Activities for
Pockets Full of Poems

Have students or your child make up their own verses using the pattern of the poem.

Go on a number hunt around the classroom or home.

Give each child a set of 5 index cards with the numbers and/or number words on them. As you read the poem, they hold up the correct number or word that matches the number in that line.

Use the pictures below or draw your own pictures of five scarecrows. Have students or your child point to the correct picture that matches the line you read. You can also have a sheet with the poem written out and have them illustrate each line.

Five scarecrows — each doing something different!

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Write the lines of the poem on strips of paper (or on one sheet in the incorrect order). Have students or your child put them in the correct order from first to last.

Use the pictures below, or any 5 small objects as manipulatives. Have students or your child take one away as you read each line that subtracts a monster. Use this strategy for other numbers greater than 5.

Five hungry monsters — numbered 1 to 5!

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Read the poem together, then ask students or your child to find the words that mean the same thing.

Can they point to the number words? Can they point to the money words? Ask them to show you different ways to make a specific amount.

Set up a center with a cash register and items with price tags. One person is the customer, the other is the clerk. The customer uses play money to buy an item; the clerk checks that the amount is correct. For older children, they can learn to make change. Take turns being the customer and the clerk.

Read the poem. Then give each student or your child 50 pieces of "Cookie Crisp" cereal or another small cereal. Have them put the pieces in sets of two.

Read the poem again and have them count their pieces by twos. Read it a third time and have them eat their pieces by twos!

Optional: Fill a large bowl or wide-mouth jar with small objects and have each student grab a handful. Have them count by twos how many they grabbed. Make a graph using the amounts from each child — then discuss who had the most and who had the least. Or have students estimate how many pieces are in the bowl, then dump it out and count by twos together to see how close they came.

Have students or your child create a shopping list of foods they would like to buy.

Have them illustrate a container (box, can, tub, or bottle) for a food they like, then write a description that would persuade someone to buy it.

Have them create a sign for one of the aisles in a grocery store — include at least 5 items you would find in that aisle.

Ask students or your child to think of other places they see math and reading together in their world.

Make a bulletin board or class book of all their ideas!

Read the poem Cinnamon Rain. Discuss the meaning of the words rain and dust in the poem. Ask students or your child to explain why the author used those words to describe cinnamon sugar.

Brainstorm some foods that might taste good with Cinnamon Rain.

Put 1 tablespoon of cinnamon and ¼ cup of sugar in a salt shaker or a jar with holes in the lid. (A small bowl and spoon for sprinkling works too.)

Mix the cinnamon and sugar together with a spoon — it should look like brown dust.

Put the top on the container tightly.

Sprinkle cinnamon rain over your favorite food!

Have students or your child illustrate another food combination, give it a name, describe it, and label the substances used.

Try combining other substances to make something new — then make up a name for it!

As you read the poem, demonstrate how to form each shape using your fingers or hands. Encourage children to accompany you as you read.

Have students form a circle holding hands and walk in a circle. Then have them try making squares, triangles, and rectangles holding hands. Drop hands and walk in each shape.

Name a shape and see how many things you can think of that are that shape. Use a timer — how many can they name in one minute?

Another way: one person thinks of something that is a particular shape.

The other students or your child try to guess, with additional clues given as the guessing goes on.

Go on a timed shape hunt around the classroom or home. When time is up, bring all shapes to a central location and sort them into sets of like shapes. Ask students or your child to identify the shape they found and which set it belongs in.

Take a walk around the school or neighborhood and look for shapes. Point out shapes students or your child may miss along the way.

Cut bread into different shapes, then make sandwiches using your favorite filling. (This can also be done with cookie dough.)

After eating, chant together:

Give each student or your child a set of several pre-cut shapes (or have them cut out shapes you've drawn on paper). Using glue or paste, ask them to create something using the shapes.

When finished, ask them to describe what they made and what shapes they used. Older children can write a story about their creation.

Have students share their creations from an "Author's Chair" — each student who would like to share sits in the chair and presents. (Can also be done with blocks.)

Read each paragraph of the poem to your child and see if they can hear the words that rhyme.

Read through the poem once. Then read it a second time, letting students or your child read or say the sound of each animal.

As a whole group or individually, ask students to think of other animal sounds they know.

Have students or your child illustrate their new verses and share them by reading aloud.

Go to a zoo, farm, park, or playground and listen for animal talk!

Read "The Fruity Jig" by Diane Ambur. Do the motions as you read the poem.

Read a second time and have your children do the motions and sing the refrain with you.

Look in the kitchen and see how many of the fruits mentioned in the poem you have. Identify other fruits not in the poem as well.

On the next trip to the grocery store, check out the fruit section. Try to identify as many fruits as you can. Choose several different fruits to take home and taste.

As you taste each fruit, encourage your child to describe it using their senses of sight, smell, touch, and taste.

