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/.