How to delight a child with a poem and a bit of imagination…
Yesterday afternoon, my 3-year old grandson Henry asked, “Grandma, do you have any new poems?”
(Since January 1st, I’ve been doing some posts about poems & kids… and I have some built-in grandkids around to experiment with. I call it Take 2 minutes today… and here are some beautiful little poems that I love to teach: TEMPLE BELL by Yosa Buson, THE RED WHEELBARROW by William Carlos Williams, I, TOO, SING AMERICA by Langston Hughes, DRAGONFLY CATCHER by Chiyojo, RED SLIPPERS by Amy Lowell… and my latest poem, HOW DOTH THE LITTLE CROCODILE by Lewis Carroll.)
But back to Henry.
“Do I have poems?” I asked back. “I’ll never run out of poems. Ever!”
Henry smiled as I asked, “Do you want to read a poem about a CROCODILE?”
OH, HOW ENTICING.
Off we went to my computer and to HOW DOTH THE LITTLE CROCODILE…
HOW DOTH THE LITTLE CROCODILE by Lewis Carroll
How doth the little crocodile
Improve his shining tail,
And pour the waters of the Nile
On every golden scale!
How cheerfully he seems to grin,
How neatly spreads his claws,
And welcomes little fishes in
With gently smiling jaws!
I read the poem to Henry with my hands clenched like crocodile jaws… just for “welcoming” the little fishes.
Henry giggled and jumped and asked me to read-it-again. Again. And again.
Then Henry asked if we could MAKE a crocodile. He remembered reading about a crocodile in his library book SPOT GOES TO THE PARK by Eric Hill...
And sure enough, there was a perfect Eric Hill crocodile to trace, to color, to cut…
We just had to add a few little fishes…
To make this most delightful time with a boy, a poem and a homemade crocodile prop…
(And, of course, we DID create the ball, the hippo and Spot. Thanking both Lewis Carroll and Eric Hill for the most delightful moments today. Take 2 minutes today to join the fun!)
If I were a child, I would want you to be my grandma. So delightful! Loved it!
Sharon – nice to meet you and some of your family last night at StyleWeek. It is a post like this one that keeps me reading! Emily
It was WONDERFUL meeting you! I thank you so very, very much for visiting here! My passion and my dream is literacy for every single child, and it often begins at home with a little verse and a teeny bit of time. As you know, building a frame of “literary” and life references on which to build is a golden key to unlocking kids’ love of reading and learning. I taught disadvantaged high school kids for 30 years, and it never ceased to amaze me that kids who “hated” to read ALWAYS SAID THEY WANTED THEIR OWN KIDS TO LOVE TO READ. I always began a new year of teaching with POETRY (“yuck”, “this sucks”, “I’m not reading Poetry”)… and hooked even the most reluctant readers with the right content. Again, thanks SO much for visiting here. It means the world to me and to my daughters! xo!