Global Writing Challenge 09.2026: Poetry

 

Dear friends, it is the second Thursday of the month which means it is time for September's edition of the Global Writing Challenge.  And this month we are talking about poetry.  Come with me on a trip down Memory Lane.

Way Back When

When Marsha shared this prompt with the group, I immediately traveled back in time to my elementary school librarian days.  I always promoted the 20 Texas Bluebonnet Award nominated books each year and among them was usually at least one poetry book.  Across the state, students in grades 3-6 had to read or listen to at least 5 books on the list of nominees in order to vote for their favorite Bluebonnet book.  I made sure to read 5 or more Bluebonnets to my students because most of them would not hear the books any other way.  

My students wouldn't often select poetry books to read themselves.  But when we read the Bluebonnet nominated poetry books together, they were a huge hit.  One of the kids' favorite Bluebonnet nominees was Sharon Creech's book Love that Dog, written in free verse.  

Love That Dog shows how one boy named Jack finds his voice with the help of a teacher, a pencil, some yellow paper, and of course, a dog. Written as a series of free-verse poems from Jack's point of view, and with classic poetry included in the back matter, this novel is perfect for kids and teachers, too.

Jack hates poetry. Only girls write it and every time he tries to, his brain feels empty. But his teacher, Miss Stretchberry, won't stop giving her class poetry assignments—and Jack can't avoid them. But then something amazing happens. The more he writes, the more he learns that he does have something to say.

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Poems in All Shapes and Sizes

We read poetry books that featured acrostic poems.  And poetry books that featured concrete poems.  Some books had rhyming poems and some had free verse.  We tried our hand at writing our own concrete, acrostic and free verse poetry, too.

We used the now defunct Tagxedo app to create digital concrete poems on subjects we researched in the library.  And as a way of taking notes from nonfiction books or biographies on historical figures we read.  This is an example of a concrete poem created with Tagxedo by poet Liz Brown Lee.

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Picking Our Favorite Bluebonnet

In January, we would have a big online voting party in library where the children would cast their official votes and then enjoy a slice of cake or an ice cream sandwich.  The Bluebonnet program exposed the children to books in a number of genres that they might not have experienced through independent reading.  Especially my Title I, predominantly Spanish speaking babies.  

I loved the Bluebonnet Award program and we anxiously awaited the official announcement of the winning title each year.  

One year, I served on the Bluebonnet committee.  It was quite an honor to be selected and quite an undertaking.  I read so many books that year working to create my list of titles for the master list of nominees.  In July, the committee members met in Austin, Texas and we debated the merits of our favorite books, finally voting on the 20 titles that would make up the master list of nominees. 

In the photo above, the committee members have compiled their favorite picture books for consideration for the master list.  Then we debated the merits of each one until we chose several to go on the master list.  We repeated the process with nonfiction, fiction, biographies, and poetry books.

Celebrating the Bluebonnet Winner

Several months after the announcement of the winning book, there was a Bluebonnet Luncheon during the Texas Library Association annual conference in Austin.  During the luncheon, the winning author and illustrator were presented with their awards.  Across the state librarians were encouraged to apply through the Texas Library Association for a grant to attend the luncheon with one of their students.  My school was selected for this honor.  One of my favorite third graders, her mom and I traveled to Austin to attend the award presentation.  It was the first time my sweet student and her mommy had ever been out of El Paso, ever been on a plane and ever stayed in a hotel.  What an experience it was for all of us.

Poetry with the Littles

I did some of the same activities with students in the lower grades revolving around poetry.  One of the first lessons with PK and kindergarten each fall was about Mother Goose.  I would ask the kids if they had brought their spiders and I would pull my imaginary itsy bitsy spider out of my pocket and start reciting the popular nursery rhyme.  They would immediately join me in broken English or with the Spanish version, "La Araña Pequeñita." 

We would talk about how these simple rhymes helped prepare children to read.  I would show them an example of a primer used to teach reading to colonial children.  We talked about Mary Goose - the real Mother Goose - and read fractured Mother Goose nursery rhymes like Texas Mother Goose and the hilarious Monster Goose.  Finally, we would make our own Mother Gooses...Mother Geese?

The video below does a great job of explaining the importance of nursery rhymes and songs in preparing children for reading.  It lists nursery rhymes by age appropriateness and provides an excellent book list for parents and educators to consider.

Our campus had big doings for Dr. Seuss's birthday each year in March.  In the library, we looked at the rhyming words - some real, some nonsensical that Theodore Geisel used in his books to help children learn to read. We talked about his life and how a bet led to Geisel writing the book Green Eggs and Ham.

The Story of the Bet

• The Challenger: Random House publisher Bennett Cerf made the wager in 1960 after Geisel previously used over 200 words for The Cat in the Hat. 

• The Rule: Geisel had to write a complete, engaging children's book using a maximum of 50 different words.

• The Result: Geisel won the challenge by crafting the classic tale of Sam-I-Am using 49 single-syllable words and just one two-syllable word.

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And like all good library visits, we ended the lesson making a Seuss-related craft of some sort.  The kids (and everyone else) always struggled to spell Dr. Seuss's name correctly, usually reversing the E and the U.  I told them that Dr. Seuss wrote books for US.  And the word US appears in the middle of his name.  I still use that trick today to spell his name correctly.

I think I might have had as much fun with these lessons as my students.  Oh, how I loved my career.  And how I still miss it when I think back on those days.

Tell Us About Poetry

I look forward to seeing the creative responses the other members of the Global Writing Challenge group come up with.  Here's a little teaser from each one.

Marsha writes about her two favorite poems.  She wonders if you’ll be surprised! Please find Marsha’s post here, https://marshainthemiddle.com .

Sally shares some of her favorite American poets and poems.  You can visit her at https://www.withinaworldofmyown.com.

Cat thinks she doesn't have a poetic bone in her body ... or does she?  She blogs at https://catswire.blogspot.com/.

Amy uses poetry for fun with friends and family.  Her grandmother has a published book of poems and her mom wrote a Christmas poem each year for her cards. She writes about it at https://coffeeandcocktailsatthecasa.com/.  

Debbie looks back at posts from 2016 where she made poems using online magnetic tiles - it was part of a craze she went through!  Who knew it would prove useful 10 years later?? Check out her post at https://debs-world.com/. 

Suzy at www.suzyturner.com writes about the time she accidentally became a published poet, despite never really considering herself a poetry person!

If you have a poetry-themed blog post, won't you share it with us by linking up below?

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Your Turn

How do you feel about poetry?  Did you enjoy it as a child?  Do you read or even write it as an adult?  One of my favorite English teachers had us compile our favorite poems and illustrate them all in a notebook all semester long.  We had to include a variety of different types of poems - sonnets, haiku, etc.  I loved that assignment and might just have that notebook in a bin under my bed even today!!

For someone who had no idea what she was going to write for this prompt, I did pretty well!!  Except I have had a Dickens or a dickens of a time getting this post edited.  Blogger really locked up my blog.  Doesn't seem like I am always having technology issues???  Sure does seem like that to me.  Anyway, Cat emailed me to say she had had some trouble with her blog, too, and I felt less alone.  Finally was able to add pictures and make revisions to this post.  And now I can click on PUBLISH.  Hallelujah.

Have a peaceful weekend, friends.  Thank you for spending a little of your day with me as I walked down Memory Lane.  XO

Hugs and kisses,