The Case for Poetry All Year Long

I don’t like chalk (because it’s messy), but I adore Betsy Hubbard (because she’s artistic, brilliant, and caring) so I went outside to chalk with my daughter this afternoon.  Unlike me, Isabelle likes to use chalk!  See:

Now, on to my poetic masterpiece (or not) in honor of April’s Chalk-A-Bration.

The Case for Poetry All Year Long/Imagine a world…/Where chocolate is eaten only in February/And turkey is just consumed in November./That’s horrible –/Dreadful even!/Now imagine a world/With a daily diet of poetry./Tastier,/right?
(Click on the image to enlarge.)

I was one of those classroom teachers who infused poetry into my classroom all year long.  I couldn’t imagine teaching without poetry all year long thanks to my first literacy coach, Pat Werner, who opened the door of poetry to me during my first year of teaching.

Betsy hosts Chalkabration on the final day of each month at http://teachingyoungwriters.blogspot.com.

Advertisement

Practical Poetry: A Halloween Haiku

Betsy hosts Chalkabration on the final day of each month at http://teachingyoungwriters.blogspot.com.

We Trick o’ Treat the Thursday before Halloween in Central Pennsylvania.  Even after living here for 5+ years, I do not understand why we do this.

Trick o’ Treat Night has rules.  For instance, Trick o’ Treaters may only go to homes from 6 – 8 p.m. that have their front porch light on.  This doesn’t provide much time nor is it convenient for those of us with little kids who typically go to sleep at 8 p.m.  Throw in a neighborhood party afterwards and that doesn’t leave me with much time to open the door to kids who are looking for candy since I’m out from 6 – 7 p.m. with Isabelle.

{Sigh.}

Then I remembered that today was Chalkabration and I didn’t have my chalk poem ready yet.  (I no longer had an excuse now that I bought a package of 48 Crayola chalks and it wasn’t raining.)  So, I crafted a Halloween Haiku on my driveway yesterday around 4:15 p.m. so passersby would know to come back after seven.

My Halloween Haiku

Practical and creative, right?