Now it is summer. Tomorrow is Fall.

September

A road like brown ribbon.

A sky that is blue.

A forest of green with that sky peeping through.

Asters deep purple.

A grasshopper's call.

Today it is summer.

Tomorrow is fall.

This activity was inspired by Miss Laura and was a hit with the children.  At the beginning of the week we put the poem up in our pocket chart, accompanied by picture cue cards.  We read the poem several days in a row at morning meeting as I pointed out to the children how each word had a dot under it and they would move the pointer across the sentence strip as we said each word.  By the middle of the week they were ready to read the poem independently off of the pocket chart.

Once the children knew all of the words to the poem I added a felt board with felt pieces that matched each line of the poem.  One child would use the 'eyeball' pointer and read the poem line by line and the other child would place the felt pieces on the felt board.  The children felt like they were real readers as they read the poem to a friend and the friend actually did what they said!  This early literacy activity was a huge sucess.  I think I am going to have some trouble removing this work when October arrives!

This activity is just another example of activities that help the children internalize the change in seasons and the rhythms of the earth.