkins, interviewed yesterday at Poetry For Children, holds the GUINNESS BOOK OF WORLD RECORDS record for the most children's poetry anthologies.  If there were a record for the most poets nurtured, he would win that as well.  Generous as usual, Lee offered to answer a few questions about his work today.

How did poetry first come into your life?

Poetry came into my life when I began teaching elementary school in Fair Lawn, NJ, in 1960.  Using verse with reluctant readers became magical. Poems are usually short, vocabulary simple, and often more could be said and felt within 8 or 10 or 12 lines of poetry than sometimes an entire novel could convey.

As the GUINNESS BOOK OF WORLD RECORDS holder for number of children's poetry anthologies, what do you consider when putting together an anthology such as your latest, NASTY BUGS?

The first consideration was to give readers a look at true problems various bugs can bring into our lives.  Then, I had to research the many, many types of bugs, narrowing the list down to include bugs children would be familiar with...head lice, flies, mosquitoes, cockroaches, et. al.

NASTY BUGS was a delight to compile. Not only are the poems diverse, but they pack a lot of scientific information within them.  Another wonderful aspect of NASTY BUGS is that every poem is new to readers: none had been published before.

What makes you fall in love with a poem?

I fall in love with poems that make me say aloud: "Oooh" or "Ah".  It is the oooh/ah factor that causes me to know a poem is truly great.

Do you have any advice for child writers?

Read.  Read lots of poems.  After your fill of silly and humorous, steer to more serious works.  Light verse is fine...but it is light -- it gets boring after a while. Read poems that say something to you, have meaning in your life.

One question that Lee is often asked is, "Why poetry?"  Here is his answer, reprinted with permission of Curtis Brown, Ltd.

Why Poetry?

by Lee Bennett Hopkins

Why poetry?

Why?

Why sunsets?

Why trees?

Why birds?

Why seas?

Why you?

Why me?

Why friends?

Why families?

Why laugh?

Why cry?

Why hello?

Why good-bye?

Why poetry?

That's why!

Happy happy birthday, Lee!  Thank you for all you have done for poetry and for children and for poets. Many thanks to Penguin Young Readers Group for donating 2 copies of NASTY BUGS for today's giveaway.  Please just leave a comment on today's post by Sunday at 11:59pm, and you may win a copy of this book.  There will be two winners!  

Available through Amazon

Anastasia is hosting today's Poetry Friday over at Booktalking.  Head on over to read all of today's goodies... It's April and the buffet table is full!

Please share a comment below if you wish.

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K is for KNICKKNACK

KNICKKNACK

Photo by Amy LV

Students - When I pointed (closed-eyed) to this word, I cheered inside.  Isn't it a treat in your mouth?  I thought about a few possible ideas for writing with this wondrous word but kept coming back to simply loving words and wanting to list my favorites.  I always make lists of fabulous words in the back of each notebook, and for today, I wanted to play with the -ack and -ock sound.

Do you know what I want to do now?  I want to read this poem in a round with someone else, the second person coming in after the first four lines.  I wonder if that would be tricky.

Teachers - Below you will see a small gift that I often share.  I've had it so long that I cannot remember where I found it, but what a perfect celebration of words!  I hope it will inspire you to keep a list of words you love and to continue to find ways to nurture such wordlove in students.  A class journal of magnificent words, a bulletin board of words, a pause after read aloud for a favorite word...please let me know what you do to cherish these little collections of letters!  (If you know where this came from, please tell me so that I can give credit to the proper source.)

In case you are new here, this month I am walking, letter-by-letter, through the dictionary, (closed-eyed) pointing to a letter each day, and writing from it. You can read poems A-J` by checking the sidebar, and you visit Lisa Vihos and read her accompanying daily haiku at, Lisa's Poem of the Week.  She and I are Dictionary Hike partners!

Tomorrow for Poetry Friday, please come back to hear wisdom from and sing birthday wishes to Lee Bennett Hopkins!  To celebrate, tomorrow you may enter a drawing for a giveaway of his latest anthology, NASTY BUGS!

Please share a comment below if you wish.

Like The Poem Farm on Facebook for regular poemlinks, articles, & quotes!

A Brief Alphabetic Interlude....

As the English alphabet has 26 letters and the month of April has 30 days, the Poem Farm is on a day-long holiday!

The Dictionary Hike will resume tomorrow, Thursday, with letter K.  Enjoy your stay in Jamaica!

Please share a comment below if you wish!

You can like The Poem Farm on Facebook for more poemlove...

