There are three things, after all, that a poem must reach: the eye, the ear, and what we may call the heart or the mind. It is most important of all to reach the heart of the reader. - Robert Frost
In honor of National Poetry Month and Poem in Your Pocket Day (April 26), the 6-9 students studied poetry during the month of April. When introducing poetry, we asked what students knew about poems. Students offered the ideas that poems rhyme and poems are sad. Teachers shared poems that broke those rules - humorous from poets such as Shel Silverstein and Jack Prelutsky, poems that did not rhyme, and
poems that broke grammar conventions typical of prose writing.
Each 6-9 student chose a poem to recite and perhaps memorize, depending on poem length. As students read through a range of poetry, they noticed how much poems differ from each other and differ from prose writing. Students noticed short poems that carried great meaning in very few words, poems that did not have capitalization or punctuation, poems that were familiar and poems that were new. This exploration also helped students view poetry as an art form in which poets use words to paint emotions, thoughts and ideas.
We don't study poetry just because we are celebrating a particular month or checking a genre off our list. Studying poetry helps students with reading and writing. For some struggling readers, poetry that rhymes is a door to the world of reading. Through poetry, students have the support of rhyming patterns and a flow to each line that help them predict which words might come next and monitor their own reading for correctness. For all readers, poetry introduces a variety of vocabulary words that students might not encounter otherwise. Reading poetry not only strengthens reading skills, it also strengthens writing skills as students begin to explore how to use words effectively and efficiently. After reading poems, students began to see how they could use words as tools to paint a picture.
If you know a 6-9 student, ask him or her to recite a poem to you!
Excerpt from "Keep A Poem In Your Pocket"
By Beatrice Schenk de Regniers
Keep a poem in your pocket
And a picture in your head
And you'll never feel lonely
At night when you're in bed.
With the warm weather this week, everyone wants to be out and about - and that includes ticks. Join Nurse Lisa Chou on Thursday, May 10, at 9 a.m. for coffee and a chat about ticks. She'll discuss how to avoid, protect against and detect them, as well as what we're doing here at WMS to make everyone safer. Some of the actions we're taking include:
The Wednesday Weekly shares WMS news and events that are relevant to the families in our community.
