Outside the Lines: Poetry at Play

Burg, Brad. Outside the Lines: Poetry at Play. ill. Rebecca Gibbon. Penguin Putnum Books, 2002. ISBN 0-399-23446-2

Who would have thought that poetry would make you want to jump up and run to the park?? Brad Burg's book of concrete poems about activities kids do when playing will make you want to swing, slide, throw frisbees and make sand castles. Some poems rhyme, some have meter, and all are fun to read. Let your eyes follow the path of the soccer ball, the "it" person in tag, or a firefly. The poems have a lot of alliteration, consonance and onomatopoeia that will hold kids' attentions. The mood of the poems are fun and really evoke the sense of playing and bring to mind all of the senses you use when playing, running, and swinging. For example, the poem(s) about playing baseball brings to mind memories of standing at shortstop, smelling the fresh grass and the dirt, and feeling the anticipation of the next hit coming your way. In addition to the fun of the poems themselves, the illustrations that accompany these concrete poems without taking away from the movement of the poems themselves. What a fun way to talk about fun activities!

If possible, to read these poems, I would take the class to the playground. I would have them do certain activities (such as take turns swinging, go down the slide, kick a soccerball) and then ask them what their words would look like if they were doing those activities. I would then have them sit while I sat on a swing and shared the poem about swinging. I would follow this with a short lesson on what a concrete poem is and ask the students to each pic their favorite activity then write a short concrete poem about that object.

"Swing"
*While reading this, imagine the words following your feet as you swing back and forth.

From way
back here
down
through
the
air
down
down
I rush
to
way
down
there,
then
up
again
up
up
I fly
to
where
my
feet
can
tough
the sky!