Novels in Verse for Kids

This month, I've found that a great way to introduce poetry to the reluctant poetry reader is through novels in verse.

With this confession...

I actually had not read a children's fiction novel in verse until more recently when I read the National Book Award Winner and Newbery Honor Medalist, Inside Out & Back Again. My co-worker, who also shares a fondness for novels in verse, has turned me on to titles ever since. And with the end of National Poetry Month in plain view, I thought I'd share my top novels in verse picks for kids:

For readers age 8 and up:

Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai

Winner of the 2012 National Book Award and a 2012 Newbery Honor Medalist and my gateway into reading novels in verse. I adore this book and I think it would be a great book for teachers to add to their curriculum for  3rd/4th grade classrooms.

Love That Dog and Hate That Cat and Heartbeat by Sharon Creech

A huge fan of Walter Dean Myers, naturally I Love That Dog. I also think Love that Dog and the follow-up title Hate that Cat are great picks for boys hesitant or maybe even embarrassed to read poetry.

Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse

Won the Newbery Medal in 1998 and is a favorite of my fellow librarian co-worker (children's librarian for 20+ years.. She knows what she's talking about!).

All the Broken Pieces by Ann E. Burg

A William Allen White nominee 2011-2012 and ALA best book for Young Adults. Has been a popular book among the boys 10 and up at the library.

The Dancing Pancake and Summerhouse Time by Eileen Spinelli

I found Eileen Spinelli's novels in verse very sweet. Definitely something I would have enjoyed reading as a girl. Looking forward to recommending them this summer.

May B. by Caroline Starr Rose

Really enjoyed reading this book a couple months ago, especially because it takes place in Kansas. Also, think it would be a great nominee for the 2013 Schneider Award.

For readers a little older (ages 13 and up):

New Found Land and his latest The Watch that Ends the Night by Allan Wolf

New Found Land is a lyrical account of the Lewis and Clark expeditions and The Watch that Ends the Night is inspired by passengers of the Titanic. Good for the middle school/high schooler that enjoys historical fiction.

Under the Mesquite by Guadalupe Garcia McCall

Winner of the 2012 Pura Belpre Award and 2012 William C. Morris Finalist, Under the Mesquite is an elegant, emotional read about a family, specifically a daughter coping with her mother's cancer.

image sources: inside out and back again, love that dog, out of the dust, all the broken pieces, the dancing pancake,  may b, new found land, under the mesquite

Wordplay

Wordplay(time)!

Came across this idea recently and decided to try it out on the library storytime kids as a "Build-A-Poem" activity during National Poetry Month. I labeled bunches and bunches of legos and left them out after Sunday's storytime last weekend. It turned out to be more of a Build-A-Verse than the Build-A-Poem activity I had intended it to be, but even so it was all good fun.

Poetry in Nature

Sunday was Earth Day and it's also National Poetry Month! So, yesterday as a part of the ongoing festivities for poetry month, the storytime theme was "Poetry in Nature".

After reading a few poetic books about nature and the world, we made a "Plant a Poem, Plant a Flower" craft. One part grown in the library, the other to be cared for and grown at home.

And then we sang "Kumbaya".

Kidding.

Poetry in Nature Storytime Line-up:

Swirl by Swirl by Joyce Sidman, illustrated by Beth Krommes

Read this one in January for the KC Mock Caldecott. Each page I had the kids point out where the swirls were.

This is the Rain by Lola M. Schaefer, illustrated by Jane Wattenberg

A book about the water cycle. With dinosaurs!?

"Worms", a poem from Outside Your Window: A First Book of Nature by Nicola Davies, illustrated by Mark Hearld

I couldn't resist sharing my new favorite children's poetry book with the storytimers yesterday. Nicola Davies is a beautiful writer and Mark Hearld's illustrations are full of whimsy. I choose to read the poem "Worms", because earth worms are one of the world's greatest recyclers.

Blue Sky by Audrey Wood

A fun book for younger kids about the many moods of the sky.

All the World by Liz Garton Scanlon, illustrated by Marla Frazee

A sweet and simple about one day and all the world.

