Week 28

What time is it? It's time to share a Poetry Friday poem from The Poetry Friday Anthology! We're in Week 28 of our weekly sharing of poetry every Friday all year long. What is the theme? Books! This week's sample poem comes from second grade and is a fun poem written in two voices. Here's how it begins and ends. You'll have to look in the book on p. 134 to read the WHOLE poem. [If you haven't already, get your copy of the book here.]


I Might Go to Mars
by Juanita Havill

Me: “See you later, Mom.
I’m going to the moon.”

Mom: “And I’m fixing lunch.
Be back by noon.”

...


Mom shrugs and frowns,
gives me that look.

So I tell her my secret:
I travel by book.


Take 5 Strategies
1. Double-check that students know that Mars is in outer space, a detail that makes a big difference in this poem. Then read the poem aloud, using a high pitched youthful voice for the lines for Me and a lower, authoritative voice for the lines for Mom and your normal voice for the final stanza.

2. Invite students to read the Me lines in unison. If possible, display the words of the poem to assist students.

3. For discussion: Where would you like to go if you could go absolutely anywhere?

4. This is a poem written for two voices or characters as if it were a conversation. Consider how the ending rhymes (moon/noon; so/go; look/book) help make what could be simply dialogue a rhyming poem.

5. For another poem for two voices, look for “The Way You Sound To You / To Me” by John Grandits (4th Grade, Week 13).


For Poetry Friday, go to Check It Out where Jone is hosting our weekly gathering. See you there!