NEW PAPERBACK POETRY BOOK FOR CHILDREN
Now available on Amazon.com
ISBN: 9781660619726
See the book on Amazon at this link:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1660619726/ref=sr_1_1?qid=1579353019&refinements=p_27%3ADr.+Peter+B.+Messmore&s=books&sr=1-1&text=Dr.+Peter+B.+Messmore
Young children love poetry. They revel in its freedom and its capacity to express feelings. They laugh unabashedly at silly poems. A group of children hearing a good poem displays a natural attentiveness that is almost impossible for an adult to create. Their eyes grow larger with expectation as the poem develops. During my 25 years of teaching elementary age children, I have never had classroom discipline problems during the reading of an age and grade appropriate poem. The phenomenon seems universal. Something magical happens when a good poem opens children's emerging minds to poetic expression.
The intent of this book is to expose children to one form of writing poetry. That form is end-of-line rhyming poetry. Without question, children can and should be introduced to and taught to write other poetic forms. These include limericks, free verse, and formula poems, like haiku, Tanka, cinquain and diamante. But this book is devoted to exposing children to simple rhyming poetry and teaching them one way to write it. Children as young as kindergarten age understand when simple words rhyme. They love the meter and rhythm of poems that touch their lives. I have been most successful, however, teaching children from late first grade through sixth to appreciate poetry when it contains simple rhyming schemes.
But reading poetry to children and teaching them to begin writing it is almost non-existent in most elementary school classrooms. It is not surprising that children, especially boys, have little appreciation of poetry and the joy it can bring. Kenneth Koch, a teacher in the New York City School System, taught poetry to children in elementary school. He maintains that:
"The great and terrible onset of self-consciousness seems to begin around the fifth grade, and if children haven't written before that they may at first be a bit diffident about it. By the sixth grade they are more so, and by then some students have already decided that poetry is not for them, and they are tough to convince that they are wrong (though it can be done)." Wishes, Lies, and Dreams, 1970, Random House, New York
If young children are to become sensitive, appreciative readers of poetry that process must occur early in their lives. I have long maintained that the best way to learn to love poetry is to hear poetry read aloud and then begin writing it at an early age. Indeed, I wrote my first poem about the Statue of Liberty in first grade. The teacher was so surprised that a first grader had created a poem that she accused me of copying it from a classroom text. I was forced to spend thirty minutes trying to find the non-existent source book before she let me go home in tears.
This book has two goals, presented in two sections:
(1). Section one contains 40 original poems written by the book's author. Each poem category has been carefully researched to ensure that it is developmentally appropriate. Toward this end, the first 2 poems in each 10 poem category are written for primary age children (grades k-3). The remaining 2 poems in each 10-poem category are written for intermediate age children (grades 4-6). The ten poem categories are:
* Silly Poems
* Happy Poems
* Sad Poems
* Wondering Poems
* Body Poems
* Mom and Dad Poems
School Subject Poems
* Science Poems
* Mathematics Poems
* Social Studies Poems
(2). The second section is a guide to help parents and teachers teach elementary age children how to begin writing simple, end-of-line rhyming poetry. It features three simple steps that any parent or teacher can use to introduce their child or children to writing rhyming poetry. These steps have been field tested in a variety of elementary schools and proved to be effective in introducing children to poetry writing.
The intent of this book is to expose children to one form of writing poetry. That form is end-of-line rhyming poetry. Without question, children can and should be introduced to and taught to write other poetic forms. These include limericks, free verse, and formula poems, like haiku, Tanka, cinquain and diamante. But this book is devoted to exposing children to simple rhyming poetry and teaching them one way to write it. Children as young as kindergarten age understand when simple words rhyme. They love the meter and rhythm of poems that touch their lives. I have been most successful, however, teaching children from late first grade through sixth to appreciate poetry when it contains simple rhyming schemes.
But reading poetry to children and teaching them to begin writing it is almost non-existent in most elementary school classrooms. It is not surprising that children, especially boys, have little appreciation of poetry and the joy it can bring. Kenneth Koch, a teacher in the New York City School System, taught poetry to children in elementary school. He maintains that:
"The great and terrible onset of self-consciousness seems to begin around the fifth grade, and if children haven't written before that they may at first be a bit diffident about it. By the sixth grade they are more so, and by then some students have already decided that poetry is not for them, and they are tough to convince that they are wrong (though it can be done)." Wishes, Lies, and Dreams, 1970, Random House, New York
If young children are to become sensitive, appreciative readers of poetry that process must occur early in their lives. I have long maintained that the best way to learn to love poetry is to hear poetry read aloud and then begin writing it at an early age. Indeed, I wrote my first poem about the Statue of Liberty in first grade. The teacher was so surprised that a first grader had created a poem that she accused me of copying it from a classroom text. I was forced to spend thirty minutes trying to find the non-existent source book before she let me go home in tears.
This book has two goals, presented in two sections:
(1). Section one contains 40 original poems written by the book's author. Each poem category has been carefully researched to ensure that it is developmentally appropriate. Toward this end, the first 2 poems in each 10 poem category are written for primary age children (grades k-3). The remaining 2 poems in each 10-poem category are written for intermediate age children (grades 4-6). The ten poem categories are:
* Silly Poems
* Happy Poems
* Sad Poems
* Wondering Poems
* Body Poems
* Mom and Dad Poems
School Subject Poems
* Science Poems
* Mathematics Poems
* Social Studies Poems
(2). The second section is a guide to help parents and teachers teach elementary age children how to begin writing simple, end-of-line rhyming poetry. It features three simple steps that any parent or teacher can use to introduce their child or children to writing rhyming poetry. These steps have been field tested in a variety of elementary schools and proved to be effective in introducing children to poetry writing.
The Poems and Poetry for Children author will send you a certificate honoring your child's first poem. Contact him at his website, www.drpetermessmore.com, and he will create a personalized certificate for your poet.