A D.I.Y Poem!

I was looking for something a little different for this week's poem. I wanted to find one that combined many or most of the text features we've been talking about in class so that students could really put their skills to work.   

When I couldn't find one, I decided to write it myself...here it is! 

I Made A Mess

An original poem by Patti Mihalides   

I made a mess,

It’s really bad,

My Mom and Dad are pretty mad.

I thought I knew, 

how to make,

cheesey lasagna and chocolate cake.

Turns out I don’t.

I have no clue,

about cooking stuff and recipes too.

There’s cheese and chocolate on the floor,

the ceiling fan and sliding door.

I don’t know why-  

Hey is that salsa there?

It’s on the fridge!

Ewww!!! And in my hair?

I can’t explain the pickles either.

And who let in that baby beaver? 

He’s chewing on the table legs!

OH NO! I stepped on all the eggs!

(Sigh) 

I’m calling Grandma, she’ll save me.

I’ll come back when I’m 33.

In this poem (and kids should be mindful of this in preparation for Friday's weekly test) we have: 

• a focus on attending to punctuation when reading aloud with all those commas, periods and question marks (parents really encourage your child to focus on this aspect of the poem) 
• words that are sounds such as "sigh" and "EWWW" 
• adjective (cheesey and chocolate) 
• words in italics  
• how to "read" that long hyphen at the end of the "I don't know why" line (I know there must be a proper name for that thing) 
• the importance of writing with detail to create a picture in the reader's mind 
• contractions galore!