MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Christmas greetings to everyone!

May the Christ child's gift of peace and love light the way in your New Year.

I share with you my poem, "Christmas Day."

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Teachers First with Poetry

I am very pleased to announce that TEACHERS FIRST.com chose my poem, "Buggy Alphabetics," as a teaching poem on their website.

Click on the link to TeachersFirst.com and scroll down the page a bit for a quick hands-on poetry lesson featuring my poem--so wonderfully illustrated on my website by Nikki Schaefer. Of course, you'll want to visit my acrobatic bugs in the

Writings section of my website, so you can enjoy the slideshow as well.

If you want to try an ABCEDARIAN--an alphabetic poem that uses the letters A-Z in proper order as the first letters of every line--start with only a few letters. As you become more comfortable with this poetic challenge, see how far you can go--alphabetically--with your lines. In a new Abcedarian I created below, I give myself a little leeway with an extra word, here and there, after the main letter word on a few lines. I also use two semi-invented words. (Can you find them?) That's why poetry is so much fun--it's puzzles and puns and wordplay all wrapped up in the coolest formats.

Give an ABCEDARIAN a try!

*****

FEATHERED FESTIVITIES

A

Bright

Cardinal--

Dressed

Elegantly--

For the Festivities,

Gathered

Holly berries

In a

Jaunty

Kitbag

Loaded with

Miscellaneous

Nuts and

Offerings,

Perfect

Quota for the

Robins,

Sparrows, and

Turtle doves'

Up-tempo

Vocal

Warblings and

X-citing

Yuletide

Zelebration!

A Snowy Treat

Well, it is beginning to look a little more like Christmas here. We had a dusting of snow last night. In the spirit of the snowy season, here is a link to a recipe for SNOWMAN SOUP--a hot cocoa mix you and yours can make to enjoy or give as a gift.

Have fun and bundle up!

Let It Snow!

HIGHLIGHTS Magazine has a new hidden picture puzzle for December: Let It Snow by Linda Weller.

Click on the link to download the picture and start searching. I am always amazed how the artists manage to hide all the objects in plan sight. Remember, sometimes it's easier to find a hidden object by turning the picture upside down or sideways.

Life can be like that sometimes too--when you take a look at something from a totally different perspective, you can find new answers or ideas. And since I can truly stand on my head, I do know what the world looks like upside down. Do you?

What would snow look like if you were standing on your head? Would it be falling down or falling up? Here is how I would write the letters if I were upside down...

W

O

N

S

Tis the season to be silly!

Holiday Dinosaurs

I visited New York City last week to hang out with my son Matt. We braved the wind and rain on Wednesday to visit some museums. Guess where we found a pair of evergreen dinosaurs?

At the Museum of Natural History. The dinosaurs smelled super fragrant and were very, very big!

So that started me thinking, what do dinosaurs do for the holidays? You, of course, know where to look for the answer to that question--picture books!

Here are some suggested titles to help discover all the dinos' holiday happenings:

DINOSAUR ON HANUKKAH by Diane Levin Rauchwerger

THE DINOSAURS NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS by Anne Muecke

HAPPY HOLIDAYSAURUS by Bernard Most

If you wrote a story about dinosaur happenings over the holidays, how would your holidaysaurus be celebrating?

Fun New Reads

Although it gets rather crazy this time of year, I have been able to read some new picture books. A few I really enjoyed--both for the stories and the illustrations--are listed below:

THE ODD EGG by Emily Gravett/ Simon & Schuster, 2008.

I love the softly drawn animals--who all have an egg, "except for Duck."

Duck finds a special egg and proceeds to hatch it, despite the hoots from the others.

The book has some fold-and-reveal flaps which young readers will enjoy.

And when Duck's egg finally does crack, everyone is in for a surprise.

ALL THE WORLD by Liz Garton Scanlon/ illustrated by Marla Frazee/ Beach Lane Books, 2009.

Even though this is not a Christmas book per se, its message is the Christmas message of "hope and peace and love and trust."

This is a lyrical book, with an unassuming rhyme and easy flow, as writeen by Ms. Scanlon.

I was already a fan of the illustrator, Ms. Frazee--who I've had the privilege of meeting.

She creates lush pages, splashed with color and life.

This would be a sweet present to find beneath the tree for most anyone.

YUMMY: EIGHT FAVORITE FAIRY TALES by Lucy Cousins/ Candlewick, 2009.

I'm a fairy tale fan from once upon a time, and this new collection--written and illustrated by Ms. Cousins--presents easy to read stories with bright, bold pictures sure to capture young readers' interest.

I shared this book with a second grade student, and he thoroughly enjoyed reading three of the eight tales--we ran out of time for more.

Too many young readers are not given adequate exposure to the richness and fun of classic fairy tales. Thanks, Ms. Cousins, for creating this wonderfully magic tale collection.

Reading with the children in your life is the best gift you can give them.

Have fun!