April - Poetry Month - Day Seventeen - Q is for Question

 Happy Poetry Month!

If you'd like the poster, go here!

 

        I'm taking the advice from the poet who has given so much to help us all, including students and teachers, write poetry. I'll be moving from A to Z, obviously needing to combine a few to make it all come out to 30. FYI—Sometimes, Paul Janeczko offers a prompt to write a poem that begins with the specific alphabet letter instead of a poem type. It will be fun to be open to writing in all kinds of ways!

       You can find the path to the Progressive Poem over to the right! Simply click on the graphic!

       Q is for "Question"

photo from Stocktake

             

What does a child know?

         At school, you line up in a row.

         A ball’s to bounce and catch and throw,

         and most things happened long ago.

 

What does a child know?

         Of whispers saying ‘grow, grow’,

         but yearns to learn the facts that show

         why minutes travel awful slow.

                                       Linda Baie ©

April - Poetry Month - 2024, Day Sixteen, Begins with P – Performance

     Happy Poetry Month!

If you'd like the poster, go here!

 

        I'm taking the advice from the poet who has given so much to help us all, including students and teachers, write poetry. I'll be moving from A to Z, obviously needing to combine a few to make it all come out to 30. FYI—Sometimes, Paul Janeczko offers a prompt to write a poem that begins with the specific alphabet letter instead of a poem type. It will be fun to be open to writing in all kinds of ways!

       You can find the path to the Progressive Poem over to the right! Simply click on the graphic!

     This is Day 16, a word that starts with P - I chose "Performance".  Can you imagine?

 Performance of a Showoff 

 

The centipede, without dismay

demands applause in a special way.

Its many legs help it refine

the one-bug musical chorus line.

Linda Baie ©

April - Poetry Month - 2024, Day Fifteen - PLUS - It's Monday - Poetry for Young Ones!

                

        Visit Kellee and Ricki at UnleashingReaders and Jen at Teach Mentor Texts to see what they and others have been reading! Your TBR lists will grow! 

Happy Poetry Month!

        I'm taking the advice from the poet who has given so much to help us all, including students and teachers, write poetry. I'll be moving from A to Z, obviously needing to combine a few to make it all come out to 30. FYI—Sometimes, Paul Janeczko offers a prompt to write a poem that begins with the specific alphabet letter instead of a poem type. It will be fun to be open to writing in varied ways!

       You can find the path to the Progressive Poem over to the right! Simply click on the graphic!

       I'm on a different path because today's Alphabet letter is O, and O is for Opposites! Charles Ghigna, whose poems are often for all ages, has this time written a book for young ones, and also for those beginning readers who will love a story with a few words to learn along with a delightful story that will make them smile. The title, The Magic Box, publishes at the end of this month! 

      Pandora, a cute panda, is out for a walk and finds a box. "Hmm", I'm sure she thinks, what could this be? "She picked it up. /She put it down." After a bit more exploration, wow, the box begins to talk! In this journey, that "magic box" tells about itself in brief phrases that are also small poems,  like "I like NIGHT." and "I like DAY." followed by "I go LEFT." and "I go RIGHT." Jacqueline East's illustrations are color-filled with fun expressions and actions! She also leaves enough white space so young readers' centers of attention are of Pandora's and the Box's actions. Also, that space helps the focus on new words being read, too. 

  One peek inside!

Thanks to Schiffer Publishing Ltd. for my copy!

It's Monday! Preparing for Earth Day! And More!

         

        Visit Kellee and Ricki at UnleashingReaders and Jen at Teach Mentor Texts to see what they and others have been reading! Your TBR lists will grow! 

         You know I've been taking a long time reading The Many Assassinations of Samar, The Seller of Dreams. It hasn't called me to hurry up, so this week, because of having to return it soon, I started and finished Heroes by Alan Gratz.

         I know a lot about Pearl Harbor. My father was a WWII pilot and was shot down later in the war in the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Thus, as I grew up I learned so much from all my family, and have read quite a bit of this time of history, too. But I don't remember the ground-shaking details of that attack by the Japanese that Gratz tells in this new history, the horrible scenes, and the aftermath, too. In this, two upper-middle-school-age boys, Frank and Stanley, whose dads are pilots, have cemented their friendship because Frank loves to write and Stanley loves to draw. They have exciting plans to do comic books with their own "superhero"! Caught in what they thought would be an awesome tour of the Utah battleship from Frank's sister's boyfriend, Brooks, the Japanese attack began. It's a terrifying account that, if you like historical fiction, is a must-read. The story is compounded by the fact that Stanley is half-Japanese, not a good thing at all. And, throughout the story, nothing is easy for Frank because in his previous school and neighborhood, he was bullied continuously, learning to hide with as little confrontation as possible, imagining every tiny thing in varying circumstances that could go wrong. Their friendship is not always easy, but it is one to look at and admire. It's another special book of history for middle school, with a sweet surprise at the end and added information from Gratz, including a glossary.

