Poetry Friday & Poem #30 - Worm's Wish

First, a hearty "Thank you!" to Elaine over at Wild Rose Reader.  She has been drawing names for poetry books all month, and yesterday I won a copy of Every Second Something Happens, with poems selected by Christine San Jose and Bill Johnson and illustrated by Melanie Hall.  What a surprise!  If you leave a comment on Elaine's Poetry Friday post today at Wild Rose Reader, you will be eligible to win a copy of Laura Purdie Salas's book Stampede.

It is the last day of the month, and thus, the last day of NaPoWriMo and my poem-a-day-for-April.  Thank you to everyone who has been so helpful and supportive throughout the launch of this brand new little blog.  Tomorrow I will announce what's next here at The Poem Farm.

Today's poem is about worms.  Two days ago I learned that worms do not have eyes.  Of course, if I had thought about this, I would have already known that worms do not have eyes.  Have you ever seen a worm with eyes?  Anyway, this startled and upset me.  In fact, I kept on repeating, "Worms don't have eyes?  Worms don't have eyes?" until my family made me stop.  Anyway, this poem is for the worms.  Fishermen - do not feel guilty.  We've all gotta eat.

Teachers - if you are looking for a way to "spruce" up  your classroom (pun intended) see here what Mrs. Susan Kellner's class has brightening up their first grade classroom at Harold O. Brumsted Elementary in Holland, NY.  This tree was the cheeriest thing to come through my inbox in a long time.  Below you can read Susan's words about how you can have a poet-tree of your very own.

Poet-Tree

Photo by Susan Kellner

-->Here's how we did it: I typed up all of their poems and printed them out on colored card stock. They used scissors with different types of fun blades to cut them out so the edges were cool. Some of them cut the poems into shapes (a poem about a dog is in the shape of a dog, a fish poem is in a fish shape, etc.). Then they punched a hole in the top, and I taught them how to thread a rubber band through the hole so that it becomes a hanger. Then they hung them on the tree. They love the tree -- it is hard to keep them away from it. They are constantly getting distracted and stopping to read one poem or another. It was a super easy project except for typing up the poems! But now they are all typed up so that we can create a class book of poems, and I know some of the students will use them for their poems in the pocket tomorrow (I made more copies on regular paper).  

Poem in Your Pocket Day: We did have fun for Poem in Your Pocket Day! I spread out a bunch of poems for the students to choose from. Some had brought a poem from home. They gathered around the table reading them and choosing the ones they liked best. They begged me to be able to put a poem in each pocket -- and how could I say no? We spent a very busy and noisy morning reading poems to each other. Mine was my childhood favorite - "Mud" by Polly Chase Boyden.            

Thank you to Mrs. Kellner and her class for cheering all of us up this Poetry Friday.  

Today is indeed Poetry Friday.  You can find everything poetic today at Mary Ann's blog, Great Kid Books.  Head on over there for a complete roundup of this last day of National Poetry Month.  Please stop by tomorrow to see what's next here.

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