Celebrating Daylight

Want to help children learn about the time change every March? Here's a poem to help you remember and to pull out again in October when it's time to switch again. Elena B. has gathered readers the library to read the poem “Daylight Saving Time” by Shirley Duke in both English and Spanish. Enjoy!

As always, we suggest "Take 5" activities for every poem in The Poetry Friday Anthology for Celebrations. For THIS poem, here are the suggested "Take 5" activities:

TAKE 5

1. Use a real or toy clock or watch as your poetry prop as you read this poem aloud. 
2. Invite children to join in on the first line of each stanza (Spring forward! and Fall back!) while you read the rest of the poem aloud.
3. Talk about the pros and cons of changing the clock twice a year based on the details in this poem. One resource is TimeAndDate.com.
4. Pair this poem with the picture book Now & Ben: The Modern Inventions of Benjamin Franklin by Gene Barretta (Square Fish, 2008) and talk about the many ways Ben Franklin’s ideas have shaped our lives today.
5. Connect this with another poem about the changing of seasons, “The Rollerbears” by Jack Prelutsky (October, pages 260-261), and with poems from Once Around the Sun by Bobbi Katz (Harcourt, 2006) or Sharing the Seasons edited by Lee Bennett Hopkins (McElderry, 2010).

For the full text of this poem and 150+ more (all in English AND Spanish) along with "Take 5" activities for every poem, order your own copy of The Poetry Friday Anthology for Celebrations HERE and for more Poetry Celebrations fun, click HERE. Plus for more on National Poetry Month, click HERE.