"Plant a Poem, Plant a Flower" Craft:

This was a two part craft. Part one was the plant stake poems that were made at the library and then after the kids were done making their craft, the received a baggie of potting soil, a few flower seeds, and a mini terra cotta pot to take home.

Materials used included flower seeds, potting soil, terra cotta pots, poems, scotch tape, scissors, cardboard box(es), and popsicle sticks. Glue and crayons/markers optional.

Using a flower stencil, I traced and cut out flowers from cracker and cereal boxes.

I also cut out a poem about gardening.

By anonymous.

The above was all done as prep before storytime. When it was time to make a craft after reading, all the kids had to do was tape or glue a flower to a popsicle stick.

And then decorate their flowers whichever way they preferred. They could use the printed side of the cardboard box as the front and glue the poem on OR they could have used the backside of the cardboard box and decorated it with crayons or markers. The finishing touch was taping/gluing the poem in the middle.

After their plant stake poems were finished, I handed out a mini terra cotta pot, a baggie of potting soil, and a baggie with 3-4 marigold or zinnia seeds.

Step two to be continued at home.....

Plant a Poem, Plant a Flower

image sources: swirl by swirl, this is the rain, outside your window, blue sky, all the world

Seeing Things

Hot mess.

Rainy day finger paints.

Swing time.

Old library card.

Ominous.

Joy.

What was mine, now is yours. Old Pooh, but new to you.

"The Bing", a Poetree poem by Gavin Firestone, Age 5.

KU Relays shot put event. The center of downtown.

Wild at the wheel.

"5 Reasons to Keep Chickens" by Nicola Davies

Friends.

Just a little this and that in April.

You have any plans for the weekend?

What have you been reading?

I've been re-reading my new favorite, Outside Your Window: A Child's First Book of Nature by Nicola Davies, illustrated by Mark Hearld. Trying to decide which poem(s) to share for Sunday's storytime.

Also been reading a few children's fiction books in verse including Summerhouse Time by Eileen Spinelli, Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse, and All the Broken Pieces by Ann E. Burg.

What else...

The Poetree has been growing. It was also recently featured on Library as Incubator Project. How neat is that?

Been daydreaming about summertime. Have my eye on a few non-budget friendly swimsuits. Like this.

Le sigh.

Anywho...

Hope you have a wonderful weekend wherever you are!!!

Adventures of Annie Aboard the Titanic

Before starting the Magic Tree House Adventures: Tonight on the Titanic program last Saturday, a parent came up to me and said, "You know this ship is going down, right?"

Last weekend, was the third edition of Magic Tree House Adventures. February theme was Hour of the Olympics and March was Leprechaun in Late Winter. Since our April's session happened to fall on the 100th anniversary of the Titanic's demise and Kansas City's Union Station is currently featuring a Titanic Artifact Exhibit, this month's theme was based off of Jack and Annie's adventure's in the Magic Tree House book, Tonight on the Titanic.

On Saturday, "Jack" and I set sail using the Magic Tree House as our guide...

Where are we? Who are they?

Where are we? Who are they? has become a regular activity for Magic Tree House Adventures. It’s a power point guessing game where we flash an image on a large screen and the kids guess the location of the picture, what is going on in the picture, or who is/are the person/persons in the picture.

For the Titanic session, the primary focus was the timeline of events during the Titanic's voyage, but also included  important figures such as Captain Smith, Thomas Andrews, and Robert Ballard, iceberg facts, and what it was like traveling as a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd class passenger.

For example, when this slide was displayed, I'd ask the kids... "Where is this? Is it someone's house?" And their reply was, "No, it's in the Titanic!". Then I would ask is this part of the Titanic the 3rd class travelers occupied? Was it 2nd? Or 3rd? Then we would talk about the different areas of the ship and the people who traveled on the Titanic.

Titanic Timeline Match Up

Posted around the room were clocks with pictures with pictures underneath in chronological order of important events on the Titanic voyage from April 10-April 18, 1912.

