The Poetry Friday Anthology

This fat, fine-looking volume--The Poetry Friday Anthology--is now available, just in time for use in K-5 classrooms.  Edited by children's poetry maestri Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong, the book has 218 poems by 75 poets.  The book's subtitle is "Poems for the School Year with Connections to the Common Core," and here's what that means:  Every poem has its own nicely designed, chock-full yet uncluttered page with five activities that tie the poem to curriculum standards.

As Sylvia and Janet describe it, each page "include guidance on reading the poem aloud, a creative way to engage students in reading the poem chorally, a discussion prompt, a skill focus, and a link to another related poem or poetry book.  In just five minutes, you can lead a poetry break that is enjoyable, meaningful, participatory, and skill-based."  The book contains a year's worth of weekly poems for each grade, kindergarten through fifth.  Beautiful!

And, oh yes:  I have two poems in the Poetry Friday Anthology. 

Read more at the Poetry Friday Anthology blog.