Day 47, Melissa Nored-Librarian

Book Spine Poetry

During the last nine weeks 5^th graders have been studying poetry of all kinds.  They’ve discussed various forms of figurative language, rhyme patterns, and rhythm.  Ms. McVey and Ms. Harmon borrowed lots and lots poetry books from the library in order to expose their  students to great variety – from Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost to modern poets like Shel Silverstein and Jack Prelutsky.  I decided to help wrap-up their study of poetry with a fun activity in the library.

Students were instructed to pick eight books at random from pre-selected stacks of books not knowing how they would use them.  Then we reviewed the definition of free verse poetry: no rhyme, no rhythm, and often has irregular lines.  I shared a couple of my favorite free verse poems including this classic by William Carlos Williams:

This Is Just To Say

I have eaten

the plums

that were in

the icebox

and which

you were probably

saving

for breakfast

Forgive me

they were delicious

so sweet

and so cold

         Next, I told students that they were going to work in small groups of 3-5 students to create a free verse poem.  But here’s the guidelines – you can only use the titles of your group’s eight books.  In other words – produce a poem from the words on the spine of the book:  book spine poetry.  They were able to add articles, prepositions or be verbs if needed to help make the poem flow smoothly.  That’s it!  The amazingly creative minds of our 5^th graders went to work, and the results were phenomenal!  Take a look and enjoy the poems.