Life I Am the New Year

Life I am the new year.
I am an unspoiled page in your book of time.
I am your next chance at the art of living.
I am your opportunity to practice what you have learned about life during the last twelve months.
All that you sought and didn’t find is hidden in me,
waiting for you to search it out with more determination.
All the good that you tried for and didn’t achieve
is mine to grant when you have fewer conflicting desires.
All that you dreamed but didn’t dare to do, all that you hoped but did not will,
all the faith that you claimed but did not have –
these slumber lightly, waiting to be awakened
by the touch of a strong purpose.
I am your opportunity
to renew your allegiance to Him who said, “behold, I make all things new.”
I am the new year.
– Author Unknown

You can find the rest of the Poetry Friday Round-Up over at A Year of Reading

The    Dreidel    Song

           I    have    a    little    dreidel.           

 I    made    it    out    of    clay.

And    when    it’s    dry    and    ready,

 My    dreidel    I    will    play.

 Dreidel,    dreidel,    dreidel,

  I    made    it    out    of    clay.

  Dreidel,    dreidel,    dreidel,

 My    dreidel    I    will    play.

Enjoy the rest of today’s poems at the Poetry Round-Up over at Wild Rose Reader.

This month for poetry Friday, I thought that I would share poems that I have used in my classroom.  When I taught Kindergarten, we did a poem of the week. We read it everyday and then on Friday, I made copies for the kids to put into a poetry notebook.  Every poem had pictures on it that they could color.  They took the notebooks home over the weekend and read them to their families.  They loved their poems and the parents had a wonderful keepsake at the end of the year.  We also started December with the following poem…I hope you enjoy!

December Celebrations

Every year at just this time,

In cold and dark December,

Families around the world

All gather to remember,

With presents and with parties,

With feasting and with fun,

Customs and traditions

For people old and young

So every year around the world

In all lands and nations

People of all ages love

December celebrations!!

Find more poems at the Poetry Friday Round-up, hosted this week by Mommy’s Favorite Children’s Books.

Thanksgiving Day at Our House: Thanksgiving Poems for the Very Young, by Nancy White Carlstrom, is full of poetry written from a child’s perspective.  It is just the cutest!  I am sharing just one of the poems today.  There are 15 poems in the book, some serious but mostly funny.

The poem I’ve chosen is call The Day Before.  I chose it because it deals with the day before Thanksgiving at school.

The Day Before

All kinds of turkeys

are strutting in the halls.

Finely feathered gobblers

are squawking out their calls.

Pilgrim people rush around

losing capes and hats.

Indians with their harvest feasts

are dropping them on mats.

The day before Thanksgiving

I really wouldn’t miss.

We don’t have any homework

so let’s give thanks for this!

This poem just really isn’t the same without the pictures.  I encourage you to check it out!  Find all of the other poetry today over at Holly Cupala’s blog, Brimstone Soup.

It would make a great gift for a little one who likes poetry, or even one that you want to introduce to poetry.  The rhymes are short, funny, and sing songy (is that a word?).  Each poem is told from a child’s point of view and many of them have to do with school.  I have chosen one that I liked.

ALPHABET BOOGIE

I can do it,

Yes-sir-ee,

I’m as smart

As I can be.

A…Yes.

B…Yes.

C…Yes.

Deeeeeeeeeeee!

I can do it!

Yes-sir-ee!

E-F-G!

H-I-J!

Wait, there’s more,

Don’t run away.

Here’s a K

With an

L-M-N-O-P!

Q-R-S

And a T-U-V!

Next come W,

X-Y-Z.

I’m as smart

As I can be!

Put that pencil

In my hand.

I can do it,

YES I CAN!

I just loved this poem and many of the others too.  The illustrations add so much as well.  Enjoy!

The round-up this week is at Yat-Yee Chong’s.  Head on over for some great poetry.

I chose a Maya Angelou poem today for 2 reasons.  One, I love her poetry, and two, this poem speaks to me.  You do not have to be like every other woman (or man if you want to change it) because each of us is unique and phenomenal in our own way.

Today is Poetry Friday! 

