Have Fun with Science & Poetry with Fourth Grade PFA FOR SCIENCE!

Each day this week I will be sharing about the new PFA FOR SCIENCE, brought to you by Sylvia Vardell & Janet Wong, with a host of fine poets contributing!

Here's the schedule:
Monday: KINDERGARTEN
Tuesday: FIRST GRADE
Wednesday: SECOND GRADE
Thursday: THIRD GRADE
Friday: FOURTH GRADE
Saturday: FIFTH GRADE

Each day I will be giving away a copy of the Student Edition for that grade level... and at the end of the week, I will choose one winner from all the commenters via blog/Facebook/Twitter for the K-5 TEACHER edition!

So, FOURTH GRADE. Again, the line drawings that accompany the poems in the Student Edition are wonderful and engaging! There's also a Glossary and Index, both of which I find particularly helpful. And I especially appreciate the inclusion of English and Spanish translations of some of the poems. Nice!

Today I've chosen one of those poems that appears in both English and Spanish, though, due to me not knowing how to use the keyboard to create special characters, I'm only sharing the English version here. Read the Spanish translation for yourself in the book!

OH WATER, MY FRIEND

by Guadalupe Garcia McCall

Are you scared?

Is that why you run

to rivers, to streams, to lakes?

Do you feel safer pooled in ponds?

Does it hurt to boil?

Does your anger roll and roil?

Is that why you recoil from the heat and sun?

Do you feel trapped, contained, restrained?

Is that why you weep and seep

through window panes?

Does it feel weird to leave the earth,

to rise above the rest?

Do you get dizzy hovering in the heaves?

Are you afraid to fail - to fall?

Aren't we all.

Aren't we all.

-----

Aren't we all, indeed! I love poems that use personification. To imagine how water FEELS... love it! (Interestingly I attended a workshop this past weekend on haiku, and as it turns out, personification and feelings are not allowed in haiku! Who knew?)

In the TEACHER'S EDITION for this poem (p.), Sylvia Vardell has created TAKE FIVE! activities that include: 

Including audio or video of water while reading the poem

Inviting Spanish speaking students to share the poem

An art activity addressing the questions in the poem

Discussion about the water cycle

A reference to other poems about water

Good stuff. And yes, I have a poem in this one called "Science Fair," after a real-life science fair experience of my own.

GIVEAWAY: Comment here or on Twitter @irene_latham or on my Facebook page! Winners announced daily.

Also: Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Kara at Rogue Anthropologist for Roundup. AND Big BIG thank you to all those poets who signed up for for 2014 Kidlitosphere Progressive Poem.... I'm sorry I was not able to accommodate everyone. I've always thought we needed more than one month for National Poetry Month. Sigh. Love to all! xo