         I'm writing and posting a poem every day for April, Poetry Month. I hope you will visit when you can! Today, I'm connecting my poetry post here, too, with a wonderful new book by Charles Ghigna. 

         Next Monday is Earth Day, and I'll share a few more books then, too. Meanwhile, here are some recent ones I've loved, some of my own, some from the library, and others from Candlewick Press!

Thanks to Candlewick Press for this copy!

         I've loved other books by Liz Garton Scanlon, especially one from years ago titled All The World! There, like this new one just out, Liz shows us the beauty of our natural world. Oh, my, Liz gives us readers a loving message with the help of the gorgeous illustrations by Dominique Ramsey. This time, she tells how everything is connected, the smallest start to the biggest growth, trees and seeds, water and clouds. All are a part of the earth. I love the story, including humor, like when she writes, "and Cloud cannot contain herself." And the unique way the story lets the 'growing' characters in the story are sometimes allowed to share their own opinion of things that grow. "But wind... / (Whoa! says Tree.)/Wind grows stronger." Fire is there, too, some sadness and something helpful. The ending, along with all the rest, is powerful. What a lovely book to have for starting Earth Day celebrations. 

Thanks to Candlewick Press for this copy!

           No surprise! Emily Sutton's illustrations fill this new book by Nicola Davies with GREEN! Pages of abundant landscapes help Davies explain how photosynthesis works, from the tiniest chloroplasts in leaves that process sunshine into sugar and oxygen to those tiny tubes in the veins that bring water from the roots. The opposite, and needed, process, is respiration, giving living things needed oxygen. One wonderful page shows the path from animals' eating habits to their dependence on plants "for the food they make and the oxygen they breathe out". A history of the earth, including a tiny timeline, explains this need while starting at the very beginning when there was no oxygen and the journey to the creation of what we now call 'fossil fuels', both useful and detrimental. There are ways to change and scientists know them. It's a useful journey of our Earth wonderfully explained for use in classrooms or at home and the need, the dire need, for GREEN!

Thanks to Candlewick Press for this copy!

       The creators of Step Gently Out and other books, too, Helen Frost and Rick Lieder, write and photograph, The Mighty Pollinators. These early words start us off:  "Here come the pollinators,/small and mighty,/holding the world together." Rick's exquisite photographs accompany Helen's poems from bees to bats, and wasps to butterflies. If you sneeze when outside in the spring, Helen writes" "You may not see me,/but you know I'm here/when I brush past your skin./Strong and fierce/or soft and gentle, I'm pollen's good friend–/I'm the wind."        

        Even humans play a part! The back includes information about pollen, including "what it is" and "how we humans can help." What a lovely and just-right book for now!

        

        I still have this book, published in 1998. I hope you can find a copy if you would like a wonderful book of poems and stories telling both the special things about our earth and the destructive things that are hurting it. Ready for Earth Day, hoping everyone can find it. It came out many years ago, still a treasure to share about our earth! Here's a partial list of those whose writings are included: Steinbeck, Leopold, Muir, Schweitzer, Ovid, Tolstoy, Cather, Attenborough, Kipling, Hardy, Douglas Adams, Edward O. Wilson, Chekov, Lorenz, Julian Huxley and Paton are included (among others). 

April - Poetry Month - 2024, Day Fourteen - Starts with N

       Happy Poetry Month!

If you'd like the poster, go here!

 

        I'm taking the advice from the poet who has given so much to help us all, including students and teachers, write poetry. I'll be moving from A to Z, obviously needing to combine a few to make it all come out to 30. FYI—Sometimes, Paul Janeczko offers a prompt to write a poem that begins with the specific alphabet letter instead of a poem type. It will be fun to be open to writing in all kinds of ways!

       You can find the path to the Progressive Poem over to the right! Simply click on the graphic!

     This is Day 14, a word that starts with N - I chose "News", and this time, thinking of the very different way we communicate with family some of the time. You'll see when you read the poem!

a screenshot of a few of the texts my 
family shared on eclipse day

New News

 

family phone calls 

news hums over the wires

words like hugs

 

now love What’s up?

texts sent in a breeze

no wires needed

Linda Baie ©