Today's Classroom Activities :

Seeking Summer

Seeking Summer
Poetry Read the following poem together and then have students write poems about what summer represents to each of them.

Summer

by Martin Shaw

Blankets marking cozy spots.
Laughter in the air,
Castles made from sparkling sand,
Sprouting everywhere,

Children dashing through the waves,
Ice cream vendors shout,
Seagulls soaring overhead,
That's what summer's 'bout.

Summer Buzzin'
Poetry Read the following poem to the children.

Stripes

by Martin Shaw

The bees have stripes that cover them,
The zebra have stripes too,
My shirt has stripes that cover me,
And they are red and blue.

I play that I'm a zebra wild,
I buzz like I'm a bee,
I sometimes stalk like tigers do,
My stripes do that to me.

Have a class discussion about how much fun it is to pretend that you are someone or something else when wearing special clothes. Read together Eileen Spinelli's book, In My New Yellow Shirt (Henry Holt, 2001), then invite the children to wear outfits to school the next day that help them pretend to be something or someone else.