Creating Songs and Poetry Binders

Author unknown

I can't let the month of November go by without sharing one of my favorite kindergarten poems, November.  For many years now, this poem has amused my kindergarteners and me.  It has also led to good discussions about weather, seasons, months, hibernation and migration. Plus, it has helped us learn a number of important sight words.

I have been collecting and writing kindergarten-friendly songs and poems for most of my career.  Young children love simple tunes, rhymes, and rhythms.  They are motivated to read what they can sing and chant. To strengthen the connection, all of my poems/songs relate to the seasons, holidays, and kindergarten topics/themes.

I teach my class to read one poem/song each week.  They are either printed on large charts or shared on the interactive whiteboard. I laminated the charts until I realized that the glare off the lamination distorts the readability.

Here is the poem on the interactive whiteboard.

I also make two photocopies of each poem for each student.  One copy goes into a 1 inch thick binder. These binders are sent home with each student on Fridays.  At Kindergarten Orientation Day and at Parent Night, I explain how the students should read the new poem to at least three people over the weekend.  These people should sign their names on the back of the poem.  Binders are returned on Mondays.

The second copy of each poem is added to a 3-pronged folder each Friday.  These folders are kept in the students' book boxes.  My kindergarteners enjoy reading/singing the poems/songs to themselves and one another during Reader's Workshop.

We practice our poem/song daily for 5-10 minutes.  Here is what we do each day:

• Monday:  I introduce the new poem/song by asking the children to think about the pictures and predict what it is about.  Then they put on their  "listening ears" as I recite/sing while pointing to the words.  The focus on Monday is on comprehension so we discuss what the poem/song means.  Then, the class tries to join me in an "oral choral" of the selection.

Holding our "listening ears" AND offering suggestions on what the poem means.

• Tuesday:  We review what the poem/song is about.  I invite the class to join in reading/singing while I point to the words.  Then, we look for familiar sight words in the poem.  Until this year, we used wide yellow highlighter tape to highlight the known words.  Since I don't have to save these charts for future use, we are just using a yellow highlighter this year.  The helper is first to highlight a known word.  Other children raise their hand for a turn afterwards.  I also reveal the new sight word on Tuesdays: we match it to the word(s) in the poem, and highlight it wherever we see it, as well.

Matching a new sight word card to the word in the poem AND highlighting the sight word in the poem.

• Wednesday:  Once again, I invite everyone to join in as I point to the words.  The helper also leads us by pointing while we are reciting. Then we do some word study of a phonetically-based word or words in the poem.  We use our whiteboards and markers.  For this poem, we practiced writing lower case "b" correctly in all the words starting with "b."

We always draw a sun and/or cloud in the upper left hand corner to help us write left to right.

• Thursday:  After a few oral chorals of the poem on the chart, everyone gets to hold their individual copy of the poem  and practice reading it in unison.  First, they make a "pointer promise" ("I promise to point to the words.")

A pointer promise:
Hold your pointer finger in the air, saying "I promise to point to the words,"
then kiss your pointer.  

Friday:  We practice reading the poem on the chart a couple of times.  Then, we put the poem in our binders, highlight the sight words with our yellow crayons, and draw and color, as needed.

Next year, when I'm retired, I hope to publish my original poems on TpT. For now, Here is the November poem.  And click here for a copy of an original poem that I most probably will be using in December!