Poetry, Plays, and Picture Books

I try to expose my students to different kinds of writing formats.  I share a variety of texts that I read from week to week.  Sometimes I'm reading a novel, sometimes I'm reading a graphic novel.  I listen to books on CD and I read book on my Nook Color.  I have been showing them how text is presented in many different ways.  

Lately we've had fun reading poems by Shel Silverstein.  He has been my favorite poet since I first read his poems in 2nd grade.  We read poems like "Jimmy the Jet and His TV Set" and "Sarah Cynthia Silvia Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out".  We even listened to Shel Silverstein himself read the poems which was a lot more interesting and fun than the way we read them.  

It's important for kids to realize the different kinds of writing formats and to be able to recognize them.  This is different from deciding what genre a book fits into, this is all about recognizing the way the author/publisher chose to represent the text.  

If you child can come to school and tell me who is my favorite poet, he or she will earn one sticker towards a sticker reward.