As many of my friends know, I am a collector of anything vintage. I love old things and I also enjoy reading. This book combines the best of both worlds. The Oxford Book Of Poetry For Children features many authors and was compiled by Edward Blishen, with illustrations by Brian Wildsmith. This book was published in 1963.
I would categorize the book as an anthology of poetry, with contributions from many different poets. The book is broken down into various sections such as weather or animals, to name a few. Each section contains poems that relate to each section heading. This book is a teacher's dream when trying to incorporate poetry into other areas of study. The book contains poems that are appropriate for all ages, with some appealing more to small children and others a bit more advanced. I love the fact that I can integrate my lessons with poetry while teaching about science or weather.
One poem that I found really beneficial was the poem AEIOU.
AEIOU
We are very little creatures,
All of different voice and features;
One of us in glass is set,
One of us you'll find in jet.
T'other you may see in tin,
And the fourth a box within.
If the fifth you should pursue,
It can never fly from you.
Jonathan Swift
This is a fun little poem that grabs the attention of the audience with its rhyme and rhythm and its play on words. This poem would be a great tool for any teacher trying to teach a phonics class. The book is full of these fun little poems and I think any classroom would benefit from having it in the library. Check it out sometime! I am sure you and your students will enjoy it as well.
This book sounds like a fun way to teach many different subject areas! I have really enjoyed learning all of the different ways to incorporate poetry in the classroom! This book to me is loaded with great poems. The AEIOU is so fun! I can just picture a teacher reading it to students very slowly so they can think about what vowel is in the words you are saying. It makes them think on a deeper level but not in a traditional way! Anything to make learning fun in the classroom I am up for! Thanks for sharing! I am writing it down to remember for my future classroom!
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ReplyDeleteI agree with Maggie. The poem "AEIOU" by Jonathan Swift will make children think. I can imagine that a lot of teachers sometimes forget to make their students think critically. Sometimes teachers get overwhelmed with trying to cover all of the standards that they forget to make their students apply and think about the information. I also love your idea about integrating poetry with other subject areas. We just need to make sure that as teachers we make our students think about the poetry and also apply it in some way through activities, projects, and presentations. Going back to your weather example, you could read the poem about weather and talk about the poetic elements in the poem. You could then introduce the topic of weather using the poem in science class. Next, you could have the students apply the information by observing the weather outside, and you could have the students write their own poems about the weather. Using poetry to integrate curriculum sounds like fun to me! I really enjoyed your post. Thank you for sharing this book with us.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with both of you. This poem is a very fun way to incorporate vowels. Vowels can be very confusing sometimes and this little poem can be a fun way to remember them. I can still remember my prepositions from the 7th grade because we had a song that went with them. The children will definitely enjoy this poem.
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