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    Messing Around On The Monkey Bars Poetry - Classroom Tips

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    Candlewick Press
    Classroom Tips for Messing Around on the Monkey and Other School Poems for Two Voices by Betsy Franco and illustrated by Jessie Hartland

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    Messing Around On The Monkey Bars Poetry - Classroom Tips

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    Candlewick Press
    888 views3 pages
    Classroom Tips for Messing Around on the Monkey and Other School Poems for Two Voices by Betsy Franco and illustrated by Jessie Hartland

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    Messing Around on the Monkey Bars Poetry - Classroom Tips

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    Classroom Tips for Messing Around on the Monkey and Other School Poems for Two Voices by Betsy Franco and illustrated by Jessie Hartland

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    Download as pdf or txt
    888 views3 pages

    Messing Around On The Monkey Bars Poetry - Classroom Tips

    Uploaded by

    Candlewick Press
    Classroom Tips for Messing Around on the Monkey and Other School Poems for Two Voices by Betsy Franco and illustrated by Jessie Hartland

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    Download as pdf or txt
    of 3

    by Betsy Fr anco

    illustrated by J essie Har tl an d

    CLA SSROOM TIPS


    Want to use Messing Around on the Monkey Bars in your classroom?  
    Here are some suggestions from author Betsy Franco.

    First, a general note: Always remind kids that their own poems do not have to rhyme. 
    The important thing is to have fun with sounds, words, and their imagination!

    Getting Started
    As a warm-up exercise, invite kids to write
    poems based on some examples in the book.
    Here are some possible assignments:

    • “Whirr, Whirr, Zing, Zap” (page 20): Take a


    few moments to listen to all the sounds in
    your classroom, then write a similar poem.

    • “Jump Rope Jingle” (page 29): Add to the


    jingle.
    • “Backboard Rap” (page 30): Add to the poem.

    • “Weird Stuff in the Lost and Found”


    (page 32): As a class, find out what’s in your
    own school’s Lost and Found. Add those items
    to the poem. (Special bonus: In the process,
    students might find something they’ve lost!)

    • “Back in the Room for the Afternoon”


    Messing Around on the Monkey Bars
    and Other School Poems for Two Voices
    (page 36): Think of objects in the classroom
    ISBN 978-0-7636-3174-1 to add to the poem.

      •  Messing Around on the Monkey Bars      Classroom Tips      Candlewick Press      Illustrations copyright © 2009 by Jessie Hartland
    Comin’ to Life
    Ask kids to find all the book’s examples of
    personification, instances where objects
    come to life, as in “Wild Bus Ride” (page 8),
    “Anatomy Class” (page 18), and “Back in the
    Room for the Afternoon” (page 36). Then
    invite them to imagine what an object in the
    Sounds Good classroom (or elsewhere) might have to say
    and write a poem in the object’s voice.
    Many of the poems in the book use sounds,
    including “Wild Bus Ride” (page 8), “Jenny’s As an extra challenge, invite kids to imagine
    Pencil” (page 12), “In the Library” (page 16), a conversation between two objects, as in
    and “Whirr, Whirr, Zing, Zap” (page 20). “Two Bikes at the Bike Rack” (page 42). You
    could have kids write their conversation poems
    Spend a week focusing on sounds with
    in pairs, then read them aloud to the class in
    your class:
    two voices.
    • Create a list of sound words with your
    students and post it in the classroom. List-en Up!
    • Ask kids to listen to the natural world and Have children find all the list poems in the
    then write about what they have heard. book. Examples include “Animal Reports”
    (page 14), “Weird Stuff in the Lost and Found”
    • Encourage your students to consciously (page 32), and “Me and Joe Lining Up After
    add sound words to stories and poems Recess” (page 34). Then have them brainstorm
    they write. some ideas for lists — a list of favorite foods
    Then invite your class to write three-line or favorite activities, a list of what’s in their
    “sound poems.” This is a form Betsy Franco pocket or desk — and invite them to create
    made up; it’s similar to a haiku but focuses their own list poems. As an extra challenge,
    specifically on sounds and doesn’t involve have them think about how their list poems
    any syllable counting. One of the lines should might work for two
    consist of sounds. Here are some samples or more voices.
    written by third graders in California: For example, if a
    student’s poem
    The class writing haiku is a list of favorite
    ts ts ts ts ts ts activities, it could
    pencils scraping against the paper be read aloud
    — Jon in two voices
    and so become
    hisss snap! hisss snap! a conversation
    silently swaying in the leaves between two kids
    a snake is camouflaging beneath the moon discussing what
    to do after school
    — Annie
    or on a Saturday
    afternoon.

      •  Messing Around on the Monkey Bars      Classroom Tips      Candlewick Press      Illustrations copyright © 2009 by Jessie Hartland
    Sublime Rhyme Time Acrostics
    Find some fun examples Invite students to write acrostic
    of rhyming words in the poems about objects at school.
    book. Some can be found in Here’s an example that is not in
    “Animal Reports” (page 14), the book:
    “I Can’t Wait” (page 22), and
    “Back in the Room for the Pointy
    Afternoon” (page 36). Then Energetic
    tape a long roll of paper to Nibbled on
    the wall and work with the Curve drawer
    class to brainstorm pairs or Illustrator
    groups of unusual rhyming Line maker
    words.
    A fun way for students to read
    Invite students to use some their acrostics aloud in multiple
    of the rhyming words in a voices would be to have a
    poem — or to write a poem different voice for each line,
    using some other funky, fun rhymes. Again, then have the group read the
    invite them to think of how their rhyming acrostic word aloud at the end.
    poems might work for two or more voices. (If the acrostic object is small,
    For example, one student could read the such as a pencil, they could
    even verses and the other could read the odd each have one behind their
    verses. Or students could write choruses for back and present it at the end
    their poems. when they read the word.)

    Book It Put on a Show


    Have students put their poems into a book. Invite kids to present their poems to
    Or make books of all the kids’ poems from another class or to the school. This will
    different assignments, such as a book of encourage reading, fluency, cooperation, and
    sound poems or acrostics. performance skills.

    Or stage a poets’ café in your classroom. Have


    students dress up and read their poems aloud.
    Serve refreshments, and invite another class or
    parents to hear the kids’ work.

    Author Betsy Franco has worked as a teacher and


    author-in-residence with a school in Palo Alto for many
    years. She also leads poetry workshops for students
    and programs on teaching poetry for teachers.

      •  Messing Around on the Monkey Bars      Classroom Tips      Candlewick Press      Illustrations copyright © 2009 by Jessie Hartland

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