Book Talk Thursday ~ Poetry Collections

April is National Poetry Month, so I have decided to highlight two poetry collections for

I really enjoyed using Eric Carle's Dragons, Dragons and Eric Carle's Animals Animals with my second graders this week.

The books are both full of various poems by different authors.  In Animals, Animals, there are many poems written by many authors about different animals.  And in Dragons, Dragons, there are many poems about mythical creatures such as the unicorn, centaur, and minotaur.  In both books, the pictures are Eric Carle's works.  I love the way the pictures show the reader a lot about the creatures in the books.

There are many uses for the books.  Children can actually learn about the creatures in the poems.  They give background information about them and even describe them.  This makes it perfect for activities in visualizing.  There are also many great poems that would be great for main idea and details.  Though we don't always think about poems giving a lot of information, many of these tell the readers about the creatures.

I read poems to my students from the books and had them draw pictures of what they saw.  I didn't show them the pictures before reading the poems, so they could truly visualize what the poem described.  Here are their pictures of Ganesha, Ganesh.

And the actual picture from the book.

Kids really enjoy hearing and reading poetry.  What a great way to enhance their reading in such an enjoyable way!

I hope you will link up this week with a book review!



   

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Mentor Monday ~ 3/31/14: Visualizing

Tomorrow is the first day of April and the beginning of Poetry Month.  Poetry is perfect for visualizing, and I am linking up with my friend Emily from The Reading Tutor/OG for Mentor Monday.  This week is all about visualizing.

I have been looking high and low for new poetry books and stumbled upon the book Poem-mobiles: Crazy Car Poems by J. Patrick Lewis and Douglas Florian.

The book is full of great poems that describe various different crazy cars.  The pictures that accompany the poems are full of vibrant colors and lots of fun ~ perfect to help students with visualization.

One of my favorite poems is "The Dragonwagon".  With lines like

Upon its back are nasty spikes

and

Instead of wheels, it has sharp claws

That hug the road and sharply turn.

students are sure to paint a fun picture of the Dragonwagon.

Another personal favorite of mine is "High-Heel Car".  The girls will especially have fun as they draw pictures of a giant high heel car. 

I plan to use these poems with my second graders over the course of the next week.  I am going to read the poems to the students.  After they listen to the poems, they are going to draw a picture of the car that is described in the poem.  Once they have drawn the pictures, they will also describe the car in their own words.  If time allows, I will even have them write a poem about their own imaginary car.

I can't wait to see what they do!  I will have to post pictures when they do!

What are some fun poetry books you use for helping students with visualizing?

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