Lesson 8: You Come Too
Activities
Activity 1: "The Red Wheelbarrow"
Materials: Love that Dog by Sharon Creech, colored pencils
Jack says, "Maybe the wheelbarrow poet was just making a picture with words..." Poets specialize in visual imagery. Reread "The Red Wheelbarrow" on p. 91 and draw a colorful picture of what you see.
Ask your child to explain her illustration and the words from the poem that helped her draw it.
Activity 2: Pictures with Words
Materials: a variety of catalogs and magazines, glue, scissors
Poets try to relate to the reader in some way, as if they are helping them see or feel something. Jack realizes that poets are like painters, but they make their paintings with words rather than on canvas.
Practice making pictures with words. Cut out three pictures from catalogs or magazines. Make sure at least one picture is of something in nature. Glue each picture on a sheet of paper. On a separate sheet of paper, write words to describe each picture to someone who is not looking at it. Do not use sentences, but group words and phrases together. Now put the words and phrases together to make a poem. The poems do not need to be long. Copy your poems onto the pieces of paper where you glued the pictures.
Practice making pictures with words. Cut out three pictures from catalogs or magazines. Make sure at least one picture is of something in nature. Glue each picture on a sheet of paper. On a separate sheet of paper, write words to describe each picture to someone who is not looking at it. Do not use sentences, but group words and phrases together. Now put the words and phrases together to make a poem. The poems do not need to be long. Copy your poems onto the pieces of paper where you glued the pictures.
Encourage your child to read her poems to you. Do not look at the pictures she chose. Describe what you see when you hear the poem and check to see how close your image was to the actual picture.
Activity 3: Picture Poem
Materials: Love that Dog by Sharon Creech, R is for Rhyme: A Poetry Alphabet by Judy Young
Read "P is for Picture Poem" in R is for Rhyme. In this section of Love That Dog, Jack's teacher shares a picture poem with the class. Sometimes these poems are called shape poems or concrete poems. Read "The Apple" at the back of the book and reread Jack's shape poem, "My Yellow Dog." Pick a simple object and write a shape poem with the object as the subject of the poem.
Check to see that your child's picture poem is done in the shape of the subject and that the words accurately reflect the subject of the poem.