Books with author Laura Purdie Salas

What does this poem mean? What do I DO with it? How do I meet standards using it? When can I possibly fit it in? These are some of the questions educators ask about poetry. The 30 Painless Classroom Poems series makes it easy for you, the elementary school teacher, media specialist, or reading specialist, to use poetry with your students. Whether you already love poetry or you fear or even actively dislike it, the short poems, Notes from the Poet, extension activities written by an experienced classroom teacher, and tips for working poetry into your classroom will have you sharing poems in no time. Terrific for National Poetry Month or everyday use!A Need to Feed: Poems of Predators and Prey features 30 rhyming poems by award-winning poet Laura Purdie Salas (author of BookSpeak!, Water Can Be…, and more). Each poem is told from the point of view of the predator. It describes something about its hunting technique, and the last word of each poem is the name of the prey animal. So you can use these poems as riddle poems, if you like. Great for science units, food chain units, close reading and making inferences, and more. Each poem is followed by a prose note with more information about the animals, as well as a Note from the Poet, with a bit of Laura's writing process. Extension activities by Karen Ganon share ideas for springboarding from these poems into deeper learning across many content areas.Sample:Saltwater Crocodile (Saltie)I’m king of Australia. I’m top crocodile.I’m a leather-skinned ton And a razor blade smile.I skulk in the river, just 12 inches deep, I’m a 20-foot hulk—You might think I’m asleep.An oinker gets thirsty. I rocket—I lunge!I lock down my jaws For our dark, salty plunge. I roll in the deep ‘til its huge heart stops beating,Then carve up the meat‘Til it’s just right for eating.I swim toward the swamp on the opposite shore,Cleaning my teeth with a tusk of wild ______Boar.Note: The saltwater crocodile waits in shallow river water for animals to drink from or try to cross the river. Then it bursts out, grabs its prey, and drags it into the river to drown it in a death roll. It does not actually use the boar’s tusk to clean its teeth, though!A Note from the Poet:In all of these poems, the very last word in the name of the prey. Writing them was a bit like writing a mystery stories—I wanted to give you clues so that you COULD figure it out if you read carefully and thought about it. In this poem, I thought that not all kids would come up with “wild boar” easily. So the clues I put in the poem were “oinker,” “tusk,” and “wild.” I hoped by giving the first half of the animal’s name, you might figure out the rest of it.See all of the 30 Painless Classroom Poems at 30PainlessClassroomPoems.com.Disclaimer: For those of you collecting all my 30 Painless Classroom Poems books, please note that some of the sections, such as Why Poetry Is Important and Classroom Poetry Tips, are repeated from book to book. The introduction to the book, poems, Notes from the Poet, and classroom activities are unique in each book.