Roses Are Pink, Your Feet Really Stink

V-Day is fast approaching...and I am still finishing up with penguins and snow!  But I am ready to switch gears, and a favorite book in my room is Roses Are Pink, Your Feet Really Stink by Diane deGroat.

 

So, basically, a very cute porcupine named Gilbert gets a little silly and creates some Valentine cards for his classmates that are humorous, but not very nice:

 

 

This book is always a favorite with the students, and really lends itself to great discussions about thinking about what we say before we say (or write) it.  It makes a perfect social skills lesson.  I also like to use it for my students who are working on why questions, prediction, summarizing, and cause and effect!  Not to mention there are plenty of words in it for practicing artic, too!

So what is a good way to follow up a fun book like this?  With candy and our own poems, of course! 

 

I grabbed two big bags of individually wrapped sweetheart candy messages for my groups to use as inspiration while we wrote our own "Roses are Red" poems.  They always do less complaining when a treat is incorporated in to writing!  :-)  Plus, great artic practice as they want to read aloud what each  candy heart says!

For my younger students, we wrote a poem for their teacher they could take back to class with them.  I wrote the beginning on the White Board, and then we brainstormed what we liked about our teacher and I helped them put that in a rhyme that we then put on a big heart that they gave to the teacher (gives them great practice using their good speech in class when the teacher asks them to read it to them!).  For my older students, I let them each write their own for their teacher or parent after I modeled it for them first.  Here are some of our creations!

Happy Valentine's Day!