Overheard in Kindergarten Poetry Roundup

This summer I'm going to continue my Tuesday OIK posts by sharing all the poems that ended up in the Poetry Anthologies of my kindergarten class this year.  My goal was a new poem every other Friday, and with a total of 15 (including the first song we learned together but not including a few other songs), I did pretty well, if we say that there were 4 quarters x 9 Fridays = 36/2 =18. 

We'll chalk up the missing three to fate.  My colleague Alex is so right when he says "...and then Kindergarten happened." It's a shortcut expression for all the unexpected events and developments that interrupt our careful classroom plans, and one of my goals for next year is to be more welcoming and gracious when Kindergarten Happens!

We started our school year with "Fish" by Mary Ann Hoberman, already posted here, and next worked on color words and some of the five senses by singing a rainbow.  I would have called "Sing a Rainbow" a folk tune--I've heard so many versions over the years--but the copyright is held by Arthur Hamilton for this 1955 song.  Read more here.  Our version goes like this:

Sing a Rainbow

Red and yellow and orange and green,
Purple and pink and blue.
I can sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow—
You sing a rainbow too.

Listen with your eyes,
Listen with your eyes
To every color you see.
I can sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow—
You sing along with me!

If you're a teacher and you'd like a copy of my colorful and unapologetically unscientific WordArt pocket chart for this song, let me know and I'll send it to you.  There's not much better than hearing a couple of 5-year-olds sweetly singing their way through a literacy center!