Linguistic Bag!

F licker Flash! by Joan Bransfield Graham
Concrete poems based around the theme of light, including spotlights, candles, camera flashes and more.
Splish Splash by Joan Bransfield Graham
Concrete poems based around the theme of water.
Doodle Dandies: Poems that take shape by J. Patrick Lewis
A variety of concrete poems including those about animals and buildings.

DIY Concrete Poetry
• After exploring the concrete poems in the book, write your own concrete poems collaboratively or individually. Draw a related image. Overlay your drawing with tracing paper and add the words of your poem, considering the appropriate direction, size, shape and color to create a unified composition.

Move to the Words
• Individually or collaboratively, choose a poem from the book and create a creative movement piece, giving each word an action. Consider levels (high, medium, low), frequency and speed of movement, shape. Poems could be read during movement pieces, or the poems could be projected behind the movers if a document camera is available.

Act it out!
• Pantomime or act out a poem from the book or an original concrete poem. Take turns guessing the subject of the poem.
Word Portfolio
• Create an accordion book with pockets. Keep a list of different kinds of words you could use for poetry in each pocket. Examples: adjectives (descriptive words), verbs (action words), nouns (person, place or thing).

Resource List
The Alphabet Keeper by Mary Murphy ISBN 0375823476
The Random House Book of Poetry for Children by Jack Prelutsky ISBN 0394850106
Pizza, Pigs and Poetry: How to write a Poem by Jack Prelutsky ISBN 0061434485
Don’t Bump the Glump and other fantasies by Shel Silverstein ISBN 0061493384
Max’s Words by Kate Banks ISBN 0374399492