Appropriately enough, I have chosen a book today titled, Spooky Poems!  Here is a blurb about the book:

From Publishers Weekly
The benign monsters in these 25 poems are guaranteed to be cheerfully scary. Included in the motley group is the ugstabuggle, “a monster nearly nine feet tall / With hairy, grasping hands” who conveniently disappears when you stop thinking of him. The Marog from Mars has “a body of brass / And seventeen fingers and toes” and would make an entire classroom shriek, if anyone could see him. And the “great huge horrible horrible / creeping up the stars” is, well, HORRIBLE. Rees’s watercolors of wide-eyed children and twitchy goblins are just frightening enough to provide thrills without causing nightmares. A mixture of such British and American poets as e. e. cummings, Lilian Moore, Ted Hughes and Shel Silverstein provides verses bound to provoke shivers and giggles. From the hilariously hungry Alphabet Monster who might eat Y-O-U to the lovable snaggle-toothed bat, Rees’s creatures are wickedly entertaining. Ages 4-8.

Here is the poem I’ve chosen for today; enjoy!  It is by Jack Prelutsky, a favorite poet of mine.

Haunted House

There’s a house upon the hilltop

We will not go inside

For that is where the witches live,

Where ghosts and goblins hide.

Tonight they have their party,

All the lights are burning bright,

But oh we will not go inside

The haunted house tonight.

You can read the rest here.

The Poetry round-up today is over at Poetry for Children.  Check it out!

Don’t forget to come back on Monday for my giveaway as part of the Book Giveaway Carnival!

HOPE

Hope is the thing with feathers
that perches in the soul,
and sings the tune—without the words,
and never stops at all.

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I’ve heard it in the chillest land,
and on the strangest sea;
yet, never, in extremity,
it asked a crumb of me.

I know there is hope for my husband; hope that he will heal, hope that he will feel better, hope that he will be able to go to the gravesite like he wants to, and hope that he will be able to talk about his daddy without breaking down.  Hope will come one day.  Thank you for letting me share my thoughts.

Check out the round-up at Big A, little a

I have a dear friend who is a breast cancer survivor.  I admire her strength as she endured the process of doctor’s visits and chemotherapy.  I wrote this for her to let her know just that, and I thought it was appropriate to share as October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  I hope you enjoy it.

Terrified of the prognosis at first, she

  Endured countless hours of doctor visits; all the while

  Radiating her strong sense of faith and hope without

  Reservations that God would prevail and she would be healed.

 Isn’t she incredible?

Poetry Friday is being hosted by Becky’s Book Reviews this week.

Don’t forget that tomorrow is the 24 hour Read-a-thon.  Won’t you join us?

I happened upon Meet Danitra Brown by Nikki Grimes, this week as I was looking for a book to share with teachers.  I just fell in love with Danitra and her friend Zuri.  Each poem in the book is about one or both of them.  They are written from the child’s point of view and every child can relate to them because they are about real life experiences.  Nikki Grimes gives us great poems in Meet Danitra Brown.  She has also written, Danitra Brown, Class Clown and Danitra Brown Leaves Town.  I have not read either of those, but they are now on my list TBR.

Here is my favorite poem from the book:

Sweet Blackberry

Danitra says my skin’s like double chocolate fudge

’cause I’m so dark.

The kids at school say it another way.

“You so black, girl,” they say,

“at night, people might think

you ain’t nothin’ but a piece o’sky.”

I never cry, but inside there’s a hurting place.

I make sure no one sees it on my face.

Then mama tells me, “Next time, honey, you just say,

The blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice.”

Now that’s just what I do.

I sure wish I had told them that before.

Those kids don’t bother teasin’ me no more.

I also wanted to let you know about some more giveaways that I found today. 

Over at Bookish Ruth, Tethered by Amy MacKinnon is being given away.  Get your name in the drawing.  She is giving away a paperback ARC and an autographed hardcover.

Also, The Literate Housewife has 3 copies of The Witch’s Trinity by Erika Mailman to giveaway.  There are many ways to get your name in this one, so have a look.

To come by Monday, I hope, if Edublogs cooperates:  review of Papa’s Mark, Very Hairy Bear and No Talking.  Man, I have alot of reviews to do to catch up with my reading!