Poetic Grammar and Language Study
Materials:
chalk or white board
selected works of poetry.
Preparation:
Select a few short poems that relate to a current topic of
study or season, and copy them to the chalkboard. Read the poem with
your
children, or have them read aloud independently. There are many ways to
use the poem for grammatical study. Choose what fits best into your
study.
a) identify and discuss how punctuation is used in the poem
b) underline
parts of speech nouns/verbs/adjective in each line of the poem
c)
identify
rhyming words
d) identify rhyme scheme and have children write short
poems
of their own following the same pattern.
A few seasonal poems you might wish to consider....
'October' by Thomas Bailey Aldrich
October turned my maple's leaves to gold;
The most are gone now; her and there one lingers.
Soon these will slip from out the twig's weak hold,
Like coins between a dying miser's fingers.
'October' by Maurice Sendak
In October,
I'll be host to witches, goblins
and a ghost.
I'll serve them
chicken soup
on toast.
Whoopy once
whoopy twice
whoopy chicken soup
with rice.
'Harvest Home' by Arthur Guiterman
The maples flare among the spruces,
The bursting foxgrape spill its juices,
The gentians lift their sapphire fringes
On roadways rich with golden tinges,
The waddling woodchucks fill their hampers,
The deer mouse runs, the chipmunk scampers.
The squirrels scurry, never stopping,
For all they hear is apples dropping
And walnuts plumping fast and faster;
The bee weighs down the purple aster-
Yes, hive your honey, little hummer,
The woods are wavering, 'Farewell Summer.'
Poetic Patterns
Materials:
beads
linking cubes or any multi colored manipulatives
anychild's rhymes or poems (on paper or chalkboard)
alphabet flashcards
Skills:
fine motor, listening, rhyme identification, poetry skills
Read the poem aloud with your child. Have your child identify rhymes
within the poem, underlining rhyming pairs in the same color. Now read
the
pattern created by the underline colors. For example, in the poem
below,
'sing', 'thing', 'Spring', and 'sing' would be one color, while
'December',
'remember', 'September' and 'December' would all be another color. The
pattern in 'I Heard a Bird Sing' could be red, blue, red, blue, red,
blue,
red, blue.
'I Heard a Bird Sing' by Oliver Herford
I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December
A magical thing
And sweet to remember.
'We are nearer to Spring
Than we were in September,'
I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December.
Have your child build this pattern using manipulatives. Next, show the
pattern using the alphabet flashcards. Red, blue, red, blue, red, blue,
red, blue becomes A, B, A, B, A, B, A, B.
Finally, have your child come up with rhyming words that follow this
pattern (or the one in your example), and build a simple poem around
this
rhyme structure. Have them underline the rhyming words, use
manipulatives
and alphabet flashcards to represent their rhyme scheme.
About the Author
Catie Hayes is founder/editor of WomanLinks.com,
a community of support, spirituality, growth and empowerment for women. She is a freelance writer, the single homeschooling mom of two, and an avid fan of laughter, spontaneous dancing, cats and chocolate (not necessarily in that order).
