Does the thought of teaching poetry cause you to tremble? Does the iambic pentameter make you ill? And, yet you must gather up your gumption and teach it? Yikes!
We at ReaderKidZ desire to remind you that kids are natural poets. They love writing and reading poems, especially if there are elements of childlike humor resonating between the lines. A Kick in the Head: An Everyday Guide to Poetic Forms is just the sort of book that teaches and tickles at the same time. The poetry forms selected by Paul Janeczko range from the acrostic to the villanelle and everything in between. Chris Raschka’s collage-like illustrations perfectly contribute to the joyful liveliness of each delightful poem.
A bonus aspect of this book is the brief descriptions of each poetic form. Here, Janeczko continues with his tongue-in-cheek style humor while clarifying the literary elements required to write each type of poem. For example, he describes the senryu as a haiku with attitude and explains that the double dactyl is not some sort of two-headed dinosaur.
Let Janesczko and Raschka add their own enthusiasm to your poetry unit! From the silly to the sublime, A Kick in the Head: An Everyday Guide to Poetic Forms is a teacher’s treasure.
Some days are muddy rain-cloud ones when the grass seems greener everywhere but where we are. That’s how Noodle, the worm, feels from time to time. But lucky, Noodle! When he’s blue, he knows just what to do. He calls on his best buddy, Lou. Lou knows just how to chase away the sad feelings and helps Noodle crawl out of his rut and recapture a “jaunty new strut.” No matter how different Noodle and Lou may be, nothing’s better than “seeing yourself through your best buddy’s eyes.”
From Liz Garton Scanlon:
I wrote Noodle & Lou after watching a worm slithering through our garden one day. I wondered if he knew how important he was, since he looked pretty inconsequential (and maybe even a little pathetic – all bare and slimy and all.) But really, he and his buddies are plowing and fertilizing the earth for us everyday. They’re remarkable.
And then I thought, “We’re all that way, aren’t we? Remarkable in ways we don’t even recognize. We tend to notice what we’re lacking and our friends tend to notice what we have and who we are!”
So Noodle & Lou were born – a funny little odd couple but no funnier than some real-life folks I know.
Read “What’s Your Story, Liz Garton Scanlon?” HERE.
I grew up in the mountains in Colorado with my mom, dad, little sister, two dogs, two horses, two gerbils, and the occasional bird, snake, frog or fish. One time I actually took in a rooster but that lasted just one night.
Did you have a best friend? Who was it and why were you best friends?
When I was a little girl, my sister was my best friend — and she still is. She’s two-and-a-half-years younger than I am, but we grew up without many other kids in the neighborhood so we always played together. Noodle & Lou is dedicated to her because she is always, steadfastly, my Lou.
What were your favorite things to do when you were young?
We really grew up outside. We built Huck Finn-type rafts in the summer, and snowball forts in the winter. We rode our bikes and skied and hiked. We brought home snakes and polliwogs. When we were inside, we played pretend. Pretend school, pretend family, pretend horse farm, pretend movie star. It’s amazing I grew up knowing who I really was!
Any defining moments (good or bad) that shaped you as a child?
We moved from Colorado to Wisconsin when I was 13. Being a “new girl” in school, getting used to a new home and new climate, making new friends — it made me feel scared and brave, all at the same time. It was not easy, but I think it helped shake up my perspective — something that’s really important to me as a writer. I don’t believe there’s just one way to live or to look at things…
Did you ever get into trouble at home or school?
I was usually what they called “a good girl” in school, but I did tend to whisper and chat a little too much. One year I had a teacher who made us construction paper apples. If we were naughty or rascally in class, she’d drop the apple from the tree, and if we were naughty or rascally again, she’d punch a hole in the apple and color a dark, rotten spot around it! My apple dropped from the tree many times that year, but I only got one dark hole, and I cried and cried. Nobody wants to be thought of as a rotten apple!
If you weren’t a writer, what would you like to be?
When I was a girl, I wanted to be an actress who lived on a horse farm. That still sounds kind of nice…
Do you listen to music while you write, or do you like silence?
I write in silence because I read my work out loud all the time. I need to be able to hear myself.
How many times do you have to revise? Do you love revision or hate it?
I revise some sections of my books dozens of times. I love revision — it makes me feel like a mad scientist, stirring things up to see what will fizzle and what will pop and spark and explode.
What your favorite book you wrote?
I always love the one I’m working on best of all. (It’s also usually the one I cannot stand!)
Are you famous?
My kids sometimes ask me that, too, and I always say, “Only in my family…”
Quick Picks:
PB & J or Mac and Cheese?PB&J
Dog, Cat, Bird, or Fish?Dog, cat, bird AND fish
Love revision or hate it?LOVE it
Early Bird Writer or Night Owl?Both! (Or neither, depending on how tired I am!)
