It's Week 11 as we continue with our Poetry Friday curriculum and the focus continues on the fun and appealing topic of Food. This week, we offer a poem in its entirety (with the kind permission of the poet) to whet your appetite for more! This one is featured in the Kindergarten section of The Poetry Friday Anthology, but is clearly fun for many grades and ages (although the Take 5 activities are designed for Kindergarten). Enjoy!
by Charles Waters
Whole wheat oatmeal bread,
Homemade grape jelly,
Crunchy peanut butter—
A rumble in my belly.
Double chocolate cupcakes—
What a perfect snack!
Ten tiny carrot sticks?
I’d rather give that back.
(From p. 37)
1. Bring a paper bag or lunch kit and put a copy of this poem inside it. Then open the bag and remove this “Sack Lunch” poem before reading it aloud.
2. Next, invite students to echo read each line after you, one line at a time.
3. For discussion: What are your favorite foods for lunches and snacks?
4. Show how rhyming words help turn this “list” of foods into a poem. Ask students: What are the words that rhyme (jelly/belly and snack/back)? Read the poem aloud again, but pause before the second word in each rhyming pair and wait for the students to chime in with the correct response (belly, back).
4. For another poem with peanut butter in it, share “Snack Rules” by Robyn Hood Black (1st Grade, Week 10).
Now join the rest of this week's Poetry Friday celebration hosted by Think, Kid, Think here.