Make something with the fruit and discuss how it looks, tastes, smells, and feels.

Use real fruit or pictures. Ask your children to sort them by similarities and differences.

Plant the seeds or pits from fruits and have your children observe what happens.

Visit a farm to see how different fruits grow.

Put different fruits in a bag. Tell your children to reach in without looking and try to identify the fruit by feel.

Tell your children to close their eyes. Give them a taste of a fruit and let them try to identify it by taste alone.

After reading "Colorific," have your students or child go on a color hunt. Chant "What is [color name]?" as they go looking. Encourage them to answer in a complete sentence using the color word.

Continue the hunt with other colors. The hunt can be played outdoors as well.

Look through a magazine or catalogue. Ask your students or child to cut out things of different colors, then sort them into color piles. Discuss how colors can be dark or light, and sort again into piles of dark and light.

You can also use objects around the house instead of pictures. See if your students or child can come up with other ways to sort the colors.

With food coloring, paints, or crayons, ask your students or child to experiment mixing colors. Let them discover how different combinations form new colors, then have them share their new colors.

Read "Screaming for Ice-Cream." Discuss your students' or child's favorite flavor. Ask: What color is your favorite flavor? Discuss the relationship between the flavors of some foods and their color.

Have your child name other foods — juices, fruits, cakes, candy — where the color matches the flavor. Then have them illustrate their favorite flavor on an ice-cream cone and label the flavor and color.

Read "Awesome Colors" and name other objects that are the colors mentioned. Then let everyone shout out their favorite color at the end!

Read the poem "Dishing Up the Alphabet." Talk about other foods your children like and determine which letters of the alphabet they begin with. Share your favorites as well.

Using magnetic letters, alphabet blocks, or letters written on index cards, put the letters in order as you read the poem again. Let your children assist you in putting them in order.

Sing the alphabet song together as you put the letters in order. Use both capital and lower case letters.

Hand your children a letter and ask them what sound it makes. If they don't know, tell them. Then ask them to collect objects around the house that begin with that sound. Go on the collection together and give clues as you go. Play outside as well as inside.

Write each student's or your child's name on a piece of paper. Then give them a pile of letters and ask them to pick out the letters in their name, naming each letter as they pick it out.

Show them how putting the letters together makes a word that says their name. Play again with other words — names of family members or pets.

Get an old sheet or tablecloth and write the letters of the alphabet all over it. Call out a letter and have your child stand on it.

Vary the game by calling out words and letting them stand on the beginning sound of that word.

Put objects that begin with the same letter in a bag. Let your students or child empty the bag and tell you what letter the objects begin with. Then let your children make up a bag of their own for you to guess.

Have your children make their own alphabet book with drawing paper and crayons. Make sure they have included every letter!

Before you read the poem, ask students or your child to think of all of the ways we tell time.

Make a list of all the objects or places they name. Then categorize the list.

Read the poem once through. Read again and dramatize each stanza.

Have different art materials available and let students create an original timepiece. Have them name it and then tell or write about when and where they would use their timepiece.

Designate a chair or stool in the front of the room as an author's chair. Have students share their timepieces.

Read "Rain Talk." Have your students or child dramatize the lines as you read.

Discuss with your students or child different activities to do on rainy days. Pantomime an activity you like to do on a rainy day, while students or your child makes the sound of rain by tapping on a desk or table. Have students or your child guess what you are doing.

Then ask a student or your child to pantomime a rainy day activity and let the class or you guess.

Let your children draw pictures of what they like to do on rainy days. Let them write or dictate words to you about their pictures.

Find objects that can make the sounds in the poem. Some examples:

Read a story about rain and discuss times when you weren't prepared for rain and how it affected your plans. What did you do?

Give students or your child two large circles. Direct them to draw a happy face on one and a sad or mad face on the other.

Have students or your child hold up one of the faces in front of their face and say what makes them happy, then do the same for mad or sad.

Have students or your child come up with strategies to change sad or mad into happy.

Depending on the level of your students or child, give them a paper divided into thirds — with a happy face on one third, a sad face on one third, and a mad face on the other third.

Have students write about what makes them happy, sad, and mad. They may also want to write about a time they felt each way, and how — or whether — they were able to change the feeling.

As you read or sing the poem "Going Places," have your children dramatize each mode of transportation.

Discuss places you can go using each mode of transport. Have students or your child decide where they would like to go using each kind of transportation.

Have students illustrate their favorite mode of transportation and write or dictate a story about their journey.

Use toys or magazine pictures of transportation and have your students or child sort them into groups using the categories of air, land, or water.

Make up new verses for the poem using other modes of transportation not included in the poem.

Use materials around the house to create transportation vehicles.

Read "Chiggity Chug." Hit two wooden spoons or sticks together to make the sound of the train on the tracks as you read the poem.

Read "Messages from the Traffic Light." Discuss safety rules for crossing the street and riding in cars.

