Module 4: Poetry Break: Spring

In March

By: Anna Grossnickle Hines

(Taken from the poetry book Pieces, A Year in Poems & Quilts)

Introduction: Plan a unit on the five senses in early March. Discuss, with lower elementary school students, the five senses. List them on the board (see, hear, touch, smell, and taste). Using sections of an orange, have students describe the senses used to describe the orange.

Take time mention that Spring begins in March. List characteristics that come to mind, when the students think of Spring.

Challenge the students to listen to the words as the teacher reads, In March. When this poem is read a second time, ask the students to think about the senses that come to mind. After the second reading, display the text and begin the extension activity.

In March

The long winter snow

melts in drips

and trickles

as, mittenless,

I splash in puddles,

squishing mud

on my boots,

while the creek

bubbles in celebration.

Extension: Discuss the feelings evoked by this poem. Could you relate? Have you experienced this before? Does it sound like fun? What was happening in the poem? Explain that often literature (in this case poetry) can provide sensory experiences. Provide students with these statements and ask them to picture in their mind the events from the poem.

I can hear:
I can see:
I can smell:
I can feel:
I can taste:
A summary of how I feel about this poem:
Take time to share.

Hines, Anna Grossnickle. 2001. Pieces, A Year in Poems & Quilts. US: Greenwillow Books.

Photo courtesy of http://www.aghines.com/.

Module 4: Poetry Book Review: Curriculum Connection

Scien-Trickery

Riddles in Science

By J. Patrick Lewis

Introduction: The award winning poet, J. Patrick Lewis, compiles eighteen humorous science-based riddles into a brightly illustrated book. Each of the rhyming, riddle poems revolve around subjects such as germs, magnets, oxygen, gravity, electricity, sound, oceans, and Albert Einstein. Educators will enjoy using these silly riddles at the beginning or culmination of various science lessons. Large, colorful illustrations by Frank Remkiewicz provide clues that provide a connection to the text. Most of the riddles are easy and make each topic more memorable. For example:

Shhhhhhhhhhh!

I am expressible
Only by decibel:

10 is a whisper,
30 is crisper,
60, in relation,
In normal conversation.
80 is traffic and telephones.
120? The Rolling Stones.
130 is a cannon shot!

150 is…what?

*Did you guess "sound" as the answer?

Lewis provides a page of “Notes” at the back of the book. The notes correlate to the riddles by giving short snippets of factual information for each subject which in turn could be used for extension activities. For example, the notes provided for Shhhhhhhhhhh include:

Shhhhhhhhhhhh!
"Sound is created when an object moves, even just a little. The movement causes a disturbance, which radiates outward through the air in waves. When the waves reach your ear, what you hear is sound."

Push Me, Pull me

“Say, what if we two,” she insisted,
“Could stick together?” He resisted.

Their north poles jitterbugged and may
Have touched…but quickly pushed away.

And so they tried to make a start
From south to south…still far apart.

Turning around and facing north,
She threw her little metal forth!

Kaaa-thwupp! Those two engaging chips
Were stuck like barnacles to ships.

Extension: Each rhyming riddle lends itself to a variety of presentation options as well. Push Me, Pull Me might be best performed as a dramatic play activity. After the educator provides students with time to explore the push and pull of real magnets, he/she reads the Push Me, Pull Me riddle several times. One day, have students follow the riddle by using two magnets to demonstrate the text. On the second day, have students get into groups of two and follow the text of the riddle while jitterbugging, and connecting together as the text states.

Scien-Trickery provides elementary school teachers with a fun, go-to book of creative riddles that correlate with many of the state standards.

Lewis, J Patrick. 2004. Scien-Trickery. New York: Harcourt, Inc.

Photo courtesy of http://www.shopping.yahoo.com/