Some of the books, movies, and shows I’m fangirling over…

Falling in love with poems, words, and sharing with others…

I bought this book for my class of children so I could choose birthday verses for them to recite in class. We used it all last year; this year I’m allowing them to ask to look through it. They have to sit at a desk and turn the pages carefully to make sure the pages are kept pristine. It has become quite the sought after activity with children vying for time with the book. They search for their birthday verse in it, or discover verses that their peers’ recite, and some have discovered new verses that they re requesting for their verse next year (in a Waldorf School you may have the same class for a number of years. This is the third year I’ve been teaching this class).

I love that they are enjoying poetry. At the beginning of each year I gift them their verse for the year and they recite it according to the day they were born. (and children who are born in the weekend: Sunday is recited on Monday; Saturday is recited on Friday). I record the poem with me reciting it, and email it to their parents, along with the written words, so the children have a copy of the rhythm of the words. I teach them in class but it’s good if they can practice it at home and have a copy of phrasing so we don’t get wooden sounding recitations. And then the children run with them. They enjoy reciting their verse every week and often have memorised the verses of everyone in the class.

If you fall in a river that’s full of Piranha, They’ll strip off your flesh like you’d skin a banana. There’s no time for screaming, there’s no time for groans. In forty-five seconds you’re nothing but bones.