A Poem and Art

We read a lot of poetry this week.  I am trying to make an effort to read different genres of literature with C and R because most of what we read is fictional picture books and I think it is important to expose them to more than just picture books.  They are familiar with poetry and nonfiction, but we read a lot less of it.  This week, we read a poem from Poetry Speaks to Children.  This is a fabulous book of poetry that we happen to own; if you are only going to buy one book of poetry for your children, I recommend this one.  There are 95 poems from 73 poets including e.e. cummings, Edgar Allan Poe, Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, J.R.R. Tolkien, William Shakespeare, Langston Hughes and more.  There are also great illustrations for each poem and there is a CD with poems read by some of the poets.

The poem we read for our stArt (story + art = a great start) project is Crayons:  A Rainbow Poem by Jane Yolen.
This box contains the wash of blue sky,
spikes of green spring,
a circle of yellow sun,
triangle flames of orange and red.

It has the lime caterpillar
inching on a brown branch,
the shadow black in the center of a grove of trees.


It holds my pink
and your chocolate
and her burnt sienna
and his ivory skin.


In it are all the colors of the world.

I gave C and R paper and crayons and let them create art while they listened to me reading the poem.  I read it three times while they worked.  Here is their art:

 You have to love that face.

C drew everything he remembered from the poem and R used the colors that were mentioned in the poem.  

I am linking this to stArt at A Mommy's Adventures.