Spring Poetry Break

Pieces: A Year In Poems & Quilts
by Anna Grossnickle Hines

Introduction:

The season of spring, a time of beauty, growth, and delightful smells all around. On a beautiful spring day, I could sit for outdoors for hours listening to the sounds of birds chirping, feeling the cool breeze, breathing in the scented air, reading or daydreaming. Tucked inside the poetry book "Pieces" is a spring poem that focuses on the reader's senses. See what you think:

Nose Knows
by Anna Grossnickle Hines

Locusts line the walkway,
lilacs by the wall,
lilly of the valley,
the sweetest smell of all.

Put me in a blindfold
so I can't see a thing.
Even with my eyes closed
I'll still know it's spring.

Anna Grossnickle Hines


The illustrations are wonderfully created by the author who uses her technique of quilting to create beautiful pictures of each poem. She has selected fabrics to give the illustrations life and beauty.

Extension: Conduct the class outdoors. Have your students close their eyes as the poem is read aloud to them. Select poems from the book that are created for the current season. For spring, have the students with eyes closed, smell flowers, feel plants, smell freshly mowed grass, listen to the sounds around them. Then have them open their eyes and look around for signs of spring.
Indoors, the children can each draw a picture on paper. These could be combined to make a classroom "paper" quilt or cut into 1 inch squares, pieced back together and glued onto paper.

I would like to add another poem from the book in relation to spring:

Do You Know Green"
by Anna Grossnickle Hines

Green Sleeps in winter
waiting
quiet
still
beneath the snow
and last year's stems
and old dead leaves
resting up for spring
and then . . .
Green comes . . .
tickling the tips
of twiggy tree fingers
Psst!
Psst! Psst!
poking up as tiny
slips of baby grass
Ping!
Ping! Ping!
springing up as coiled
skunk cabbage leaves
Pop!
Pop! Pop!
bursting out on bare
brown branches
Pow!
Pow! Pow!
Brand New baby yellow green
bright gold biting busy green
until it seems
everywhere one goes
green grows.

Extension: During spring, take students on a nature walk to observe things that are green, discussing these along the walk. Point out shades of green, budding trees, flowers, weeds etc. Have students write a poem in a journal describing things they observed, the walk or demonstrate making a poem in the shape of a tree or flower. Encourage illustrations.

Bibliography:
Hines, Anna Grossnickle. 2001. "Pieces". NY: Harper Collins:
Greenwillow Books. ISBN 0688169635.