Playing with Poems: Rules, Tools, and Games

Introduction

This unit will lead elementary students through reading and discussing a wide variety of animal poetry ranging from Mary Ann Hoberman to Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Students will be learning about the use of similes, metaphors, alliteration and idioms in poetry. The idea that "it is only through the animal that we recognize our humanity" ¹ and then learn to be the type of person we will become is a basis for why animals were chosen as the theme to study. The animal is an important part of the social world of children and has a direct impact on their development. Adrian Franklin concluded that for children pets encouraged healthy psychological development. ² In a 2008 study children were asked to talk about places and people that are important to them; animals were not a focus of the study. Ninety percent of the respondents brought up how significant animals are to them—from their pets to insects to animals in their neighborhood. ³ When asking a child to read and write about the world around them, it makes sense to start from a point where they already have a good deal of interest and personal experience. ⁴ Their ability to notice needs, details and relationships is often is with family pets that a child is first able to express and understand empathy. This unit will allow students to read great poetry, understand what the author notices about animals, and then create similar types of poems about animals in their own lives. I am hopeful that students will take as much joy and pleasure from hearing great poems and through creating their own poetry, as they do when given watercolors and paper with the license to just paint, create, and enjoy.