From: MAUREEN MALONEY <MMALONEY>
Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 10:49:16 -0500

Every week I bring poems to my son's somewhat restless second-grade class. I started out at the beginning of the year with some attention-grabbers like Shel Silverstein's books, Carol Diggory Shields'
*Lunch Money,* and some selections from Jack Prelutsky's books. Then I brought in more traditional poems that appear in picture books, like Ogden Nash's *Custard the Dragon and the Wicked Night,* illustrated by Lynn Munsinger and R.L. Stevenson's "My Shadow," in a Reading Rainbow picture book illustrated by Ted Rand. Recently I have been sharing Valerie Worth's poems with them from her anthologies *Small Poems* and
*Small Poems Again.* The latter title has a number of poems that do not mention the name of the object described in the poem within the text. I have read these poems to the class without telling the children the titles and asked them to try to guess what the poem is about. This was an exercise that the class enjoyed. The approach worked well for a group that finds it hard to focus on one thing at a time--they were tuned into the activity quite well and I think they got more out of the poems this way than they would have if I had just read the poems to them.

Thanks to all who have passed on wonderful ideas for sharing poetry with children.

Maureen Maloney Youth Services Librarian Duluth Public Library Duluth, MN
Received on Tue 28 Apr 1998 10:49:16 AM CDT