Snow, Tea, and Poetry

We are buried under snow here with crazy windchills. So we are fighting winter with a lot of tea and poetry. I mentioned in my last post that we have instituted a weekly Poetry Tea Time inspired by the Brave Writer curriculum. It has quickly become a favorite part of our week. We have some special tea party treats and read poetry. Of course, in our house, no tea party would be complete without dressing up.

 

One of our favorite days was when Daddy got a snowday from work. When Daddy is home from work,he makes us yummy treats like homemade orange cinnamon rolls. Since we were doing a Five in a Row unit on Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost, we read from several books of Robert Frost's poetry.

That week, we also tried writing some poetry using the rhyme scheme from Frost's poem. The kids liked it so much, they decided to publish their poems in a binder. I wrote them out for them, and they illustrated. Now we have poems that they can read at our teas too. 

  
Our next week, we were reading Grandfather's Journey by Allen Say, and decided to learn about haiku. That required some new school supplies purchased at an Asian market. We love our new Chinese tea set and Pocky! Yum!  The kids really liked writing haiku and we read those, alongside some by the haiku master Basho.We brought out our kimonos from our Japanese tea party last year, though I didn't manage any good pictures this year. 

Want to try a poetry tea time with your family? Here are some of our favorite poetry books for kids:
The Poetry for Young People series of books are beautifully illustrated collections of famous poets' works. We have Robert Frost, Emily Dickenson, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. I hope to purchase more of these lovely collections.
A Swinger of Birches: Poems of Robert Frost for Young People 
Books by Shel Silverstein: Falling Up, A Light in the Attic, Where the Sidewalk Ends
The Random House Book of Poetry for Children
Psalms
Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost, illustrated by Susan Jeffers