Recite them, sing them, draw them, act them out. Look up supporting information about the many poets represented here. In 28 wonderfully clever wordplay poems, illustrated with goofy scenes, find words within words eat in sweater, neigh in neighborhood, ant in pantry and see how they are related. Brainstorm a list of words containing words and have children work in pairs to decide how the words are related to each other. Thirty-nine American poets share their poems and personal thoughts about writing poetry.
Students can search out and share other examples of each poet's work.
Incorporate the exercises and advice into poetry composition by students. Viorst offers 44 blue-chip verses about children's fears, questions, and special requests. Fairy tale parody fans will be tickled to note that there are poems that muse on the fates of Beauty and the Beast, Rumpelstiltskin, the fisherman and his wife, and Hansel and Gretel. An alphabet of evocative acrostic poems, where the first letter of each line combines to form a word that is the subject of the poem, takes us though the delights of spring, illustrated with bold, elegant hand-colored linoleum cuts. Have your children compose and illustrate new acrostic poems for winter and summer.