Character-The Tiger Who Wore White Gloves

 

There's no denying I love poetry, especially when it meets on the corner with character. Kids get poetry; sadly it seems, we adults sometimes lose our ability to really get into the meat of poetry and savor it.

In my classroom, we use poetry to learn to read, to learn to write, for character education and more.
 

The Tiger Who Wore  White  Gloves, by Gwendolyn Brooks, has stood the test of time.  I'm fortunate enough to have the poem t in book form because I think it's out of print. At first sight and listening, it seems to be over the kids' heads, but slowed down and discussed, it's a perfect poem about character. It's about a tiger who is way different than the other animals because he's tired of being fierce and wants to be fancy by wearing gloves.  The animals jeer him  into being satisfied with just being a tiger.

There's a part when you actually feel the crowd get crest fallen. At their tender age, sadly, they've experienced this kind of testing and feel sorry for the tiger.

For full effect, we act it out, practicing our fierceness, and then pretending we are fancy. By the end, they feel defeated just as the tiger did.

Another great thing about this poem is that it's easy to reference to when those incidents come up on the classroom....it can be read and acted it over and over and over again.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Poetry Bowls! Powerful thoughts in Tiny Packages

Poetry is no mystery to me.  I immerse myself in it.  As a matter of fact, I teach it to all ages, and use it as a back door therapy for some..  But with my first graders, it's just a beautiful chance to play, play, play.  Word play is like opening up a package at Christmas that you have no idea what's in it.  It's discovery.  It's delight.    If nothing else, I want my kids to find that words pack so much meaning that can open another world to you.  We explore free verse and rhyme and alliteration and onomotapoeia....metaphors and similes.  It may come as a surprise to you, but I believe first graders live in metaphor.  They notice details us grown ups have long forgotten.   One thing Lucy Calkins does is talk about "seeing things with fresh eyes."  This is the very definition of a first grader. 
The other day I was showing a first grader how he had made a hinge with geo boards, and the rubber bands shot out and across the rooms.  One of the kiddos said, "You launched it!"  I couldn't help but laugh with uncontrolable laughter; because yes, that's exactly what I did!

I have some great tools I have learned over the years about Poetry.   I would like to share bits and pieces here.  For reluctant writers, there's a tool called a Poetry Bowl.  In this bowl, you put vivid verbs and intersting adjectives and some common nouns students love like mom and dad and sun and grass and watch them come alive!  The purpose of the bowl is for the kids to "play" with words.  A Common place/time we have for playing with words is during Daily Five, in which one of our jobs is "Word Work."   You can start the bowl by color coding some interesting words you hear and think, that's amazing language or a favorite word?  What are verbs you use in cooking, working on a car, exercising?    There are vivid verbs all around.  I found that sometimes for these younger kiddos, it's nice to color code them.  Then they can visually see ways to arrange and try to get more variety.   Stir the words up in the bowl and just start mixing and matching with no care.  There's no right or wrong, just exploration....kind of like spelunking with words.

 This exercise really helped one of my "stuck" poets who happens to be more literal than poetic.  I know he likes race cars, so I had him write down every word he could about racing and then he just mixed the pile up.  It was a challenge at first to get him to play, until I reminded him that he could use time order of things to organize it.  We got a pretty great poem out of it!  Check this out by Mason:

Races

        By Mason

Helmets on

Start your

Engines!

Ready, set, go

Slow cars

Blown tires

Pitstops

Mechanics

Crashes

Catch on fire

Yellow flag

Curvy curves

Green flag

Nascar

Fast engines

Checkered flag

If you adults want to try this on for yourself, cut random words from magazine and put them in a bowl and sit at a coffee table and just arrange and rearrange.

I will have more tips later involving ways to use metaphors in centers and other fun poetry/word exercises.  Enjoy your play!

It's an Epidemic!

If you haven't heard of Daily 5, then you should stop reading right now and research it and buy the book now!  On a serious note, it's one of the best investments I've ever made.  Students are engage in authentic reading and writing work.  There's a section of the Daily 5 wherein the kids get extra writing (outside of Writing Workshop), which we call "bonus writing."

