How to teach a Poem to kids in 2 minutes: Day 28 of 31 Days of Poems for Kids

How to teach a poem to kids in less than 2 minutes…

Day 28 of 31 Days of Poems for Kids: I Sing for the Animals, Teton Sioux

One way to express how you feel about something is to write about it or tell about it. One way to understand something you’ve never experienced it to read about it.

Poetry gives us a way to experience another person’s feelings and another person’s culture through words that make us feel something. Take your children on a walk today with the Teton Sioux Indians to see and experience how a connection with nature is joyful enough to sing about…

I SING FOR THE ANIMALSTeton Sioux Indians

Out of the earth
I sing for them,
A Horse nation
I sing for them.
Out of the earth
I sing for them,
The animals
I sing for them.

Read this poem/song with your children.

Talk about how important the animals are to the speaker of this poem/song. How do we know the animals are so important? What words does the speaker use to tell us how important the animals really are?

Talk about celebrations where we sing for someone or something; perhaps a birthday, a wedding, a church service.

Ask your children if they ever remember singing for animals. Why or why not? Why are animals so important to the speaker of this poem/song? Which animals are the speaker singing about? Definitely horses! Why are horses so very important to the Sioux Indians? Perhaps buffalo, deer, moose are important, too. Did the Sioux Indians rely on animals for food and transportation? Ask your children if you rely on animals for food and/or transportation.

There is a spirituality to the poem/song I SING FOR THE ANIMALS. There is a celebration in the poem/song.

Talk to your children about living in the wilderness of the 17th 18th and 19th centuries in comparison to our lives today. What do we celebrate? What do we sing for? This Sioux Indian poem/song gives us a deep sense of the appreciation for the animals that were such an integral part of their lives, their culture, their existence, their joy, their feelings.

The Sioux Indians were inspired enough to sing for the animals. Use this poem/song to make connections with the nature around you and with people from other times and places.

LITERACY is all about WORDS – Written, Spoken & Felt… and in this case, SUNG!

If you and your children enjoyed this poem, you may also enjoy Days 1 – 25:
Fog, by Carl Sandburg
from Five Haiku, by Paul Eluard
Love is, by Nikki Giovanni
Temple Bell, by Yosa Buson
The Snail, by Richard Wright
Evening, by Sappho
The Red Wheelbarrow, by William Carlos William
The White Horse, by D. H. Lawrenc
Dragonfly Catcher, by Chiyojo
The Giraffe, by Ron Padgett
German Shepherd, by Myra Cohn Livingston
Outwitted, by Edwin Markham
My Father, by Yehuda Amichai
Window, by Czeslaw Milosz
I Cry, by Tupac Shakur
I, Too, Sing America, by Langston Hughes
Brotherhood, by Octavio Paz
Lullaby, Akan, African
Today, by Frank O’Hara
Cradle Song, by Sarojini Naidu
Full Moon, by Walter de la Mar
Grass, by Kim Su-yeong

About Audrey

Audrey McClelland has been a digital influencer since 2005. She’s a mom of 5 and shares tips on her three favorite things: parenting, fashion and beauty. She’s also a Contemporary Romance Author.

Sign Up To The Ultimate Style Newsletter for Moms

Categories

ShopStyle “List” Of all Things I Like and Blog About

Pinterest

1 Comments

Comments are closed.