What a pleasure to take part in the After Dark blog tour. After Dark is a picture book of amazing illustrations by Stephanie Laberis and intriguing poems by David Harrison. Publication date is tomorrow, Feb. 25th. Read more about David and his many books here.
David’s poems explore the lives of nocturnal animals. In the end pages you can find more information about each animal. With my students, I started with the end pages. I asked them to select two animals they were interested in. We read the facts and then the poem. “Look for ways the poet wove the facts in with poetic language.” We noticed elements like rhyming, slant rhyme, alliteration, repetition, and others.
This reading and talking piqued our interest in finding out more. I gave students the option to select the same animal or another one to research using Wonderopolis.
Breighlynn wanted to learn more about songbirds. Earlier in the week we had discussed allusion and at the beginning of the month, we read about Maya Angelou. I love seeing all of these lessons come together in Breighlynn’s poem.
The song of a songbird
Breighlynn, 4th grade
the morning alarm.
Their vibrant colors
just like a rainbow.
The smallest of birds
make the loudest of songs.
Now,
I know why the caged bird sings.
After reading this David Harrison poem about the gray wolf, A.J. wrote a poem contrasting wolves to dogs.
Wolves,
never tamed,
they can’t be blamed.Dogs,
youngly trained,
though restrained.Wolves,
running free,
free as can be.Dogs,
A. J. , 6th grade
fun won’t end,
with man’s best friend.
One of my students asked what was the word for animals who are awake during the day. On a Wonderopolis page, we discovered the word diurnal. In the poem, No Fooling (about the raccoon), David uses assonance, creating slant rhyme. I decided to try out this element in my own poem: Where do Birds Go at Night?
Where Do Birds Go at Night?
At first light, I hear their chatter
flitting about our courtyard feeder.But once the air of dawn is gone,
I wonder where the birds have flown.Most birds are diurnal
living their life all day,
but where do they go
once the sun goes down?
Only nocturnal birds hang around.Some birds find a hole big enough to squeeze in.
Others, like the heron, want some mud to wade in.
Flocks of blackbirds roost in bunches
finding their nighttime safety in numbers.Every time you go to sleep,
Margaret Simon, draft 2020
wonder where the birds may be.
This post is part of a blog tour. The publisher has offered a free book for comments on this post. I will draw at random from commenters and post the winner’s name on Friday, Feb. 28th on my Poetry Friday post. Please leave a comment by Thursday, Feb. 27th. Winner must live in the continental U.S.
Check out other posts to hear more about this book.
Writing and Illustrating
Beyond Literacy Link
Read, Learn, and be Happy
Poetry for Children
Teacher Dance
Michelle Kogan
Salt City Verse
Reflections on the Teche 
Good morning, Margaret, and thank you for this great host post about AFTER DARK. Thank you for letting know how to put the book to such practical uses in your classroom. I love the way you have used the poems and back notes to involve your students in listening, reading, thinking, and writing. Please tell your kids I’m impressed by their poems!
Love when you share student’s work. Thank you!
I like this, too, Kathy. We all try hard to create books that reach young readers so I’m very glad to see the results of Margaret’s efforts with her kids.
Margaret, you and your students are doing great work! Thanks for sharing! And I’m jumping up and down for tomorrow’s release of AFTER DARK!
Jane, you think you’re looking forward to tomorrow. You ought to see me!!
It’s so wonderful that you shared your student’s work and your own inspired by After Dark. Lovely post, Margaret.
Janice, I don’t know about anyone else but I’m loving every day of the tour. It’s a lot of work for everyone involved but I am most grateful to all concerned.
I love that you created a lesson using the book, Margaret, so much learning in this, & the poems (products) are delightful. This is when I miss teaching so much!
Hi, Linda. I wrote a book a few years ago called FARMER’S DOG that scored well with students who liked adding verses of their own to Dog’s adventure. I have my fingers crossed that AFTER DARK will provide similar opportunities for kids to write about their own favorite animals of the night.
I’ve really enjoyed following the blog tour for After Dark–and absolutely love reading how it inspired your students’ poetry!
Buffy, I’m so glad you have dropped by to leave your comments. Thank you!
After each review of this, I want to read it even more. I wish I was still working in my own school library so I could preorder it. I have to wait to see if my local public library will bring it in.
Thank you for your kind words! If your library is slow bringing it in, I hereby grant you permission to tell them they need to. (:>
Love that kids were inspired to write! That is the very best review of all.
It’s the best for sure, Linda. Tomorrow we start finding out on a larger scale. Keep your fingers crossed.
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Margaret, what a good idea to have your students explore the nocturnal animals from the back matter to poems to research Wonderopolis to writing. I congratulate your students for their exploration and poetry.
Margaret, what a good idea to have your students explore the nocturnal animals from the back matter to poems to research Wonderopolis to writing. I congratulate your students for their exploration and poetry. Your poem is a good mentor text for your writers
These are lovely — I always enjoy science/nature poems.
[…] Mazurowski is the winner of the book giveaway for After Dark: Poems About Nocturnal Animals by David L. Harrison, illustrated by Stephanie Laberis. Click the link to read how I used the book […]
I love seeing the students’ work in this post. Just wonderful! I’m definitely looking forward to reading this book soon. Thanks for sharing, Margaret!
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