J is for JAMAICA

JAMAICA

Photo by Amy LV

 

Students - I have never been to Jamaica, so I had to do a bit of research for this poem. I knew that Jamaica was in the Caribbean Sea, but I did not know that the Greater Antilles include Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola (Dominican Republic and Haiti) and Puerto Rico. I also did not know that this chain of islands was formed by volcanoes. You can see many maps of the Greater Antilles here. Don't you think we should take a trip to do a bit more research?

Thinking about how these islands formed many many years apart as the earth's plates moved over a hotspot, I began to see them as four brothers with the same hotspot/volcano mother.  I imagined birds flying back and forth, sharing news of each brother with the others. I imagined them missing each other, longing to hug.  And that's how this poem was born.  Personification for sure!  If you would like to see good diagrams of how Hawaii (another island chain) was formed by volcanoes, check here.

You may have noticed that this poem is woven between my thoughts and the names of the islands. This is a fun thing to do - weave a poem. Think of two strands - your words and something else such as a song, recipe, thoughts of another person, anything. Now alternate between the two, weaving them together. You can read a good explanation of this in Gretchen Bernabei's great book REVIVING THE ESSAY: HOW TO TEACH STRUCTURE WITHOUT FORMULA. It may take a little practice to read your poem in a way you like, but you will often end up with something quite pleasing.  Please let me know if you try it.

I hope to have a recording of this poem up by day's end - SoundCloud was experiencing some difficulties when I first tried.

Linda Kulp, of Write Time, is the winner of Friday's giveaway of the beautiful BOOKSPEAK! by Laura Purdie Salas. If you'd like to read more about Laura, you can read an interview and see a video of Laura reading one of her BOOKSPEAK! poems this week at No Water River with Renee LaTulippe. Linda - please send me an e-mail to amy at amylv dot com so that I know where to send your book. Congratulations!

In case you are new here - this month, I am walking, letter-by-letter, through the dictionary, (closed-eyed) pointing to a letter each day, and writing from it. You can read poems A-H by checking the sidebar, and you can read Lisa's accompanying haiku at her blog, Lisa's Poem of the Week.

Please share a comment below if you wish.

You can like The Poem Farm on Facebook for more poemlove...

I is for INFLATION

 

INFLATION

Photo by Amy LV

Jack & Balloon

Photo by Heidi LZ

MACMILLAN DICTIONARY FOR CHILDREN © 2001
Inflation - 1. The act or process of inflating: The inflation of the balloons for the party took all morning. 2. A rise in the usual prices of goods and services.

Students - Working with today's word, I was unsure where to begin. The word INFLATION first made me think of money and rising prices. Then I got to thinking about balloons. Then, as I often do, I began thinking how it would feel to BE a balloon, and I imagined what a little flat balloon would feel when placed inside a child's puffing mouth. I think it it would feel excited, and probably afraid too!

In my notebook, this poem is written in a straight line; it is not shaped like a balloon at all. But when I got typing, I got thinking, "Hmmm....this might be a good concrete poem." And so I played with the lines until the words formed themselves into this shape.

If you would like to see more of my concrete poems, look in the top sidebar under FIND A POEM BY TECHNIQUE, and you will find a few. Usually I do not plan to write a concrete poem. I just plan to write a poem, and when it gets to typing-time, the concrete-idea strikes.

In case you are new here - this month, I am walking, letter-by-letter, through the dictionary, (closed-eyed) pointing to a letter each day, and writing from it. You can read poems A-H by checking the sidebar, and you can read Lisa's accompanying haiku at her blog, Lisa's Poem of the Week.

And if you did not visit Friday's post...do! Laura Purdie Salas shares a behind-the-scenes look at one of her poems from BOOKSPEAK! You can learn a new poem form and enter in a giveaway for this fantastic book on that post through tonight.

Jack & Hope Watch Balloon

Photo by Heidi LZ

Please share a comment below if you wish.

You can like The Poem Farm on Facebook for more poemlove...

H is for HABIT

HABIT

Photo by Amy LV

Students - Do you ever think about what your pets do when you aren't with them and watching? I do! They might live completely secret lives!

Fluffles & Jasper, Easter 2011

Photo by Amy LV

In case you are new here, this month, I am walking, letter-by-letter, through the dictionary, (closed-eyed) pointing to a letter each day, and writing from it. You can read poems A-G by checking the sidebar, and you can read Lisa's accompanying haiku at her blog, Lisa's Poem of the Week.

And if you did not visit Friday's post...do! Laura Purdie Salas shares a behind-the-scenes look at one of her poems from BOOKSPEAK! You can learn a new poem form and enter in a giveaway for this fantastic book on that post through Monday night.

Please share a comment below if you wish.

You can like The Poem Farm on Facebook for more poemlove...