Read “Your Friend, Liz Garton Scanlon (A Letter to Readers)” HERE.
I’m so glad you’ve read my book NOODLE & LOU, about a bummed-out worm and his buddy the blue jay!
A friendship between a worm and a bird – it’s a funny thought, isn’t it? Sometimes we get the idea that we’re supposed to be just like our friends, but some of my best friends and I are as different as Noodle and Lou.
Tall or short, prompt or tardy, loud or quiet – a good friendship should have room for our differences along with the things we have in common!
I got the idea for NOODLE & LOU when I was working in the garden at my house. I stopped to watch a worm slipping through the dirt, and I wondered how worms feel about themselves. I mean, they’re not the most attractive creatures, are they? They don’t have arms or legs, or pretty feathers, or facial expressions, or anything! But – they really are pretty important to the earth. Do you think they know that?
Sometimes we need our friends to point out our best qualities because we don’t notice them ourselves. That’s what Lou does for Noodle.
We can all be a Lou for somebody who needs a lift. And there are times when we all feel like Noodle, needing a Lou. I’ve got one, and I hope you do, too.
Liz says that Noodle and Lou are really just worm-and-bird versions of herself and the many folks she’s lucky enough to call friends, folks who always seem to see the best in each other.
Click HERE to access a Teacher’s Guide cleverly designed by Natalie Dias Lorenzi. In it, along with wonderful pre-reading, vocabulary exercises, and the like, Natalie has created an interesting “Feelings Forecast” activity and a “Growing a Friendship Garden” project. Both of these lessons are fascinating and fresh, guaranteed to keep the your young reader’s interest in exploring Noodle & Lou’s charming relationship long after the book has been read, reread, and then reread once again.
Arnold Adoff, an American scholar of Black America blues and poets, sings words, taps out images, stumps and fiddles with ideas. His new book of poetry is one to read and re-read:
Each Word A Hammer Hit. Each Word The Solid Tip
of finger hitting squarely on to the center of the ivory
yellow piano key. Each manner to each steel wire hit
makes tone makes sound and resonates: rings like rocks
hitting calm water. C i r c l e s of sounds reach out
like circles of words: flow stories out from the shore.”
This nearly-classic collection is too good, too fun, not to mention. Take a bee-bopping stroll under a canopy of poem trees just loaded with words, alliterating and spinning, even rap-rap-rapping. The illustrations made of sewn-fabric collages are a delight to the eye. The poetry stirs up toe-tapping images full of dreams, wishes (even of fishin’) and “just imagine!” what a poem can be.
This collection offers a variety of verses that provide information in rhythm and rhyme. Deborah Noyes’s photographs will make you sit down and look again. Have you ever had an ostrich stare you in the eye and give fatherly advice in verse? Open this book and select any poem for a read-aloud. You’ll smile while you learn something new and surprising. Additional information about these African beasts is tucked in the back of the book.
Thirty-three words. That’s the entire poem and book. Photographs of faces capture the grit of the human heart – courage, delight, curiosity, pain and pleasure. Charles Smith states, “This book is a study in simplicity.” It’s for all people of all ages to savor slowly, like a cool refreshing, drink on a hot summer afternoon.
This collection celebrates nature. The poems articulate the ideas of Darwin, echo the plea to “hurt no living thing” and encourage each reader to observe, ask, and wonder about both what is known and not known. Imagine reading side-by-side first a poem by D. H. Lawrence’s “Hummingbird” and then Rachel Field’s “Something Told the Wild Geese.” This carefully selected collection offers poems that will delight, send shivers down the spines of the readers, and make them laugh out loud.
Prolific poet and teacher Joyce Sidman states, “Why read [children] poems about worms and beetles? Because the physical world–and the profound lessons that direct contact with that world offers–have, sadly, receded into the background of their lives… More often than not, the dominant images they view every day are created by other minds, other imaginations–with sometimes dubious motives.” In short…poetry is important to the development of a young mind – very, very important.
And, because Joyce is so passionate about teaching poetry to children, she has generously provided a wealth of instructional information on her website, not only with the intention of complimenting her numerous books, but also to inspire the poet that resides within the heart of every child. Download her Guide for Educators and enjoy crafting diamantes, letter poems, exploring science and math activities, creating a synesthesia poem, and much more. She’s also provided a resourceful link called Poem Starters packed with great lessons for beginning and intermediate poets. And, for an additional, delightful surprise? Click HERE to hear Joyce read her poetry aloud! Can’t you just hear the passion in her voice?
When asked if she was famous, Joyce humbly answered, “Yes, to my dog. And to my children on good days. And there’s a lady I met at the library who says my poetry makes her cry (but I’m not sure if that’s good or bad).”
Trust us, Joyce. It’s good. It’s very, very good.
Mission Statement
To provide teachers, librarians, and parents with the resources and inspiration to foster a love of reading in kids, K-5.
