Poetry Picnic: April 26, 2016

It took a while for me to get around to doing another poetry picnic, but we did finally pull one together for a day when it was warm enough and not too rainy to be outside. We baked brownies again as our special treat, and even the baby got to have her bottle outside on the blanket. I decided to hand-write the poems into a little booklet and decorate it, even though I have minimal artistic skills, with my own drawings. My husband pointed out that it looked like the work of a precocious third grader, but I still enjoyed doing it, and it didn't require me to have anything printed out.

In any case, here are the poems which I copied into the book and their respective sources, with links to the full text of poems for which it is available online.

From The Random House Book of Poetry for Children

• Open House by Aileen Fisher

From A First Poetry Book

• The Park by James J. Tippett (The entire poem appears as a quotation quite far down the linked page.) 
• Mud by John Smith (On the linked page, this entire poems appears at the end of a book review.)

From Read-Aloud Rhymes for the Very Young

• Yellow Butter by Mary Ann Hoberman
• Makers by Nancy Dingman Watson
• A Spike of Green by Barbara Baker
• Umbrellas by Barbara Juster Esbensen

From The Oxford Book of Children's Verse in America

• Who Has Seen the Wind? by Christina Rossetti
• Milking Time by Elizabeth Madox Roberts

From A Pizza the Size of the Sun

• A Pizza the Size of the Sun by Jack Prelutsky 

Miss Muffet seemed to enjoy every poem and agreed each time I asked if she wanted to hear one a second time. Unfortunately, the landscapers were out mowing the lawn at the park, so there were distractions, and rain was also looming on the horizon, so I felt rushed to get through the booklet and get everyone's lunch finished so we wouldn't end up getting caught in the rain. The picnic ended abruptly with Miss Muffet taking off running with the poetry booklet and me having to chase her down. 

Despite the chaos that a toddler brings to a civilized poetry picnic, however, I enjoyed the experience of sharing these poems. I had never read "Milking Time", but found that it reminded me a lot of Robert Frost, and I was pleased to remember there is a poem about pizza, since that is Miss Muffet's favorite and she specifically asked for a pizza poem. I have also never really liked "Yellow Butter" before, but found that really figuring out how to read it aloud properly made all the difference. Miss Muffet got a kick out of "Umbrellas," too, because it talks about a tulip, a flower she has been very interested in this spring. I have held onto the booklet, too, so we can perhaps revisit the poems before we choose new ones for our next picnic. 

Speaking of the next one, it looks like we're going to have a very rainy couple of weeks coming up, but I hope to get a May poetry picnic going soon - maybe even two!