From My Pocket to Theirs

Thursday was “Poem in your Pocket” day and we decided to celebrate in a big way in the speech room. (That is a very large paper pocket in case you can’t tell.) I filled it with poems for my younger students and they were delighted to dig around and find a special poem - and to make it their own.

They added a few decorations and tucked their chosen poem into their pants pockets. Of course they didn’t stop there. They added more poems to the paper pocket, hoping to fill it to overflowing.

Poems are a wonderful way to introduce new vocabulary, rhyming, humor, and even speech practice with the catchy lines kids love to repeat. There are many entertaining books of poetry for children but this week I especially enjoyed introducing my students to Book Speak! by Laura Purdie Salas, Illustrated by Josee Bisaillon.

My students were drawn to this book from the moment they looked at the cheery cover. They immediately wanted to hop a ride on the hooked-handle of the umbrella. And when I turned to the poem, “Calling All Readers” they were entranced by the illustrations and the words,

“I’ll tell you a story.
I’ll spin you a rhyme.
I’ll spill some ideas-
And we’ll travel through time.

Their ideas spilled out in a rush: places they’d travel, which balloon (or dragon) they’d ride, and what they’d see. This book is full of poems about books and it made me want to spend this weekend curled up with some of my favorites, which is what I plan to do once I finish this post.

Poetry month is drawing to a close but there will be no shortage of excellent children’s books to read. Last Saturday I attended the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators conference in Rocklin, CA. It was wonderful day. As usual, I came away with fresh insights and inspirations for my own writing and was introduced to books that I’ll soon be using with my students.

I hope you have found more poems to love during this poetry month. And I hope you remember to remove them from your pocket before laundry day!