Enthusing Kids with Poetry

[Erthona]

I did a verse version of the "Wee, Wee Mannie, and the Big, Big Coo" that I read to her 1st grade class. It is out of a group of stories called repetitious stories, because it repeats what has already happened each new verse. Like the Old Woman and the pig story. Children like these kind of stories because it helps them to remember. For adults they tend to be monotonous. My youngest is in 4th grade but still like to be read a bedtime story. I found that when they are younger, how you read the different voices is very important. Like the three Billy Goats Gruff, or the Three Bears. They'll roll on the floor laughing if you do baby bear really high, and Papa Bear really low. You don't have to do it well, just the fact that you are talking like that at all cracks them up.

Dale