The students can explore several different kinds of writing.  They can do postcards, stories, letters, lists (like grocery lists, etc.) and poetry.  I had not yet introduced poetry to my kiddos, thinking that it would best be served later in the year.  However, year after year, my kids usually take favorite poems and turn them into their own by changing a few words.

This year, thanks to a little girl in my class named Ivy and her burning desire to write, and to use her new found notebook, an EPIDEMIC started in my room.  She took one of her favorite poems, Color Cats, and started writing color cats, and color hats and kept going.  When Ivy shared, she got the kids so excited, that her friend, Alexys began writing about color bats...and the whole -at family had been investigated,  Then Ava introduced Color Horses.  And when that poem had been explored, Katie started in on our "I Love Colors" chant and turned it into I Love America.     They got hooked on the rhythms and the rhymes and began feverishly creating.

This is only the beginning, as Ivy exclaimed she is filling her entire notebook.  Good on her promise, it has been at every recess, including lunch recess.  I can't wait to see what she creates!

I love these kind of "epidemics" as my friend Tammy calls it.  Because the kids are loving words and language and, oh my goodness, are they learning?

I am enthralled....

Poetry Fun - Dramatize!

I LOVE poetry.  It teaches so many things.  And because I love it, I think my joy passes on to the kids.  Through the years, I've developed some tips for teachers to help them get the most from their poetry experience.  I hope they're helpful!

Since it's almost Halloween, I shall share one of my favorite poems, "I Eat Kids," by Dennis Lee.  I've decided my main idea is to assist kids in not feeling afraid of terrible things, and that they are strong and tough.  Instead of the whole poem, I only use the monster's and child's dialogue and then I make up motions for it. First the kids show me an angry monster and use monster voices.  On the child's dialogue, they turn themselves around two times and spread their feet apart, with hands firmly placed on hips.  In a scolding voice, they tell that monster off, and punch him with one finger in the shoulder.    If I get brave enough some day, I will video myself and show you some of the actions I've created.  The kids Love it!

Here are some general  tips I use when choosing a poem and acting it out: 

I.  Choosing a Poem
     *  find a poem that speaks to you, that you find appealing
     *  if you don't like it, it won't sell

II.  Visualization
     *  Take yourself on a visual journey of the poem
             Drump the Grump - (poem by Jack Prelutsky, A New Kid on the Block) Imagine yourself
             covered in slimy, gooey garbage - best of all, liking it!
             Spaghetti  Spaghetti -(another Jack Prelutsky) - even if you don't like it, you can pull it off by
             thinking of something you like a lot , and sitting in a pile of it.
     *  Be the object, if it's about an object
           If you're reading a poem about a balloon, imagine your skin stretched so tight that you feel you
           are going to burst; or imagine you are bobbing along the ceiling, it scratching your back or 
           you're just checking it out?
     * When performing, all objects in your mind stayin in the same place.  It's a storytelling
         technique.  If makes things more real if you pick objects up and place them some place.  (the
         same place)

III.  Voice - Explore and change your tone and pace
      *   Play with the language.  Use your voice to change the tone and affix meaning to the poem
      *  tone - high, low, sharp, crisp, draggy - Let the poem dictate this
      * tempo - fast, slow, pauses on words to clarify
                        commas and periods
      * tell jokes - practice with telling jokes first, pausing on punch lines
      * clarity/fluency - are the words you are speaking spoken clearly?  Does it flow?

IV. Your Body
     * move minimally
     * stand tall or straight unless the text dictates differently
     * be careful of non-verbal cues

V.  Main Idea
     * Summarize what you want your point to be so that the message gets across to your audience

You're probably thinking, "What does this have to do with first grade?"  Imagine if you had the love and creative world of a first grader, and you had loved poetry at this age....you'd never have to be frightened of it again, and it would take you places, just as reading does.  And when you feel comfortable with someone else's poetry, then you begin the journey to writing your own.

Happy writing, and happy poeming! 
Cheers, Marie