Introduction:
Show pictures of snowy, icy winter weather. Then ask what signs might tell that spring is near. What sounds might you hear? Would there be different smells? How would things start to look? What colors would you see?
“Do You Know Green?”
by Anna Grossnickle Hines
Green sleeps in winter
waiting
quiet
still
beneath the snow
and last year’s stems
and old dead leaves
resting up for spring
and then…
Green comes…
tickling the tips
of twiggy tree fingers
Psst!
Psst! Psst!
Poking up as tiny
Slips of baby grass
Ping!
Ping! Ping!
springing up as coiled
skunk cabbage leaves
Pop!
Pop! Pop!
bursting out on bare
brown branches
Pow!
Pow! Pow!
Brand new baby yellow green
bright bold biting busy green
until it seems
everywhere one goes
green grows.
From: Hines, Anna Grossnickle. 2001. PIECES: A YEAR IN POEMS & QUILTS. New York: Greenwillow Books.
Extension: Have a box filled with pictures of springtime (baby birds, lambs, calves and foals, daffodils, lilacs, buds on trees, etc.) Let each person choose one picture. Ask them each to make a list of words or phrases that describe their chosen picture. When the lists are ready, ask them to write a brief what-am-I riddle-poem about their object.
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