A Joyful Noise

Today in 3rd grade we read poetry from Paul Fleischman's amazing book of poems for two voices, Joyful Noise. These poems are a stretch for 8 and 9 years olds, replete with rich vocabulary and complex themes describing the lives of insects from mayflies to book lice, moths to grasshoppers. Reading them requires cooperation as close as that of ice dancers, since some lines are read in unison, some separately. The most difficult passages are like spoken rounds, lines swirling around each other like insects in motion.

To prepare to read the poems aloud to their classmates, the children highlight lines, circle tricky words, practice and laugh and practice some more. The classroom fills with a joyful noise as a boy reads the part of the honeybee queen, his partner that of the worker bee; the mayfly pair discovers their insect flies for just one day to court and mate and lay their eggs; the water striders brag about their ability to walk on water.

In honor of this amazing poetry, I wore a pair of insect earrings, these enameled copper butterflies that I photographed on our butterfly bush. The bush and I are both anticipating that spring is surely just around the corner. Tomorrow's forecast calls for snow. Only copper butterflies frequent the bush these days.