New Year's Day Promises

Poetry: craft and structure

Whole Group: Use the poem as a choral read-aloud during literacy block  or as a shared reading during your morning meeting. 

• From the Storyworks archive: “Word Play: Resolution,” December 2022/January 2023
• Suggested books: Squirrel’s New Year’s Resolution by  Pat Miller

• Video:  Happy New Year! (5 minutes) 

Build background knowledge with this video that shows how  the new year is celebrated all over the world.

• Ask students to think-pair-share  about what they notice about  the lines of poetry in “New Year’s Day Promises.” Discuss what a checklist is, and connect that to having a New Year’s resolution. Explain that the poem is a list poem. A list poem usually has a beginning, an ending, and a long list of things in the middle.
•   Tell students you will read the poem a few times. For the first read, have students listen  and think about the poem’s meaning. What is this poem about? What actions are happening in this poem?  Have students share ideas.
• For the second read, have  students follow along in their magazines.
• After reading, guide students  as they practice writing the new  year on the line.

• Skills: Traditions, writing (15 minutes)

Skill: Dramatization of poetry (10 minutes)

• Divide the poem up so that each child has one or two lines of poetry.
• Practice reading the poem out loud in a round-robin. Invite students to  act out the responsibilities on the checklist.