THURSDAY THOUGHTS: TEACHING POETRY TO 5TH GRADERS

Shel Silverstein is a staple in 5th grade.  Many years ago, while teaching 5th grade, I received Light in the Attic for my birthday.  I brought it and Where the Sidewalk Ends, its companion, in to class where I shared it with small groups.  I let them find their favorite funny pictures and accompanying poems and mark them with bookmarks they had designed themselves.  I read a few favorites aloud in class, showing the drawings on the video camera.  We did this in the few minutes before lunch or after PE for a “settle down” effect.

To integrate poetry with a grammar lesson later, students were asked to supply a noun for each blank in Richard Armor’s poem, “Money.” Then we compared our answers with the original which follows:

Money

__________earn it.

__________burn it.

__________lend it.

__________spend it.

__________fake it.

__________take it.

___________leave it.

__________receive it.

__________save it.

__________crave it.

__________seize it.

__________increase it.

__________lose it.

I could use it.

Not only did we talk about why a word that fit the blank was a noun (Was it a person, place or thing?  Did it form its plural by adding “s” or “es”? ) but also why Armour chose the particular word he did.

Here were Armor’s choices:

Money

Workers earn it.

Spendthrifts burn it.

Bankers lend it.

Women spend it.

Forgers fake it.

Taxes take it.

Dying leave it.

Heirs receive it.

Thrifty save it.

Misers crave it.

Robbers seize it.

Rich increase it.

Gamblers lose it.

I could use it.

Just look at the new words to be added to the students’ vocabulary list!

These little “tips” using poetry in the classroom lend fun to the tedium of the Language Arts Bloc and brighten up both the students’ and the teacher’s day while “getting the job done.”