The Swing
by Robert Louis Stevenson
How do you like to go up in a swing,
Up in the air so blue?
Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing
Ever a child can do!
Up in the air and over the wall,
Till I can see so wide,
River and trees and cattle and all
Over the countryside—
Till I look down on the garden green,
Down on the roof so brown—
Up in the air I go flying again,
Up in the air and down!
How do you like to go up in a swing,
Up in the air so blue?
Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing
Ever a child can do!
Up in the air and over the wall,
Till I can see so wide,
River and trees and cattle and all
Over the countryside—
Till I look down on the garden green,
Down on the roof so brown—
Up in the air I go flying again,
Up in the air and down!
April is National Poetry Month. I have always been fond of poetry, and as a musician, always felt my song was my outlet. Poetry has always been there for me - silly rhymes, ballads, traditional lullaby's, jump rope ditties, and then into adulthood the classics, the contemporary, the spoken word, performance art.Children have a natural love of poetry - rhymes tickle the tongue and bring joy to words and thoughts, develops rhythm and memory. There are so many awesome books out there - and we are going to be reading some of those over the next few weeks.
I'm going to be putting some of our favorites in my side bar book list as we go this month. Tara has some good recommendations posted already!
A few other places with book ideas:
-Children's Book Council
-Poetry for Children blog
Do you have any favorites??
14 comments:
LOVE the poetry blog!! Awesome reference thanks for including it!
Ha! I was just checking this site out and was getting ready to post about it. Funny that!
The Shel Siverstein site is really fun and we found a curriculum that goes with a show that Bill Moyers did a few years ago called "Fooling with Words" but I think it is for older students. Thanks for the links:)
Side note: I always read your book list because we are interested in a lot of the same things and I wondered how "If you Like My Apples" is, I hadn't heard of it before. I am going to Sunbridge this weekend for another Biodynamic Workshop (on raised beds), there is an incredible bookstore there and i Know I will be weighed down with some new books!
I loved the Robert Louis Stevenson poem and would have to vote for A Child's Garden of Verses to be my favorite compilation of poetry for kids.
I'm really excited about this month of exploring poetry - and especially happy to be concentrating on poetry for kids.
I like your selection above and I think Owen will too!
Okay...I am a poetry freak...and have been since I was little...I think because I enjoyed the shortness of poems...the silliness...and the ability to relate to poetry.
We will have a similar post this week...with hopes of having the doodles come up with their own poem..or favorite poem from the many books on our shelf.
What a great month this will be!
This is going to be a fun month! Xxx
The Swing!! My grandmother used to sing me that poem every time we were on a swing. She loved to swing. My daughters and now my granddaughters hear the same poem?song from me on the swing too.
Hi Denise,
So glad you stopped by to see my blog (http://
web.mac.com/buzzerboo) I have been reading yours for while now-it's so nice to see another mom in Madison homeschooling & being creative! I really enjoy reading about your nature adventures with your boys.
Jessica Regele
I have a weekly poetry post this month for kids- on my blog...I used to hold poetry workshops for kids and worked from Ken Koch poetry books!
www.doobleh-vay.blogspot.com :) Hope you like it!
Do you have Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices by Paul Fleischman? It's a fun book filled with poems you read with a partner.
we love the RLS poem you've posted. it's one of our favorites. i think we have it in A Child"s Garden of Verses.
and it is our humble opinion that every line from the classic pooh tales could be considered poetry.
AA milne was a master with words.
How fun!
*1) I had each student in my class write a poem about "New Beginnings" for the library contest. I was amazed to see the beautiful images living in them! Most of them chose to write about nature. Spring. A new day. I liked that, too.
*2) I love to swing! I remember writing a blog about my childhood swing as one of my first blogs.
Thanks for sharing!
Blessings,
Cadi
I just love Robert Louis Stevenson's poetry! I have been enjoying your blog. When I read the poem you posted it inspired me to post one of his poems on my blog. Thanks for the inspiration!
Excited about poetry month:)
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