Messing Around on The Monkey Bars

Bibliography

Franco, Betsy, and Hartland Jessie. Messing Around on the Monkey Bars and Other School Poems for Two Voices. Somerville, Mass: Candlewick, 2009. Print

 

Language and Emotion

This collection of 18 poems are meant to be read by two voices although it can be read by one person. I found myself changing my voice to read the other verse.  The poems are really fun to read. I think my class would love to read these poems and act some of them out. The subject matter is something they can relate to. Every kids loves recess or have been to the park or have tried to make a new friend. Read aloud these lighthearted poems for multiple voices as they try to capture the silliness of the playground and other things like writing a report on an animal. Some children are on a school bus, heading to the lost and found making a new friend out on the playground, kids are skipping rope and making trades. In the library, they’re whispering, and talking. In the classroom  they come up with excuses why they didn’t have their homework  and have to stay afterschool at the teachers request.                                          

Analysis

The rhyme and humor the incorporation onomatopoeia and the personification of objects make it really engaging. Did you ever think your class was alive? I didn’t until I thought about the poem referring to the arms and legs on the chair and the face on the clock and of course the spine on the book. The children would able to find the humor in that and begin to find various traits in other objects at home and at school. In the book the author   encourages the teacher or reader to divide the group in two. One group can read Voice1 and the other Voice 2 in unison. This would be a great book to use at the beginning of school at an elementary level. The illustrations are colorful and add to the adventures of children at school.

Reviews

A cheeky romp elementary school children’s academic and social lives. –  Kirkus Review

The clear and interactive presentation elevates the solid content, and Hartlands whimsical paintings afdd to a playful tone-   The Horn Book

Connections

1.Spend a week focusing on sounds with your class can create a list of sound words with your students and post it in the classroom.

2. Ask kids to listen to the natural world and then write about what they have heard.

3. Encourage your students too consciously add sound words to stories and poems they write.

Then invite your class to write three-line “Sound poems.” This is a form Betsy Franco made up; it’s similar to a haiku but focuses specifically on sounds and doesn’t involve any syllable counting

4. Invite students to write acrostic poems about objects at school.

5. Read the book Big talk” Poems for Four Voices by Paul Fleishchman