Week 12

This week we shift our focus to House and Home, the theme of Week 12. Our sample poem comes from First Grade and is by Charles Ghigna, also known as Father Goose. Here is just a nugget from the poem to give you a taste.

My Tree House
   by Charles Ghigna

Welcome to my tree house,
my free house,
my me house,

....
where the air is fresher,
no pressure,
where treetops swish and sway,

where I come to look at
the books that
take me far away.

[The entire poem is available in The Poetry Friday Anthology on p. 78.]


Take 5 Activities

1. Before sharing this poem, take a moment to encourage students to close their eyes and imagine a big leafy tree, a ladder up high, and a tree house. Then continue by reading this poem aloud.

2. Next, invite students to join you in reading aloud the first stanza. If necessary, write the words tree, free, me (on cards) to cue them to the order of these words in reading the stanza.

3. For discussion: If you could have a tree house, what would it be like?

4. Sometimes poets arrange their words into groups called stanzas. This poem contains 5 stanzas. A stanza can have any number of lines. Help students see that this poem is made up of tercets (3-line stanzas).

5. Follow up with “The Front Yard Where the Maple Tree Stands” by Allan Wolf (4th Grade, Week 12).

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Time to join the Poetry Friday fray hosted by the lovely Anastasia Suen at Booktalking here.

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