A Prayer for Today

Rev. Rob Mossis, vicar of Christ the King Lutheran Church, 

at Sunday night's prayer vigil in Connecticut:

"We bring to you 20 new stars in the heavens, 

20 new saints, 

20 new angels. 

We bring to you 

those who risk their lives for us everyday not counting the cost, 

and we bring to you those who died, 

those who counsel,

 those who bless and embrace 

the confused and the broken. 

And now in this prayer, 

we bring to you ourselves, 

our questions, 

our doubts, 

our anger and our hearts, 

and we pray for the peace, 

the hope and the renewal of trust 

that can come only from a God 

who first conceived us in love 

and places a hand of compassion 

on each of our shoulders 

even in the most trying times. 

And so tonight for our community (and our country), 

a community (and a country) deeply pained, 

we ask you to heal our brokenness, 

to answer our questions, 

to replace our doubts with certainty, 

our anger with peace 

and our hurt with and healing…"

SLICE OF LIFE

Right now

I'm missing uniforms.

Those little colored t-shirts

with Denver Park and Rec on one sleeve

And  the name of a local insurance company

on the other.

I'm missing the uniform rainbow

Baby blue, maroon, green, orange

That marked our progression through the years.

 Right now

I'm missing uniforms

Basketball jerseys in

white, and black, and red,

hanging in the laundry room drying

the packed gym bag

that always went in the car first

on road trips to away tournaments

 checked and rechecked

"Are you SURE you have both jerseys- 

home and away?

You know you can't play if you don't have the jerseys."

Right now 

I'm missing uniforms

Yes, even hunting for uniforms

The slippery practice jersey

That seemed to be magnetically drawn

to the dark spaces behind the dryer

or the farthest corner of the closet

The blue webbed belts

and baseball socks

that always seemed to go AWOL 

on game days. 

The football mouthpieces

that I bought by the dozen.

Right now I'm missing uniforms

The fire-engine red jerseys

#15 and #26

standing shoulder to shoulder on the sidelines

The frantic search for my two favorite numbers

in the huddle

when a player got hurt 

and was laying on the field. 

Right now 

I'm missing uniforms

Silky black shooting shirts

Boys running out onto the court

banging chests

Laughing

then serious

Shooting shirts peeled off

Wadded, tossed aside

To be gathered after game time.

Right now

I'm missing uniforms.

IT'S MONDAY- WHAT ARE YOU READING

OK, so not a lot of time for writing this weekend, but I did get a little reading done last week. Aside from reading and rereading poetry for the CYBILS, here are the two novels I read last week…

SEE YOU AT HARRY'S has gotten lots and lots of great reviews this fall and it should get a lot more. The book is told through the eyes of Fern (named after Fern in CHARLOTTE'S WEB), who spends much of her life hanging out at the family's restaurant. Fern is the third of four children, and is often annoyed at having to babysit her younger brother, Charley (named for the Roald Dahl character), while the family works at the restaurant. I'm not going to say anymore, because I don't want to spoil it by giving away too much…

This is the sequel to BECAUSE OF MR. TERUPT. Kids who liked the first book will probably be excited that there is a second one. It felt pretty predictable, but kids will be excited, I think, to become reacquainted with old friends…

Not sure how much reading time there will be this week. Lots of night meetings. I have SPLENDOR AND GLOOMS checked out from the library…

You can see what other people are reading at TEACH MENTOR TEXTS.

POETRY FRIDAY

I am trying to remember where I first heard the poem, "Mice" by Rose Fyleman. Did my mom read it to me when I was a little girl? Or maybe I stumbled across the poem in a children's literature class in Virginia Westerberg's children's literature class in college. Was it a poem I read to my kindergarten class, that first year that I was a teacher? Truthfully, I can't remember, but I do know it's one I've always loved.

Mice

by Rose Fyleman

 I think mice are rather nice.

Their tails are long 

Their faces small, 
They haven't any 
Chins at all…
And no one seems
To like them much.

But I think mice 
Are nice. 

Read the rest of the poem here. 

Recently, Lois Ehlert made this much loved poem into picture book. Truthfully, I am not really a fan of mice, but Ehlert's torn paper collage mice, wandering through the house, creating their own art, are really, really fun. And preschool readers will be surprised to learn just who it is that thinks mice are rather nice.

MICE would be a perfect gift for any preschooler or beginning reader.

Robyn Hood Black is hosting POETRY FRIDAY this week. Stop by and check out her gorgeous fox poem.

SLICE OF LIFE- THE CHRISTMAS TREE

Tonight,

just like pretty much every other night

Star and I went for a walk. 

She loves to smell,

and me, well 

I am ashamed to admit

I am  an unashamed 

window peeper.

Especially at this time of year. 

I love looking at people's Christmas trees. 

It seems like there are a lot of white-light trees this year.

