Week 25

It is Week 25 in our year-long sharing of poetry every Friday. If you're using selections from The Poetry Friday Anthology, one of your choices for this week's theme, "Song and Dance," is this fun poem by Jaime Adoff for Fifth Grade. You really need to check out the whole poem to get the full-- musical-- effect, but here is an excerpt to get you started.


Beats on Top of Your Head
by Jaime Adoff

I've got my
hip
hop
and it's time to
drop
another beat
on top of your head.
Rhythms fall like rain
Rhythms call my name.

....


I've got my
hip
hop— don't wanna stop
but I've come to the end of this poem
my friend.


[Look for the complete poem on p. 251 in The Poetry Friday Anthology.]


Take 5 Activities
1. Tap a regular rhythm (“drop” or play a beat) while you read this poem aloud.

2. Invite students to join you by chanting the hip / hop lines with a pause in between the two words while you read the rest of the poem aloud.

3. For discussion: What are your favorite kinds of music?

4. Poets give their poems shape and structure in many ways. Talk with students about how the short lines and line breaks give this poem a distinctive rhythm. Then read the whole poem aloud together again.

5. Follow up with “Your Chance to Dance,” a poem by Brod Bagert (1st Grade, Week 25), with Jaime Adoff’s book The Song Shoots Out of My Mouth: A Celebration of Music, or with selections from Hip Hop Speaks to Children, edited by Nikki Giovanni.


Now scoot on over to Sheri Doyle's place for our Poetry Friday gathering. See you there!