Choose a book of Carl Sandburg's children's poetry, such as "Poems for Children Nowhere Near Old Enough to Vote." Read the book aloud to your child or class of children. Make sure to show all of the illustrations. Ask the child to pick her favorite poem. Ask her to mimic it, to write a poem herself. Help her find a place to begin, such as an image in Sandburg's poems like a bird pulling up a worm or poem in a circular shape. If the child can write on his own, let him write what comes to mind. Or, have the child dictate her idea to you and you write it on the page. After mimicking the poem, ask the student to tell you, or write, his opinion of what Sandburg's style is and how he felt writing a poem on his own.
Dr. Seuss is a favorite among children, because of the rhymes, the imagination and the colorful, fantastical drawings. Read Dr. Seuss's "A Cat in the Hat," "Green Eggs and Ham," "Horton Hears a Who!" or "Horton Hatches the Egg" aloud to the class. Or, ask the children to read the book on their own. To concentrate on the rhyming in the poetry books, have each child choose their favorite rhyme. Ask students to create a title for a book featuring the main character with a rhyming name. For instance, students could write the dog in the bog, the moose named goose or the bird no one heard. Students can draw, paint or make cut-outs to create the character.
Ask the students to draw pictures to match what they see in the poems. Because poems are visual worlds, ask the child to look for particular images, or pictures, in the book that she likes, such as a pretty lake or a forest full of animals. After choosing one poem to concentrate on, hand over the art supplies and let her re-create the poem in visual images. For a humorous approach to the assignment, students can study Shel Silverstein's use of illustrations in his books, such as "The Giving Tree," "A Light in the Attic," "Where the Sidewalk Ends" and others. The simple line drawings masterfully, and comically, render the speakers and characters in the short, rhyming poems. Students may mimic his style, or elaborate on his approach.
Ask each student to read "Where the Sidewalk Ends" and choose his favorite poem to memorize. Choices range from a poem about the narrator selling his own sister in "Sister for Sale" to a poem in which a narrator is being gobbled up by a boa constrictor snake in "Boa Constrictor." Before giving the assignment, give useful tips for how to memorize poems, such as concentrating on one line at a time to create a specific image for each idea. Students can bring in props on the recitation day, a copy of the poem -- in case they stumble or forget a word -- and a creative delivery method. For example, a student may recite the poem in a certain voice, though it must be clear. For instance, a student may speak with a stuffed-up nose while reading "Sick," where the character, little Peggy Ann McKay, mistakenly feigns sickness on a Saturday.