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Poetry Month 2010: Student Book Spine Poems

March 30, 2010 by

Wednesday marks the first day of April, a month noted for its showers (to bring May flowers) and fools (well, at least for one day). It’s also known as National Poetry Month and at 100 Scope Notes, we’re celebrating in an appropriately bookish way. If you try book spine poetry with your students, send me the results (scopenotes@gmail.com) and I will post them here for all to see and enjoy.

[album: http://100scopenotes.com/wp-content/plugins/dm-albums/dm-albums.php?currdir=/files/dm-albums/Book Spine Poems/]

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About Travis Jonker

Travis Jonker is an elementary school librarian in Michigan. He writes reviews (and the occasional article or two) for School Library Journal and is a member of the 2014 Caldecott committee. You can email Travis at scopenotes@gmail.com, or follow him on Twitter: @100scopenotes.

Comments

  1. Elsa L says
    March 31, 2010 at 7:20 pm

    What a wonderful idea! I’m looking for some ideas for National Library-Poetry Month, and this could be a lot of fun! Thanks!

  2. Diane says
    April 1, 2010 at 10:13 am

    Thanks for this great idea. We’re going to photocopy the book spines and put them on a bulletin board for students to “write” like magnetic poetry.

  3. Stacy Post says
    April 1, 2010 at 2:54 pm

    I love this creative wordplay activity! I’m not a teacher, but I took a whirl at it. It’s posted on my blog. What fun!

  4. Margaret Kirk says
    April 1, 2010 at 6:24 pm

    What a fun idea! I love it. So Creative and quite inspiring. At the small, rural library where I work we just did a poetry dislplay using many of Robert Louis Stevenson’s poems (from a book released in the early 1900’s, complete with lovely images) printed and taped to a display rack inviting kids to PICK A POEM…take one or leave one in preparation for April 29th, which is CARRY A POEM IN YOUR POCKET DAY…and maybe even read it for someone. A fun month.

  5. Andy Plemmons says
    April 2, 2010 at 2:42 pm

    This post has come through my Google Reader 4 times, and I love it! My fourth graders have already done some wonderful poems that are in your gallery. I have 5th grade and Kindergarten lined up next. Thanks so much for this idea.

  6. Alex says
    April 5, 2010 at 4:54 pm

    This is great! We’re totally going to do this at my library, and I will send you what we come up with!

  7. Lynda Shoup says
    April 7, 2010 at 9:29 pm

    This is really fun. I gave it a try, have talked about it with colleagues and have posted about it on my blog. Now I just need to think of a way to make it manageable for my young students….

    Thanks for sharing this idea and the many poems people have constructed.

  8. Jennifer says
    April 20, 2010 at 10:59 pm

    I shared this idea with an elementary school librarian who adapted it to her time limits. While she didn’t have the time for the kids to pull multiple books to create poems, she asked them to search the shelves for a title that best described themselves and share their reasoning. One girl chose Ghost Girl and explained that as the new student at school no one yet knew her.

  9. Rebecca Simon says
    April 20, 2015 at 4:07 pm

    Looking for album using link above and it won’t come up! Says it’s not found!

  10. www.thephdmom.com says
    February 18, 2014 at 6:04 am

    That’s a skillful answer to a difficult question

Trackbacks

  1. ALSC Blog » Blog Archive » Celebrate Poetry Month with Book Spine Poems says:
    March 30, 2010 at 10:51 am

    […] feeling up to it, send me a photo of the results (scopenotes at gmail dot com). At 100 Scope Notes, I’ll be hosting a Poetry Month gallery filled with student book spine poems. I’ll add to it throughout April. Just think – this could be the thing that turns your […]

  2. Fun with books! « SAU Curriculum Library's Blog says:
    March 30, 2010 at 11:58 am

    […] with books! Not only can you read them, you can make poetry with them! This is like the literary version of magnetic poetry. Love […]

  3. » Weekly Top 3 (L)ibrarian(I)n(T)raining says:
    March 31, 2010 at 11:05 am

    […] heard of Spine Label Poetry?  I think this is so creative and am scanning my bookshelves to create my […]

  4. Happy National Poetry Month! « So Many Books says:
    April 1, 2010 at 7:27 pm

    […] April 1, 2010 by Stefanie It’s April which means National Poetry Month. Now I think it a shame that recognition of poetry is generally crowded into one month, but if that is what it takes to get people’s attention, then I am all for it. In honor of the month, I’ve created a book title poem for you made exclusively out of poetry books (I got the idea from 100 Scope Notes): […]

  5. Hamden Library Children's Blog » Blog Archiv » Celebrate Poetry! says:
    April 3, 2010 at 4:41 pm

    […] a look at the blog 100 Scope Notes and see the poetry people are creating out of book titles, and take on the challenge […]

  6. book spine poems « MoCo Librarian says:
    April 5, 2010 at 8:54 pm

    […] out these photos of book spine poems. What better way to recognize April as National Poetry Month?! Perhaps you’ll be inspired to […]

  7. Spine Poetry | The Age of Will says:
    April 10, 2010 at 5:46 pm

    […] Check out this great post, poems created using the spines of books. […]

  8. The Little Weeds of Emily » Book spine poetry? says:
    April 13, 2010 at 9:23 pm

    […] saw this idea on a blog on the American Libraries Direct weekly email a week or two ago. An elementary teacher librarian […]

  9. Book Spine Poetry says:
    June 18, 2010 at 6:22 pm

    […] http://100scopenotes.com/2010/03/30/poetry-month-gallery-student-book-spine-poems/ […]

  10. Tech Tip – You Too Can Be a Poet! « SLItech's Blog says:
    March 1, 2011 at 3:47 am

    […] Get even more creative and have students try Book Spine Poetry where they find books, line them up and take a photo of their spines arranged in a certain order. What fun! If you have a document camera or access to a digital camera, take instant photos and visualize them on your smartboard. See some samples HERE. […]

  11. National Poetry Month Is Better With Book Spine Poems | ALSC Blog says:
    March 22, 2011 at 1:04 am

    […] and encouraged others to try it with their students or young patrons and send me photos. I posted a gallery of student poems on my blog, 100 Scope […]

  12. April is National Poetry Month! « MA Library says:
    April 11, 2011 at 5:26 pm

    […] Or if you prefer spines to brains and are more hands-on, check out some examples here: http://100scopenotes.com/2010/03/30/poetry-month-gallery-student-book-spine-poems/, take a picture,  send it to me, and I’ll post […]