The kids received a worksheet where the dates and the events were out of order. To match them correctly, they had to go around the room and find the accurate matches. These were the events used:

April 10, 1912: Noon - Titanic Leaves Southampton, England
April 10: 6:30pm - Titanic stops in Cherboug, France
April 11: 11:30am - Titanic stops in Queenstown, Ireland
April 11-14 - Titanic travels toward New York. Passengers enjoy journey.
April 14: 11:40pm - Titanic strikes iceberg
April 15: 12:25 am - Passengers begin to be loaded into lifeboats
April 15: 2:20am - Titanic sinks
April 15: 4:10am - Carpathia reaches survivors
April 15- April 18 - Carpathia sails toward New York
April 18: 9pm - Survivors arrive in New York

Titanic Rescue Activity

The plan was to do this outside with two teams, but we had severe weather warnings over the weekend and had to make do inside.

The plan outside was to have two Titanic ships (outlined in yarn) about 25 feet, side by side. And two rescue ships 20 yards away parallel the Titanic ships, also side by side. One team will step inside one Titanic boat, and the other team in the other. Using one hula hoop each team, acting as a lifeboat, kids have to figure out how to fit as many passengers into one hula hoop (lifeboat) at a time, walk to the rescue boat, and then one passenger, "the hero" is what we named this person, had to come back in the hula hoop (lifeboat), and fill it up with more passengers, and return to the rescue boat. This would be done as quickly as possible, and over and over, until the Titanic was empty.

A race to see which team can get from the Titanic ship to the rescue ship without “throwing anyone overboard” and in the least amount of time.

Since we played the game inside, we only had one Titanic ship and one rescue ship outlined in tape and the teams took turns.

Titanic                              Lifeboat                                                                      Rescue Ship

(If you can make any sense of this diagram, the little circles are the kids.)

The first time the kids only had 1 hula hoop (lifeboat). The second time the kids used two hula hoops (lifeboat).

The activity was meant to show the kids how much quicker their ship emptied with two lifeboats opposed to one, which is why after the Titanic sunk a rule was put into effect that every ship has to have more than enough lifeboats for every passenger aboard. If the Titanic had enough lifeboats, this tragedy might have been avoided.

This was probably the kids' favorite part of the session. In context, a bit morbid, yes. But I feel the point came across loud and clear.

Iceberg Demonstration

The majority of this activity and facts about icebergs came from Beyond Penguins .

The day before, I made mini icebergs by filling water ballons with water, leaving them in the freezer, and then right before the class started, cut and peel away the balloon. With a couple clear glass bowls filled with water, some salt, and a little blue food coloring we had a couple iceberg models.

After the game, I brought out the iceberg models and the kids sat around me and we discussed these questions:

1. Why did I put salt in the water? A: we are simulating sea water (35 gms of salt in 1000ml water)


2. Why does the ice float? A: It’s less dense- ice is .92, water 1.0


3. Where do you find icebergs? A: largest and highest number in Antartica


4. Is more ice above or below the surface?

More facts about Icebergs:
A common misconception among students of all ages is that heavy objects sink and light objects float. While this belief may explain many examples, massive icebergs show that the density of an object, not its weight, is the cause of flotation.

Water is one of the few substances that is slightly denser as a liquid than as a solid. This is why ice cubes float in water.

Second, and slightly more interestingly: Most icebergs actually contain a lot of air. Far from being the solid blocks of ice many people imagine, icebergs are riddled with billions of tiny, trapped air bubbles, giving the huge bergs their white appearance.
Third, icebergs are made from fresh water. Because of the dissolved salts in ocean water, it is denser than freshwater, adding bouyancy to the icebergs.

The Titanic Today

With only 8 minutes left, the kids watched a clip of what the Titanic looks like today documented from The History Channel's Titanic's Final Moments: Missing Pieces.

At that point, the hour was up and it was time for the kids to go home!

As always, books were left on the table for them to check out of which they always raid...

... and they were also given their newest companion journal. Below is a sneak peak inside:

My co-worker, "Jack", really does an incredible job putting these journals together.

Had a great group of kids who seemed like they learned a lot and had fun doing it. Win!

Another adventure under the belt.

In May, we are off to the deserts of Egypt...

Magic Tree House #3: Mummies in the Morning

image sources: titanic illustration, titanic staircase, history channel dvd, mummies in the morning