Celebrating Poetry Friday with a Poetry Month Preview, and a Timely Poem

I've been immersed in poetry this week as I prepare for two days of school visits where I'll be "Celebrating the Pleasures of Poetry." I can't think of a better way to kick off National Poetry Month 2012!

While working on my lesson plans, I found some terrific online poetry resources, including:

• Poetry at Play, blog sponsored by Poetry Advocates for Children and Young Adutls (PACYA)
• Writers in the Schools blog, where you can find lesson plans for teaching students about poetry writing. You can also sign up to receive a student written "poem a day" via email during National Poetry Month.
• Poetry Foundation website, which includes a section devoted to poetry for children.
• A round-up of Kidlitosphere Events in honor of National Poetry Month at Jama Rattigan's Alphabet Soup blog.
• Kenn Nesbitt's Poetry4kids website, featuring fun kid-friendly poems, poetry lessons, and links to lots of other poetry-related sites.     

Speaking of Kenn Nesbitt, he has several funny poems that are especially timely for this weekend.  I've excerpted the first and last stanza from one of them below. You can read the whole poem at the Poetry Foundation site.

And when you're done here, be sure to visit the My Juicy Little Universe Blog for this week's Poetry Friday roundup.

Now, for that "timely" poem I mentioned:

Good Morning, Dear Students
by Kenn Nesbitt

“Good morning, dear students,” the principal said.
“Please put down your pencils and go back to bed.
Today we will spend the day playing outside,
then take the whole school on a carnival ride. . . .
                      . . . .
. . . “Tomorrow it’s back to the regular grind.
Today, just go crazy. We really don’t mind.
So tear up your homework. We’ll give you an A.
Oh wait. I’m just kidding. It’s April Fools’ Day.”


That's right, April Fools' Day is this weekend. Enjoy!

Happy Poetry Friday, and happy writing!
Carmela