What better way to tip our hats to this 14th National Poetry Month than with a poem by the first Children's Poet Laureate, Jack Prelutsky:
As Soon as Fred Gets Out of Bed
As soon as Fred gets out of bed,
his underwear goes on his head.
His mother laughs, "Don't put it there,
a head's no place for underwear!"
But near his ears, above his brains,
is where Fred's underwear remains.
At night when Fred goes back to bed,
he deftly plucks it off his head.
His mother switches off the light
and softly croons, "Good night! Good night!"
And then, for reasons no one knows,
Fred's underwear goes on his toes.
No wonder kids-and everybody else, too-loves his work, and what better time to celebrate him and other children's poets than right now?
For instance, there's Thad Krasnesky. This Army major has served in Iraq, is currently an instructor at West Point, and writes poetry, too. To his credit: Always Got My Way and That Cat Can't Stay.
And now he has been asked to judge the Paws for Poetry Contest 2010 going on right now. It's open to kids 5 through 12-one original poem per child. The deadline is April 15th, so don't delay. For details, visit their website.
Make friends with other such children's poetry greats, too-if you haven't already--as Shel Silverstein, Bruce Lansky, and Lee Bennett Hopkins. But don't stop there. Just Google or Bing your way to finding the many others who write poems for young people. And once you and your child are in a poetic frame of mind, take out paper and pencils and get set to spin some poems of your own.
To help get you get started, consider following the lead of Shelley Tucker whose masterful Painting the Sky: Writing Poetry with Children offers such suggestions as:
1. "Give a thing a human part, like a voice or heart, and the object will seem like a person.
2. Write the names of things, colors, emotions, or ideas... You might name things you can touch and see, like a can opener or the sky. You might also name ideas, like hope and peace."
She then goes on and provides this example: "The voice of the rain reminded me to carry an umbrella."
Once you're done doing this, all that's left is for the two of you to pick your favorite lines and weave them into a poem--or two or three. Think tongue, elbows, mouth, ear... You get the idea; it's poetry time!
While you're at it, be sure to keep Magnetic Poetry close at hand, waiting for those impromptu moments of poetic inspiration.
And so, with all that being said, it's only natural to end as we began, and that's with a poem. This one is by yet another poet laureate you'll want your child to know about: Andres Fusek Peters.
Dad
He's a:
Tall story weaver
Full of fib fever
Bad joke teller
Ten decibel yeller
Baggy clothes wearer
Pocket money bearer
Nightmare banisher
Hurt heart vanisher
Bear hugger
Biscuit mugger
Worry squasher
Noisy nosher
Lawn mower
Smile sower
Football mad
Fashion sad
Not half bad
So glad I had
My
Dad!
Carol is a learning specialist who worked with middle school children and their parents at the Methacton School District in Pennsylvania for more than 25 years and now supervises student teachers at Gwynedd-Mercy College. Along with the booklet, 149 Parenting School-Wise Tips: Intermediate Grades & Up, and numerous articles in such publications as Teaching Pre-K-8 and Curious Parents, she has authored three successful learning guidebooks: Getting School-Wise: A Student Guidebook, Other-Wise and School-Wise: A Parent Guidebook, and ESL Activities for Every Month of the School Year. Carol also writes for examiner.com; find her articles at http://www.examiner.com/x-6261-Montgomery-County-Wise-Parenting-Examiner For more information, go to http://www.schoolwisebooks.com or contact Carol at carol@schoolwisebooks.com.
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