April is National Poetry Month. To mark the occasion, let’s take a look at the poets who wrote some classic children’s poems with suggested activities to accompany them. Will you join us? Please feel free to include your poets, poems, ideas, and links in the comments.
Today we have a poet from Victorian England, Christina Rossetti. Although she never married or had children of her own, Christina Rossetti did author a popular book of poems for children, Sing-Song: A Nursery Rhyme Book (available online at UPenn Library).
One of her more familiar poems from the book is:
Who Has Seen the Wind?
Who has seen the wind?
Neither I nor you.
But when the leaves hang trembling,
The wind is passing through.
Who has seen the wind?
Neither you nor I.
But when the trees bow down their heads,
The wind is passing by.~ Christina Georgina Rossetti
Christina Rossetti was a keen observer and many of her poems are timeless.
Poetry Activities with Children:
1. Sign up to receive poem-a-day at poets.org. Read and share your poem with others. Or read a poem a day from the Sing-Song book.
2. Children can write a letter to a poet past or present (lesson plan available at link). Why not write an imaginary letter to Christina Rossetti about her poem?
3. Celebrate Poem in Your Pocket Day on April 30, 2015. Share your poem selection on Twitter by using the hashtag #pocketpoem.
(Photo “Windy Day” by Bobby Mikul at Public Domain Pictures.net)
4. Investigate the science of wind with experiments at Growing with Science.
5. Make an English trifle dessert (recipe at our sister blog, Your Individual Taste) to honor Christina Rossetti. According to the Poetry Foundation, Rossetti likened one of her works to “a Christmas trifle,” a traditional treat for children at that time.
What will you be doing to celebrate Poetry Month?