Use construction paper to construct a traffic light and attach the poem to it. Have students or your child write the words green, yellow, and red on the appropriate circle on the traffic light.

Read "Thunder Song." Read the poem again and have students or your child clap hands, stomp feet, or drum on pots or bowls to make the sounds of thunder.

Read a third time and have some children be the thunder, some the lightning, and some the rain — using musical instruments or objects in the class or home.

Discuss with your students or child their feelings about thunder and lightning. (This is a good time to talk about any fears.)

If students or your child do have fears, reassure them by explaining simply about thunder and lightning and discuss storm safety.

Give students or your child a piece of drawing paper folded in half. On one half have them draw a picture of a sunny day and what they like to do. On the other half have them draw a picture of a rainy day and what they like to do.

Depending on the level of students or your child, have them label their picture or write a sentence or two about it.

Read "Weather Report." Discuss with your child how the weather affects our lives.

Discuss how we cannot control the weather and how we need to learn to live with it.

Use a calendar and let your child keep a record of the weather each day. They can be weather reporters for the family — drawing a sun for sunny days, raindrops for rainy days, and so on. Keep the calendar somewhere the whole family can see it.

At the end of the month, count how many days were sunny, cloudy, rainy, etc. Discuss which kind of weather you had the most of and which the least.

Use tally marks to represent each day, or make a simple pictograph to show how many days were sunny, rainy, etc.

Use a paper doll and clothing cutouts and have your child dress the dolls in appropriate clothing for each kind of weather. They can make up weather stories using the dolls as puppets.

Let your children choose their own clothing each day based on the weather report.

As you read the poem "Can You Hear?," have your students or child make the sounds. (Your students or child may also enjoy role playing each object as they make the sound.)

Let your children illustrate their favorite line or lines. Let them share their picture and sounds.

Look through magazines and books for other animals or objects, then ask your children to make the sound of that animal or object.

Make up new lines for the poem using the same word pattern.

Have your children turn their backs and close their eyes. With a familiar object, make a sound. Have your children guess the object.

Then let your children choose the object and you guess the sound.

Read the poem Pumpkin Seeds together.

Take a field trip to a pumpkin patch to see how pumpkins grow.

Bring a pumpkin back to school or home and, with a tape measure, measure how big the pumpkin is by putting the tape measure around the middle. Tell your students or your child this is the circumference of the pumpkin. Then measure the height and/or weight of the pumpkin.

If all students have brought a pumpkin back to school and you have time, measure each pumpkin and make a pictograph or regular graph of one or more of the results.

Ask students or your child what they think is inside the class pumpkin.

Scoop out the seeds. Students may want to predict how many seeds are in the pumpkin. Have them count the seeds by 1's, 5's, or 10's depending on their level.

Tell students they can eat pumpkin seeds after they are baked. Here is a recipe to make: preheat oven to 325°.

• Rinse seeds in a colander or strainer and pat the seeds dry. Make sure to pick away all the stringy orange pulp.
• Put the seeds in a mixing bowl and toss them with one teaspoon of olive oil or melted butter per cup of seeds.
• Season with a couple of pinches of salt, or cinnamon sugar if you want them to be sweet.
• Spread them in a single layer on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
• Bake for 15–20 minutes. Stir or shake the pan every 5 minutes so they toast evenly and don't burn.
• They are done when they are fragrant and lightly golden brown.
• Let them cool completely, as they will crisp up the more they sit.

Read "I'm a Little Snowman." Read a second time while students or your child becomes the snowman. You can also sing the poem using the tune of "I'm a Little Teapot."

Discuss with your students or child what kind of clothing people wear when it snows. Dramatize putting on all the layers of clothing needed to go out in the snow. Then have students mime what they would be doing out in the snow.

Read the poem "How to Make a Snowman." Have students or your child dramatize making a snowman. Ask them about the shapes they will need for the snowman. (Circles, balls, or spheres.) How many shapes will they need to make their snowperson?

Give students or your child a piece of drawing paper and have them draw a snowperson and decorate it. Depending on the level of the students, they can label their picture or write about their snowperson.

Experiment with other ways to make a snowman/person:

• Construction paper circles
• White chalk on black construction paper
• Marshmallows stuck together with toothpicks
• Cotton balls on black construction paper
• Round cookies with icing as "glue" and candies to decorate

Discuss other activities people do in the snow.

Dramatize these activities together.

Have students or your child draw pictures of what they like to do in the snow. Label or write about their picture.

Have students or your child cover their eyes or leave the room as you drape a white sheet or towel over different objects. Have them guess what's under the "snow." Let a student or your child cover an object with the sheet or towel and have someone else guess what's underneath. Discuss how objects get covered with snow and look different.

Make squares or circles out of white paper and fold several times. Cut small shapes on the fold. Unfold and see your unique snowflake. Hang them from the ceiling or tape to a window.