Pluto! - Writing from Current Events

 

Portrait of Pluto

Taken July 13, 2015 by the New Horizons Spacecraft

Photo Permission

Students - This may be the first time I have posted a poem picture here that was not taken or drawn by someone in my family or by a good friend. But it's a clear and beautiful image of Pluto, and so I could not resist.  This past Tuesday, July 14, 2015, the New Horizons spacecraft flew by Pluto, and it was the first spacecraft to do so.  It took nine and a half years to make the three billion mile trip, and they did it.  

When I listened to the news on Tuesday and Wednesday and saw the Pluto pictures, I knew that I would write about this exciting day and event.  Every single day, millions of interesting things happen in the world.  By reading or listening to the news, a writer can find many many ideas.  Try taking a peek at the newspaper or listening to radio news.  You might watch a bit of TV news or check out a news site here online, and let it inspire a new poem or piece of writing in you.

If you wish to read a bit more about the New Horizons fly-by, visit The New York Times. To see a timelapse video showing how our knowledge of Pluto has grown, visit NASA.  And this little NASA clip shows you Pluto's mountains:

This week I was over the moon excited to receive my contributor copies of the latest book by Lee Bennett Hopkins - JUMPING OFF LIBRARY SHELVES. Gorgeously illustrated by Jane Manning, this is a warm, wise, and whimsical celebration of poems celebrating the goodness of libraries.  My poem, "Book Pillows," could not be happier to be included, and I am looking forward to September when the book is available. Today, though, I am offering a giveaway to a commenter on this post. Simply comment with a way to reach you below, and I'll draw one name on Thursday evening and announce the winner next Friday.

Available through Your Local Bookstore

or Amazon

If you'd like to see how the Favorite Poem Padlet is growing, click here to check it out.  You can still add your favorite.  Just double click anywhere on the gray with your left mouse button, and begin typing!

This week's Poetry Friday party is with Kimberley over at Google +.  Visit there to read a beautiful poem and to learn about links to poetry goodness all around.

Please share a comment below if you wish.

A Shrike Strikes & Stabs in Poem #308

The natural world is not always a kind place, and shrikes are brutal birds.  Yesterday, Mark and the children were sitting on the couch discussing the Great Backyard Bird Count and they began talking about shrikes.  I was trying to write in another room, but really I was eavesdropping.  Mark had taught me about shrikes before, but they're so incredible that I had to listen in.  Because their talons are not very sharp, shrikes must skewer their meals onto sticks, hawthorn spikes, or barbed wire in order to eat.

If you would like to see a shrike eating a chickadee, you can do so here.  If you would like to see a shrike eating a junco, visit here.

Last weekend, Georgia awoke early and sat at the front window by our feeder, making extensive notes about each bird's eating habits.  I wondered if some of her thinking came from our recent reading of THE ROBIN MAKES A LAUGHING SOUND by Sallie Wolf and Michael Borstein, a charming poetry book filled with sketches, watercolors, and little listy notes.

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Our family has never participated in the Great Backyard Bird Count before, but we plan to do so this year.  Running the week of February 18-21, this event is meant for children and gives a snapshot of which birds are where during these four days.  Last year, 11,233,609 birds were counted.  I wonder how many were counted more than once!

Take a look here at GBBC website to learn more about how to participate and how to learn more about the birds that live in and travel through our own skies.  I once read that most third grade American children know more rainforest animals than they know backyard birds.  Here's a way to change that.

Teachers - here is another way to deepen and widen students' understandings about the birds in our neighborhoods.  SIGNIFICANT STUDIES FOR SECOND GRADE, by Karen Ruzzo and Mary Anne Sacco, includes a wonderful nonfiction bird study in which students each research a bird and write about it.  Glorious!  If I were a second or third grade teacher, I would teach this unit every year.

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Students - once again, today's poem came from careful listening.  Yesterday's poem came from listening to what everyone was talking about (a snow day.)  Today's poem came from listening to one distinct and interesting conversation.  Did you notice that it is written, while not in five lines, in a limerick rhyme and meter?

For anyone who is wondering, yes.  We do have a snow day today.

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