It’s raining poets!
Spring brings with it endless reasons to celebrate! One of my favorites is diving into poetry month! It's a time when we let the beauty of language BLOOM, for sure!
Nursery rhymes
We kick off our poetry learning at the very start of the school year. We begin by exploring nursery rhymes and learning tongue twisters. There's something super special about those familiar verses that sets the stage for a deeper exploration of oral language.
When March rolls around, we shift gears and dive into decodable poems. This gives my developing readers the opportunity to MARCH into reading poetry with total independence.
Over the years, I've used the "poem of the month" routine. It's always such fun to witness how my kindergarteners learn each new poem. We talk about how to find its rhythm and how to savor its poetic music. We practice reading and reciting the poems together as part of our morning meeting. I also use this poetry book (notice the author!)- WINK!
Decodable poems serve as a way to build vocabulary and just that beautiful overall oral language. And as my students' love for poetry grows, so does our poetry exploration. I even created a poetry center in our classroom where students go to read their decodable and sight words poems.
And now, after building all these experiences with poetry, my students are ready to transition into writing their own poems!
Have fun celebrating poetry month with your students!
Happy teaching!
TP
@tanyaparisauthor