Days to Celebrate

This is another great poetry book to have in the classroom year-round. It has poetry for all of the months of the year and the important dates and holidays. I think that it would be great to read poetry from this book on each date that is included. The dates include many important birth dates of different people that many elementary classes would benefit from learning about. For example, on January 15th, the class could be celebrating Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday and read the poem about him from this book. The teacher could allow students to take turns having the chance to read one of the poems aloud to the class on each day. There is so much diversity throughout this book. It celebrates Chinese New Year's which is something that the teacher should at least mention because some students might also celebrate that. There is also a whole calender of important birthdays in each month and it includes what is celebrated during that month, like women's history month and National poetry month. One of my favorite poems, Casey at the Bat is also included in the month of August for the birth date of the poet. I really like the poem that is included for Halloween because it sounds really creepy. I thought it was strange that the book included poems for every holiday, except for Christmas. I wonder if it is because it would make it religious. The last poem is really fun because it talks about the year coming to the end and the words are going downward the whole time and then all of a sudden they pop back up and say "Happy New Year". This book is a great way to include poetry in the classroom throughout the year.