7 Amazing Books and Products to Celebrate Poetry Month With Elementary Students

If you're planning your Poetry Month activities or writing your elementary poetry unit, you won't want to miss checking out these books and the activities that accompany them! *This post contains affiliate links*

In honor of Poetry Month, this hallowed time of stanzas, similes, metaphors, and rhyming words, I’m sharing a few books and resources I’ve been using with my elementary students at school. Those of you who homeschool might want to take a look at these books and the products at the bottom as well. I’ve included affiliate links for your convenience.

 

 

 

 

 

Poetry Month With Love That DogLove That Dog by Sharon Creech

This book describes how an excellent teacher helps a reluctant boy named Jack learn to love poetry and find his own writing voice. I’ve used this book to introduce fourth graders to the works of Robert Frost, William Carlos Williams, and Walter Dean Myers for the past several years. As an English major, it’s great fun to see the words of these amazing poets through Jack’s eyes. When he reads Williams’s “The Red Wheelbarrow,” he has a pretty typical reaction.

 

“I don’t understand

the poem about

the red wheelbarrow

and the white chickens

and why so much

depends upon them.” (Creech, 3)

 

Even though he doesn’t get the poems completely, Jack allows the words of the poets to inspire him to create his own poems. Through his writing, Jack heals his own heartbreak and connects with a famous writer in the process. Jack’s teacher, Miss Stretchberry, is SO awesome! If we could convince our county’s governing board to read this book, they would be so inspired by this educator, they might even consider properly funding our schools!

Hate That Cat by Sharon Creech

I just read these two books with my class in a span of about three weeks. I didn’t mean to rush, but the kids were so into Jack’s character and writing poetry right along with him. Miss Stretchberry returns as Jack’s teacher during his next year in school. This year, she teaches Jack about similes, metaphors, onomatopoeia, and alliteration through the works of Frost, Tennyson, and T.S. Eliot among others. If you would have told me that I could convince fourth graders to even consider reading and understanding these poems before I discovered these books, I would have laughed you right on out of the library. But somehow, Sharon Creech has created two books that make William Carlos Williams almost as cool as Harry Potter. Almost.

 

Poetry Month with William Carlos WilliamsA River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams by Jennifer Bryant, Illustrated by Melissa Sweet

This Caldecott Medal picture book biography of our favorite wheelbarrow poet had my kids at school completely enthralled. Sweet’s gorgeous illustrations incorporate actual drafts of WCW’s work to show kids his process for writing poetry. Bryant’s narrative coupled with Sweet’s artwork had my kids’ full attention on the day before spring break. That fact alone means way more than any Caldecott Medal. Just sayin’.

 

Poetry Month with Porcupines and Valerie Worth

Animal Poems by Valerie Worth

Sharon Creech introduces young readers to Valerie Worth in Love That Dog and Hate That Cat through her poems “dog” and “kitten.” Jack loves the images in these poems, and my students agreed. When I showed them Steve Jenkins’s intricate cute paper depiction of the porcupine on the front cover, my students were hooked. I only planned to read a poem or two and leave the book for them to check out in their spare time. They begged me to read every single one.

 

Poetry Month with Pugs and Valerie WorthPug: And Other Animal Poems by Valerie Worth, illustrated by Steve Jenkins

My students again couldn’t get enough of Jenkins’s cut paper illustrations coupled with the images in Worth’s poems. Those kids read each poem in the book. It was a veritable poem-fest the day before spring break.

 

 

New Poetry Month Teaching Products

All these books were so much fun for my students that I made a set of comprehension and writing task cards for both of Sharon Creech’s books. You can find them in my Teachers Pay Teachers store. These are great for the classroom or the homeschool family. Enjoy celebrating Poetry Month!

 

Are you using Sharon Creech's Hate That Cat in your poetry unit? These Hate That Cat task cards will add engagement to your poetry unit.Is Sharon Creech's Love That Dog or Hate That Cat a part of your poetry unit activities? If so, this task card bundle will add engagement to your unit! $3Are you using Sharon Creech's Love That Dog in your poetry unit? If so, these task cards will add engagement to your activities!

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