Fun Friday Program – Haikus

I have been remiss in blogging about last Friday’s Fun Friday program at the library.  As many of you know, it is National Poetry Month and as such, our porgram centered around haikus.  I began the program discussing the master haiku poet, Matsuo Basho, a Japanese man from the 17th century.  I tried to impress on the kids that this man lived long ago, yet this form of poetry is still very popular today.

After discussing the history we talked about what makes a haiku, the 5-7-5 pattern and about syllables.  We  practiced clapping out our names and other words to better understand syllables.  Then I pulled out a HUGE pile of books and just started reading haikus from them.  Some of the kids’ favorites came from Guyku: A Year of Haiku for Boys by Bob Raczka and If Not for the Cat by Jack Prelutsky.  The boys absolutely LOVED Guyku and I’m so glad I used it because poetry and boys often don’t mix.  And If Not for the Cat is written in haiku form, but it’s also a puzzle, for example,

“If not for the cat,
And the scarcity of cheese,
I could be content.”

Then I had the kids guess what the animal was.  They absolutely loved it!  And some of them were very difficult to figure out.  Finally, we gave the kids paper, pencils, crayons, and scissors to create their own haiku and illustrate it or cut it out in a specific shape.  Most of the kids were very focused about the task and we had a great time!

Before I forget, I also shared some poetry from another book that wasn’t in haiku, but I felt was too cool to pass up.  The book was called Mirror Mirror: A Book of Reversible Verse by Marilyn Singer.  These poems were written about fairy tales and when read top to bottom were one viewpoint and when read bottom to top with only a change in punctuation, gave a whole new meaning.  They were super cool poems that kids should definitely check out!