I’m thankful for having the opportunity to love this loyal, old Basset Hound, Hush Puppy, who we had to put to sleep on Tuesday. He lived almost 14 years, and he was a lover of pizza, going bye-bye, and belly scratches. We will miss you, our old friend. Rest in peace. I wanted to tell [...]

photo by katclay www.flickr.com I wrote this poem after attending a human trafficking information night at the University of Illinois. I don’t write many poems; but when I have strong emotions about something, the lines just seem to come out. When Does Innocence Die? When does innocence die? From the moment the foreigner saunters Into [...]

Gogo Ida’s house in Swaziland Yesterday, I introduced you to author Linda Rhinehart Neas and her poetry book, Gogo’s Dream: Swaziland Discovered. There’s still time to leave a comment or question for Linda and a chance to win her book. One of the things she talked about was the non-profit organization, Possible Dreams International. The [...]

photo by pink sherbert www.flickr.com Clara Gillow Clark is holding a writing contest for students in grades six through ten. The contest goes until April 9. To enter the contest, you write a 250-word entry to one of these prompts from a book called Spilling Ink by Anne Mazer and Ellen Potter: Writing Prompt #1: [...]

by Sister72 www.flickr.com I don’t have a lot of experience with junior high students, and so I’m not going to tell you what you should do to teach your middle school class or your kids in your home school about poetry during National Poetry Month 2010. And I’m in Florida on vacation, so I am [...]

I talked about this book last week, too, for one that is great to share during National Poetry Month 2010 or any poetry unit you do with elementary students. More Pocket Poems edited by Bobbi Katz is a sequel, of course, to Pocket Poems. So, actually, either one is nice for sharing poetry with young [...]

photo by lululemon athletica www.flickr.com To get ready for spring and April, National Poetry Month, I thought we should start having some Wacky Wednesday posts about teaching kids poetry. Whether you teach your kids at home or you are a K-12 teacher, your students can benefit from reading and studying poetry. The next two weeks, [...]

photo by mdxdt www.flickr.com *Picture book for preschoolers (However, this can be used with elementary students during a poetry unit.) *Young boy as main character *Rating: Red Sled is a clever book about a night time sled ride for a boy and his dad. Not to mention, there’s wonderfully bright illustrations! Short, short summary: A [...]

photo by Irargerich www.flickr.com It seems on Wacky Wednesdays that I am on a bit of a poetry kick. Last week, I discussed acrostic poems and how they can be useful tools in the classroom for creative writing skills and assessing subject matter knowledge. This week, I have found this wonderful book at my public [...]

Around the holidays, you may have a writing activity such as this for your students or children: write the word, Thanksgiving, vertically on the left-hand side of your paper. Then write an acrostic poem–the first letter of each line should be a letter in Thanksgiving AND each line should focus on Thanksgiving. When you read [...]