Sound Bites & Snap Shots

What’s better than one proud face?

Two, of course!

As part of the enriched program, Walker had to learn a number of poems and recite them by heart.  Level one includes twenty poems and the testing process is cumulative.  At the end, he had quite the list to go through. 

Level One Poems

“Ooey Gooey” by Unknown Author

“Celery” by Ogden Nash

“The Little Man Who Wasn’t There” by Hugh Mearns

“The Vulture” by Hilaire Belloc

“After the Party” by William Wise

“Singing Time” by Rose Fyleman

“The Yak” by Hilaire Belloc

“The Ingenious Little Old Man” by John Bennett

“My Shadow” by Robert Louis Stevenson*

“There Was an Old Person Whose Habits” by Edward Lear

“Jonathan Bing” by Beatrice Curtis Brown

“Whole Duty of Children” by Robert Louis Stevenson

“Godfrey Gordon Gustavus Gore” by William Brightly Rands

“My Gift” by Christina Rossetti

“The Swing” by Robert Louis Stevenson

“Persevere” by Unknown Author

“Who Has Seen the Wind” by Christina Rossetti

“The Swan and the Goose” by William Ellery Leonard

“Dreams” by Langston Hughes

~::~

For  Poetry Celebration Day last month, each student recited his or her favorite.  Walker chose “Whole Duty of Children” and “Singing Time.”

Whole Duty of Children
by Robert Louis Stevenson

A child should always say what’s true
And speak when he is spoken to,
And behave mannerly at table;
At least as far as he is able.

Singing-Time

by Rose Flyeman

I wake in the morning early

And always, the very first thing,

I poke out my head and I sit up in bed

And I sing and I sing and I sing.

I know that smile is sincere.  He worked really hard for this recognition but he won’t be able to rest on his laurels.  There are several more levels to tackle next year but for now we will let him relish in the moment.

*This was a poem that I learned in the third grade.  It must have been drilled in my head because I could still recite the first part of it.  God bless, Mrs. Flores.