Lynna Sutherland
Latest posts by Lynna Sutherland (see all)
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Wednesday is our Poetry Teatime. We’ve come to really look forward to it! And one of my favorite things is that included in the category of poetry is pretty much every other topic under the sun! I love that there are so many other subjects to explore in poetic format. Here are some of the gems we discovered at the library today:
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Emma’s Dilemma: Big Sister Poems
I grabbed this book because the big sister in our family is Emma! In this story, Emma is the little sister; but it turns out that there were a lot of parallels to the big-sister/little-sister episodes in our home! Even the difficulty at the end of the book was a parallel to our story! (But I don’t want to spoil that for you.)
These poems do not rhyme and do not follow the poetic rhythm the children are used to experiencing. Reading this book aloud led to a great discussion about what poetry is and what qualifies as a poem!
Digger, Dozer, Dumper
Yes, this is a book of truck poems. My four year old was hooked. I couldn’t finish reading all of them at teatime, because he wanted to have the book so he could look at the illustrations! (Think Calvin and Hobbes-esque Bob the Builder drawings.)
The rhymes are delicious with so many sound and sight images in word-form, like this excerpt from “Street Sweeper”
His steely whiskers whisper
as they gather dust and dirt.
They tickle all the gutters,
then rinse them with a squirt.
Today at the Bluebird Cafe
These delightful little poems are an amusing blend of fiction-y fact woven together in an anthropomorphic nature lesson.
“The Kingfisher”
I’m the boss of the marsh,
where the winters are harsh
the high-flyin’ king of my home.
I don’t give a care
for the state of my hair,
and I won’t use a brush or a comb.
When I set out to fish
for a rib-stickin’ dish,
I dive like a blue-streakin’ flash.
I cut through the air
with a natural flair,
and all you can see is my splash.
The illustrations are lovely, muted watercolors which at least double the attractiveness of this darling collection.
Swirl by Swirl: Spirals in Nature
This was my favorite book of today’s little group. A while back I tried to start a hashtag on Instagram #geometrynaturestudy about geometry in nature. It didn’t really take off, but this book has me thinking about it all over again! It illustrates all kinds of spirals found in nature – from the spiral of a tornado or a whirlpool of water, to the spiral of a ram’s horn or a fern’s delicate tendrils!
The last two-page spread in the book includes all kinds of wonderful facts and information about the spirals picture in the book, including a fun discussion of the fibonacci spiral, of course!
What great poetry books have you and your family read recently? Have any old favorites? Do tell!
(Homeschooling without Training Wheels is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.)
How fun to give kids an enjoyment of poetry at young ages!
Thanks, Susan. Poetry Teatime definitely wasn’t an idea original to us, but it has really been a blessing to our family!