In my classroom, our study of poetry falls at the end of March. To ease the transition from the Iditarod and Alaska to poetry, I start with The Cremation of Sam McGee by Robert Service.

“There are strange things done in the midnight sun/By the men who moil for gold; The Arctic trails have their secret tales/ That would make your blood run cold;” (Robert Service, The Cremation of Sam McGee) 

A darkly humorous narrative poem, its setting is familiar to the students who have been following the race.  This poem is an easy way to teach stanzas, rhyme scheme, and figurative language, especially personification.

We work with haiku and concrete poetry, also. This serves as a unique method to summarize their knowledge of the race and Alaska. Illustrating their poems serves as another way to summarize what they know, too, and lets those creative juices flow.

Enjoy the poetry photo exhibit. Especially note how the mug of hot chocolate poem was colored to look like a winter jacket.