My Mum’s Food

A submission from Poetry Wednesday (read about it here):

I like salmon on toast
But of all things in the world
I like my mum’s food the most
But of all places in the world
I like my mum’s kitchen the most.
I’ve eaten in restaurants all over the world
I’ve lunched from coast to coast
But nowhere compares to when I come home.
Mum, I like your food the most.

Delicious.

Poetry Wednesday: “Like a cornflake”

Today was poetry Wednesday again, and almost all of my students memorized last week’s poem correctly. Turns out, poems about dogs and cats seem to be pretty successful. The writing this week was pretty successful, too. We had only one poem that contained the line “I have got a pig,” and a whopping 7 students composed something! As usual, here are some of my favorites (slightly edited):

A Mouse

A mouse entered in

My house. My mother

Starts to shout and shout

And I go out

And think about

A mouse.

Will and Julia

Will and Julia will be together

For  all their life forever

They will not be separated never.

I See

I look at me

And I see

Many things have to be

I see a bee

I see the way

That she say

I see a snake

Like a cornflake

Eating nice rice

And she receives a prize

In snake place.

And lastly,

A Sound in the Street

There are lots of people,

They’re walking in the street.

There are lots of people,

They’re shopping in the street.

They’ve got the sound of the city in their feet.

While I’m quite impressed with this poem, I wonder about the last line. Impressive, but familiar? Input?

Rhymes with “Nintendo”

So my poetry project is going really well with my fourth graders — they’re quick to learn the poetry and a few are even excited to start writing poems. I got my first submissions today, and they had a common theme:

“TV, my TV,
I love my TV.
And also, the Wii”

and, from a different student,

“TV and the Wii

Are my favorite things.

You are what you eat.”

Well, they say to write what you know!

Besides limited content, there’s also a bit of confusion on what makes a rhyme. These kids are used to hearing English from native Spanish speakers, meaning that the thick accent makes words like “Can’t” and “Run” sound like they rhyme. So we spent almost a full hour today just coming up with rhyme pairings and closely listening to parse out what words actually rhyme.

After cycling through the “-at” words, the “-ig” words, the “-un” words, etc., one student offered “Monkey” and “Donkey” — pretty good, I thought. Two whole syllables! Soon they also had “Funky” “Junky” and, yes, “Honky.”

“Honky?” Asked the classroom teacher, a Spaniard whose English is almost perfect. “I don’t know that word. What does that mean?”

Hmm… how to explain epithets to your boss the day after Obama’s inauguration?

Overall, though, the lesson was a (shocking and unexpected) success.

Call for Poetry!

Kids’ poetry of course! I’ve decided that my big project for the semester is to have my fourth- and fifth-grade students memorize a poem a week. In ENGLISH.

Yes, this will be huge challenge, but part of teaching, I’ve learned, is having lofty goals and realistic expectations. For this reason, I’m trying to choose very simple, rhyming poems about subjects they know in English: weather, animals, foods, family, etc. I’m also giving them the incentive of prizes for every 5 poems they memorize or for every 5 they write, with correct grammar. The prize pencils are very sparkly, and I’m hoping this will motivate them a bit.

So what I need from you guys is suggestions of poems that you know or remember from when you were a kid.

I’m currently working off the very great Read-Aloud Rhymes for the Very Young, compiled by Jack Prelutsky. I brought it because it was the only kids poetry collection at home that was light enough for my luggage, but it’s also a wonderful collection of very simple, creative rhymes like this one by Edna Baker.

The monkey curled his tail about-

It looked like so much fun

That as I stood and watched him there,

I wished that I had one.

See? Perfect! Easy words that they mostly know (we’ll have to look up “curled”, but they’ll make the linguistic connection to curly hair), the grammatically complex but easily understood “wish” phrase, an aural rhyme, but distinct spellings, and a very straightforward topic.

Does anyone have another suggestion? A poem they thought was fun as a kid? You certainly don’t have to think deeply about any suggestions — I welcome all poems, and the students will too!