April is National Poetry Month, and though we read and celebrate poetry all year long, this month gives us a chance to highlight it for an extended period of time.
My favorite activity is the Poem in Your Pocket, which is ongoing throughout the month. I have a pair of pants hanging up with a pocket for each grade level. Poems specific to each grade level (some are about subjects they study in science or social studies, i.e. insects for 2nd grade, rocks for 3rd grade) are put into each pocket. Students are encouraged to pick out a poem and carry it in their pocket for a day, sharing it with anyone they can read it to or with. It can be a family member, a friend, someone they are waiting in line with, their dog, as long as they can either read it or have it read to them.
Students then return to me and tell me they have shared their poem, and then they get a National Poetry Month bookmark (with a short poem on it, of course!). They can then take another poem from the pocket on the pants and share it over the next day and come back for another bookmark. They can take one poem and get one bookmark per day.
Many kids look forward to this activity and ask me when the pants will be hung back up so they can collect more poems and more bookmarks. So I'm excited to start this up again for National Poetry Month, 2012!
