I’m introducing some poetry to my 3-5th graders this week. We’ll start with limericks! I love limericks, they are bouncy and joyful, and soothing in their rhythms. After limericks, we’ll move on to quatrains, cinquains, acrostics, and beyond.
My hope is that by April, every child will have chosen or written a favorite poem to keep in their pockets for Poem in Your Pocket Day. That may seem a long way away, but at the rate of almost once a week, I’ll see these classes 5 or 6 times before then, which should be just right for an overview of poetry unit.
This isn’t a poem I will be sharing with them. This is one for you. This is one is speaking to me today:
Don’t stop after beating the sword
Into plowshares, don’t stop! Go on beating
And make musical instruments out of them.
Whoever wants to make war again
Will have to turn them into plowshares first.
~Yehuda Amichai
Above image from Peace Art Project Cambodia
