This poem is a great example of poetry with a refrain (but that is not a song). The refrain is "I'm walking with my iguana". This poem evokes some great visual images and is a lot of fun.

I'm Walking Wth My Iguana
by Brian Moses

I’m walking
with my iguana

I’m walking
with my iguana

When the temperature rises
to above eighty-five,
my iguana is looking
like he’s coming alive.

So we make it to the beach,
my iguana and me,
then he sits on my shoulder
as we stroll by the sea. . .

and I’m walking
with my iguana

Well if anyone sees us
we’re a big surprise,
my iguana and me
on our daily exercise,

till somebody phones
the local police
says I’ve got an alligator
tied to a leash.

when I’m walking
with my iguana

I’m walking
with my iguana

It’s the spines on his back
that make him look grim,
but he just loves to be tickled
under his chin.

And I know that my iguana
is ready for bed
when he puts on his pyjamas
and lays down his sleepy head.

And I’m walking
with my iguana

still walking
with my iguana

With my iguana
with my iguana
and my piranha
and my Chihuahua
and my chinchilla,
with my gorilla,
my caterpillar…
and I’m walking…
with my iguana…
with my iguana…
with my iguana…

From: I WISH I COULD DINE WITH A PORCUPINE. By Brian Moses. Published by Hodder Children's Books. Copyright 2004

After reading aloud to students, let them choral read a couple of times to get the rhythm of it. Next, let the children work in partners, or independent if they wish, choosing a favorite animal and create their own poem with their animal. For a bigger challenge, have them choose a new animal AND a new verb for their original poetry.

Marvelous Math

A Book of Poems

Selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins

Illustrated by Karen Barbour

Lee Bennett Hopkins has gathered 16 poems with different perspectives on math by many well-known poets such as Karla Kuskin, David McCord and Janet S. Wong. The rhyme scheme is a mixture of couplets as well as free verse that makes for a good variety. Selections range from laugh-out-loud funny such as "Who Hasn't Played Gazintas": "In your arithmetic/the problem is what sticks./The language isn't bound/by spelling, but by sound./So 3 gazinta 81./The answer? 27. Done!" to the more serious "Math Makes Me Feel Safe": "Math makes me feel safe/knowing that my brother will always be/three years younger than I am/and every day of the year will have twenty-four hours." There are also several poems that address how math is used in every day life. For example, readers will find themselves wondering after reading Mary O'Neill's "Take A Number": (excerpted)

Imagine a world

Without mathematics:

No rulers or scales

No inches or feet,

No dates on or numbers

On house or street. . .

Wouldn't it be awful

To live like that?

Illustrator Karen Barbour does a great job with her whimsical watercolor pictures for each poem - helping to illuminate the meaning for the reader. Many of the poems are experiences that the intended audience of 3rd-5th graders may relate to. However, any person who has struggled with math or finds it thrilling will enjoy this collection of poetry. MARVELOUS MATH has the wonderful ability to help children see that math is not just numbers but can also be poetry.

Hopkins, Lee Bennett. 1997. MARVELOUS MATH, A BOOK OF POEMS. Ill. Karen Barbour. New York: Scholastic.

This poem is from a journal of poems chronicling the life of a hummingbird family one spring from February 3rd through April 1st. In the author's note, Ms. George relates how the hummingbird nest on her family's patio and the journal she kept "evolved into this poetry collection."
Just Hatched

by Kristine O'Connell George

Each new
breath a shudder
as he huddles down deep
in the nest, head tucked in,
his body softly rounded,
warmly molded to the form
he once knew so well,
the smooth curved
world of shell.

From: HUMMINGBIRD NEST. By Kristine O'Connell George. Illustrated by Barry Moser. Published by Harcourt, Inc. Copyright 2004.

Using the links below, as well as any of the print resources at the end of the book, research and share about hummingbirds. There are over 300 different species of hummingbirds, find out which are indigenous to your area. A good class project would be to research what type of plants attract these little birds and plant them in a school garden or flower bed and see if you soon have some new little friends.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hummingbird

http://www.hummingbirdworld.com/h/

THE MUSIC OF DOLPHINS

by Karen Hesse

In award-winning author Karen Hesse's free verse novel, The Music of Dolphins, she captures what it means to be human for one girl. After being the lone survivor is a plane crash at sea, Mila - Spanish for miracle - has been raised since the age of 4 by a pod of dolphins until she is "rescued" against her will by Coast Guard officers and taken to a research facility to be studied. Told in the voice of the feral child, as she shifts into a more human spirit and understanding, the typestyle changes to smaller print. It changes again, to increasingly larger print, when she chooses to return to her dolphin family where she is more comfortable and happier.

Hesse does a phenomenal job of capturing the three different voices of Mila through her journey to humanity and back. This book deals with many abstract concepts such as language, love, and freedom - often a challenge to understand for the 9-12 year olds at which it is aimed. With Hesse's clever use of simple language and the changing typestyles, readers will be enthralled and not want to put it down. Because this is such a different type of novel, the fact that it is free verse is unusual in the first place, even the most reluctant readers will enjoy it. The Music of Dolphins literally sings to readers everywhere.

Hesse, Karen. 1996. THE MUSIC OF DOLPHINS. New York: Scholastic Press.

LAUGHING TOMATOES

AND OTHER SPRING POEMS

by Francisco X. Alarcon Illustrations by Maya Christina Gonzalez

Award-winning bilingual poet, Francisco X. Alarcon, has created another winner in his book of delightful free-verse poems, Laughing Tomatoes and Other Spring Poems. Alarcon, is the author of several books of poetry for adults but this is his first publication aimed at children ages 9-12 years of age. In here, he returns to the joy of his childhood, family, friends and especially his grandmothers. Alarcon celebrates those everyday items such as corn, chiles, springtime and the magic of being a child in both English and Spanish verse. His poems are concrete and about things in most everyone's life.The very first of the 18 poems must be read, to a child's delight, upside down! This sets the tone for even more fun in the rest of the poetry. Alarcon writes in "Tortilla":

"each tortilla

is a tasty

round of applause

for the sun"

It is this sense of joy in the ordinary that will help young readers understand better what free verse is and that poetry can be about anything the writer wants it to be about. Both avid poetry readers and beginner or reluctant readers will enjoy this book.

The illustrations by Maya Christina Gonzalez add to the playfulness of Alarcon's words. Utilizing cartoon watercolor drawings, she fills the pages of happy people with tomato smiles, joyful animals and inviting fruits and vegetables.

Laughing Tomatoes is a feast for the eyes, ears and the soul.

Feast well and enjoy!

.

Alarcon, Francisco X. 1997. LAUGHING TOMATOES AND OTHER SPRING POEMS. Ill. Maya Christina Gonzalez. San Francisco: Children's Book Press.