A New Green Day By Antoinette Portis

A New Green Day

By Antoinette Portis

  Around Thanksgiving, I introduced the idea that our writing can be a gift to my virtual first grade learners. We talked about how we can share our words, wrap them up, and think about people that we share these gifts with. They began writing cards with notes of gratitude for those they love.

 In the days since we explored this idea, I have begun to receive a few handwritten letters from my students in the mail. The letters arrived in my school mailbox and the first time it happened, it caught me off guard, but absolutely made my day. These tangible items, written with so much love, have been gifts that I will always treasure.

  As we approach the holiday season, I want to explore other written gifts that my students might create. A fellow first grade distance learning teacher mentioned teaching her students to write poems. I had that idea tucked in the back of my mind when I first read, A New Green Day, by Antoinette Portis. 

 A New Green Day features a new riddle on each page. Each riddle, written with carefully selected words and images, comes from something in nature. These little poems beg the reader to see the world in a fresh new way. 

 I plan to use this text as a read aloud to introduce my first graders to the idea of seeing the world differently. Perhaps this invitation will result in their own words and poems that will, without a doubt, be a gift to the world.