Keep A Poem In Your Pocket

by Beatrice Schenk de Regniers

 

Keep a poem in your pocket

And a picture in your head

And you’ll never feel lonely

At night when you’re in bed.

 

The little poem will sing to you

The little picture bring to you

A dozen dreams to dance to you

At night when you’re in bed.

 

So—

Keep a picture in your pocket

And a poem in your head

And you’ll never feel lonely

At night when you’re in bed.

 

Source: http://geocities.com/fluharty_j1/PoetryPathfinder/keepapoem.htm

A note from Mrs. Zider:

Poetry and songs are often part of our Shared Reading time together each day. Beginning readers benefit from reading poems and singing songs in a number of ways.

• Reading memorized poems and nursery rhymes builds confidence. If children think they can read...they can! Remember The Little Engine That Could!
• Re-reading familar text builds fluency or smooth reading. Remember we never want to "robot read."
• Songs are fun to sing as well as read. The shared experience builds our sense of community in our classroom. When we all do something it validates it as acceptable and fun
• Songs and poems are a fun way to read!
• Children love the rhythm and rhyme of songs and poems.

Front Section of Poetry Binder (Poems and Songs):

We will add poems and songs to our Poetry Binder every week. We will practice them at school so that on Fridays your child can bring the Poetry Binder home to share with you over the weekend. Since there is no homework on weekends this is a perfect way to spend time together. Please add a comment to the Communication Sheet in the front section so I can see how your child is doing at home. Please do not change the order of the poems or take any poems out since we practice them almost daily. Your child can find the songs and poems easier if they stay in their original order. Remember to send the binder back to school on Mondays so your child has it at school during the week.

Back Section of Poetry Binder (Word Family Sheets):

The back section of these binders will contain the Weekly Word Family (or Families... starting in mid-Jan.) that we are working on each week. Since our brains are "pattern dectectors" this is an excellent way for your child to figure out new words without "sounding" them out. This also builds fluency so your child does not attemp to sound each letter in the words. Letter by letter reading slows children down and gets in the way of understanding the meaning of the word as they read. And besides about 60% of the word your child reads can't be decoded or "sounded out." So be sure to look at the new work family each weekend and have your child read any words or poems associated with each family. Thanks in advance for your help in practicing and improving your child's reading this year.

HAPPY READING AND SINGING!

"Poetry is the opening and closing of a door, leaving those who look through to guess about what was seen during a moment." Carl Sandburg