This Week in Reading and Writing

Our readers and writers have been working hard on their poetry unit the last couple of weeks. This week, we continued reading a wide range of poems and noting what poets do to make their writing more interesting and fun to read. As we read, we pay attention to the "cool things" that poets do in their poems and how these strategies (i.e. figure of speech, use of line breaks, onomatopoeia) help elicit their readers' reactions and feelings. For example, when poets use personification to compare and describe a non-living object, we as readers have to use our imagination and create movies in our minds. Another example that we found is that when poets use onomatopoeia (sounds) in their poems, we as readers feel that we are "in the moment" with the poet, and it makes the poem more lively.

As we are getting ready to revise and edit our own poems for publishing, our writers have been using these smart and cool strategies that we noticed in the poems we studied into their own writing. Many of them are refining their written poems, rereading them, and trying out different strategies. Some writers tried adding more actions to create a dynamic moment, and some tried using line breaks to slow things down or emphasize a certain feeling.

We also just finished reading aloud, Love That Dog, by Sharon Creech. It is a book of poems written by this character, Jack, timid boy who thinks poetry is only for girls and is always shy about sharing his poems. Gradually, as time passes, Jack gets more comfortable writing poems and begins to write poems about his dog, Sky. From Jack's poems, we understood that many poets- both kids or grown-ups get inspiration from others. Jack is particularly inspired by Walter Dean Myers. Jack's favorite poem written by Mr. Myers is Love that Boy, which later, inspires him to write a poem called Love that Dog, in memory of his beloved dog, Sky.  

Love that Dog 
By Jack 
(Inspired by Mr. Walter Dean Myers) 

Love that dog 
like a bird loves to fly 
I said I love that dog 
like a bird loves to fly 
Love to call him in the morning 
love to call him 
"Hey there, Sky!" 


We had fun reading aloud this poem together. Ask your child this weekend about the character, Jack, and what his poems are about.