Celebrate Poetry All Month Long with Read, Discuss, Do

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  Happy National Poetry Month! We are celebrating National Poetry Month with a weekly poetry challenge all month long. To follow along, subscribe to our newsletter or check back here every Monday and Friday throughout the month of April for updates.  Kickoff: Books and resources for National Poetry Month   Week one: Read and write haiku  Article: A Brief History of Poetry by Marci Whitehurst Week two: Read and write odes Article: Eight Creative Ways to Explore Poetry All Year Long by Rebecca J. Gomez Week three: Read and write riddle poems   Week four: Poet's choice! If you and/or your children/students participate in any of our challenges this month, we'd love to hear from you.  You can  email  us or  tag us  on Instagram (use the hashtag #RDDPoetryChallenge or #RDDPoetryMonth). We will be sharing some readers’ poems in a round-up post at the end of the month, so if you’d like your poems to be considered, please let us know when you s...
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Celebrate Poetry with a Poem in Your Pocket

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by Trine Grillo

Poem in Your Pocket Day is coming up on April 29. Poem in Your Pocket Day is a day when people celebrate poetry by choosing a poem to carry with them to share with people throughout the day. You can keep the poem in your actual pocket and share it with people you meet. Or you can share it on social media (with the hashtag #PocketPoem), email it to someone, read it aloud over the phone, or share it any other way you like.

Here's an idea for a poetry book to read for inspiration:

A Child's Calendar by John Updike follows a family through a year and reminds us in 12 little poems what we love about seasons. The illustrations by Trina Schart Hyman show the family busy together in activities for each month. First published in 1965, this republication was nominated for the Caldecott Medal in 2000 and is one of the first award-winning books to feature an interracial family.

Discuss the book as you read. Here are some suggested discussion topics:

  • What is your favorite season? Why?
  • How are the seasons the same or different where you live?
  • Do you have a favorite poem from the book?
  • If you were to choose one person to share this book with, who would that be?

Do: For Poem in Your Pocket Day, choose a poem from the book to share. Or write your own! You can write a poem about a month of the year or look back at our posts about haiku or concrete poetry for ideas. Or try something different. How about an ACROSTIC poem about YOU? Here's how you write an acrostic name poem:

1. Create a list of your favorite things about spring. It could include things like bike rides, mud puddles, blossoms, worms...

2. Write your name vertically on your paper. Be sure to capitalize each letter of your name.

3. Start each line of your poem with the capital letters you wrote.

4. Each line will tell one of your favorite things about spring. Here's an example using the name Owen:

O    Orange soda

W    Worms

E    Easter    

N    Night walks

Once you are happy with your poem, tuck it into your pocket to share with someone on Poem in Your Pocket Day! And we'd love it if you come back and share it with us in the comments too!

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