You know, the really fancy ones

that look like they could be in magazines. 

We will never have one of those trees.

We can't.

Where would we put the worn pink teapot

with the silver glitter

that my grandmother carried

all the way

from Marshall Fields in Chicago

to our living room in Colorado Springs

when I was ten years old?

It wouldn't look right

on one of those fancy white-light trees.

And where would we put the teacher ornaments? 

You know- all those apples

carefully picked from Hallmark shop orchards--

ceramic apples, metal apples, 

and the ones that ring 

every time the dog brushes against the tree.

And where would we put the pictures of 

former students

familiar faces with forgotten names 

in popsicle stick frames.

Where would those go 

on a fancy white-light tree?

We will never have one of those trees.

We can't.

Where would we put the three brown angels

my friend Terri gave me

the first year

the boys and I were a family.

I can't remember which boy

dropped one and broke the wings off 

An hour after we got them.

And the old-fashioned ornaments 

sent from Maine

 by my friend Cyrene

to celebrate that same Christmas.

I cry every year when I open that box.

And then there's the plethora

of football and basketball and superhero ornaments-- 

they wouldn't quite work on one of those fancy trees either.

I guess, we can't have 

one of those fancy white-light trees.

Not yet anyway.

THE PRESIDENT'S STUCK IN THE BATHTUB by Susan Katz

The inauguration is only a little over a month away.  I'm thinking, then, that there will probably be lots of presidential conversations and read alouds happening in classrooms. If that's true, THE PRESIDENT'S STUCK IN THE BATHTUB is a book you will definitely want to own. STUCK IN THE BATHTUB is a collection of 43 poems, one about each president of the United States. The poem doesn't always highlight the most important aspect of the presidency, instead it highlights one interesting fact, e.g. George Washington slept in over 1000 places, but never slept at the White House, Franklin Pierce trimmed the first White House Christmas Tree, and John F. Kennedy was once mistaken for an elevator operator. Each poem is followed by a paragraph further explaining the situation. Here is Andrew Jackson's poem:

Spelling Be 

Andrew Jackson, some people claim,
was barely able to spell his own name
He was never the champ of a spelling bee,
never the one to spell "Miss-iss-ipp-i."
Yet he kept the Congress under his thumb,
He couldn't' spell rite, but he wasn't dum.

Susan Katz 

And then the accompanying information:
Andrew Jackson was one of the strongest presidents, using his forceful personality to expand the powers of the presidency. Though he couldn't master the spelling of even a simple word, this problem didn't disturb him…In fact, he's reported to have claimed that a person who could spell a word only one way lacked imagination."

Susan Katz has used a variety of genre- including list, couplets, and poems for two voices. The end material, "Presidential Notes and Quotes" is lots of fun too- it includes each president's name, dates he served, as well as dates he was born and died, a famous quote, a nickname, and a first. James Madison, for instance, was the first president to wear long trousers instead of knee britches. Theodore Roosevelt was the first president to ride in an automobile and fly in an airplane, and Jimmy Carter was the first president born in a hospital. Illustrations, by Robert Neubecker, best known for his WOW! CITY! series, are colorful and playful, almost cartoon like, perfect for this very fun volume of poetry.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC BOOK OF ANIMAL POETRY edited by J. Patrick Lewis

I considered titling this post, 'WHEN A CHILDREN'S POETRY BOOK BECOMES A COFFEE TABLE BOOK" because that's what I think about the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC POETRY BOOK. Not only is it a must have for your classroom library (and I'm pretty sure it's one of those I will re-buy every year, because I know that kids will wear it out), it's also a coffee table book. One that adults will pick up and enjoy. One that I will definitely be buying for Christmas presents.  It's absolutely perfect.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC POETRY BOOK FOR CHILDREN contains over 200 poems. The poems are divided into sections: The Big Ones, The Little Ones, The Winged Ones, The Water Ones, The Strange Ones, The Quiet Ones, and The Noisy Ones.  Poets run the gamut from Robert Frost, Rudyard Kipling, Alfred Lord Tennyson to Valerie Worth, Jack Prelutsky, and J. Patrick Lewis. Each page, or two-page spread focuses on one animal. Sometimes there is one poem, and sometimes there are three or four. (When I put my teacher hat on, I can see kids comparing the poems, or choosing a subject and collecting three or four poems that they love).

The background for every page is one or two or three National Geographic photographs. And they are absolutely beautiful- so much so, that readers will want to make many trips through this book, some to savor the poetry, but probably just as many to enjoy the art.

J. Patrick Lewis has also done a fabulous job with the end material. There is a two-page spread about writing animal poems, and another two pages of resources for different types of poetry. There are also four different kinds of indexes- title, first line, author, and subject. You will definitely be able to find the poems you love quickly!

I'm buying this book for every reader I know this Christmas. It's sure to be a favorite!