T'was the Night Before Christmas

Okay, okay, so it's not quite the night before Christmas yet, but it's sure getting close, and I just couldn't wait to share this poetry with you!  Each week our class studies a different poem.  For the last week before the winter holidays, the poem was "T'was the Night Before Christmas".

First, we worked on the poem as a whole class and individually.  This poem has many great examples of similes (ex. "His nose like a cherry"), so we spent time focusing on similes and writing a few of our own. We also illustrated the poem so we could get our visualizations down on paper.  

Then it was time to practice reciting the poem with our poem partners.  This gives us a chance to build our fluency, so that our oral reading is smooth and expressive.  Normally, during "poem of the week" time, each pair practices the entire poem. "T'was the Night Before Christmas" is a really long poem though, so we decided to divide it up.  The whole class learned the first and last stanzas, then each pair was given one other stanza to recite.  Below, you can see photos of the partners practicing their lines.  Finally, after several practice runs we were ready to record our efforts.  Beneath the photos is Division 9's recitation of "T'was the Night Before Christmas."  Enjoy!