Here Are Poems For Your Pockets & Lots Of Fun Plans With A Few Of Our Favorite Poets, Authors, Songs, & Books!

As the weather warms up and the flowers start to bloom, we know that April is right around the corner.

And that also means that National Poetry Month is here.  

The website states, National Poetry Month is the largest literacy celebration in the world, with tens of millions of readers, students, K-12 teachers, librarians, booksellers, literary event curators, publishers, bloggers, and, of course, poets marking poetry's important place in our culture and our lives. 

There is a very special day during the month that we all love to celebrate too.  

It is called Poem In Your Pocket Day.  

On this day, we celebrate by selecting a poem, carrying it with them, and sharing it with others throughout the day at schools, bookstores, libraries, parks, workplaces, and on Twitter using the hashtag #pocketpoem. 

         

You can read even more about Poem In Your Pocket Day on the Academy of American Poets website.

Also, you must watch this Animoto which shows John Schu and I's Poem In Your Pocket Day from 2011....It was so much fun!  

We celebrate poetry together by creating, sharing, finding, and reading poetry over Skype all week long.  It make such an impact on our entire school community and was day they looked forward to year after after. 

As we prepare for Poem In Your Pocket Day this year, I have planned a fun day with a few of my favorite poets, authors, publishers, teachers and students.  

My dear friends Mrs. P and Robert Forbes, who are both poets, are going to join me for a Google Hangout on April 25, 2016 with friends from Iowa, Colorado and a couple more places around the world.

We will be sharing poems from our pockets, creating poetry, and hearing poems from Mrs. P and Robert too.

Also, we have asked our wonderful friends at Cantata Learning and Capstone to join us.

They will be sharing poems, songs and books in the Google Hangout and online with all of us too!

I will share more details about the GHO on April 25 soon....And will tell you how you can be part of this fun celebration with all of us.  

To get ready for our Poem In Your Pocket Day Celebration, I have created several little poems that can be copied, edited, printed and shared with your students and communities for their pockets. 

I created these using Canva....my favorite graphic design tool!  It is very easy to use and by following this link you will be able to go to this set of poems and posters.  

I have created 15 poems for you to use.... Mrs. P and...

and Robert Forbes wrote a few for our celebration, two from one of my favorite poetry books Sing a Song of Popcorn, several from Cantata Learning including Happy and You Know It and Spring,    

and one by Blake Hoena from the Capstone book, Trust, Truth, and Ridiculous Goofs: Reading and Writing Friendship Poems. 

You can get them from the Poems and Poems for Poem in Your Pocket Day Google Doc. 

I included each poem as 4 on a page so it is easy to make copies and cut them out for your Poem in The Pocket Day. 

And a poster that is a full size sheet of paper.  

Remember....you can find this in Canva at this link to even make your own changes to the pocket for a poster. 

It is very easy to change the size and format while you are printing these pockets.  I made stickers from the pocket above.  I just selected 16 copies per page and then can either Print or Save as a PDF to use later. 

I used this for the poster and notecards too. You can select any size and make it really easy to make multiple copies of poems for everyones pocket.  

I would let my students and teachers pick from poems I had printed off....I just put them in a basket for them to look through easily.  Many of them wrote or found their own poem too.  The most important thing is that everyone has a poem in their pocket to share on that day. 

I also made this set of poems in Canva available as an editable design, so you can make copies and put in your very own poems too.  Or even posters, notecards and stickers just for your special Poem In Your Pocket event at your library, classroom, school, or community event.  

You can get them at this link.  

This would be a great activity to do with poems students and teacher write themselves or even finding their favorite poems and phrases from books and songs.  

You could go to the Cantata Learning website with your students and  have them listen for their favorite parts of these beautiful books....There is something for everyone here.  And the poetic words and phrases would be perfect for a poem in your pocket.  

As you prepare for Poem In Your Pocket Day and Poetry Month we have places you can go....

Brianna and I put together a Poem In Your Pocket Day Pinterest Board filled with ideas, projects, blog posts, poetry, pockets to print and use, and more.

We also created the April is National Poetry Month Pinterest Board which is growing every day.

And, the Poetry Month Symbaloo is a terrific collection of resources and places to find poetry but also filled with amazing digital tools that lets your students create their own poetry too.

You can find several poems for children and adults in this Poem In Your Pocket Day packet that the Academy of American Poets put together for us to download and print.

I will share more details about the GHO on April 25 soon....And will tell you how you can be part of this fun celebration with all of us.  

There are so many ways to celebrate poetry everyday but in April we hope you join us as we celebrate poetry, writing, words, songs and reading on Poem In Your Pocket Day....It is a day that will make a difference and one that your students, teachers and friends will always remember.

And you must listen to this sweet little song from my friend Emily Arrow as you get ready for Poem In Your Pocket Day....Thank you for the reminders Emily and I think we better keep one in our pocket all year long.