Judith Viorst ... bring great poetry to my schoolroom

I love these poem below, great to use in the schoolroom...perfectly true - a great way to teach the kids.

I love poetry and always teach the kids to write.  It is a type of literature that you don't need to be good at writing to do.  A great self esteem booster for everyone.  It is also a short exercise making it great for daily writing.  

Daily writing is always boring and hard, 20 minutes to write something...there are only so many recounts that the kids want to do or I want to read.  I have laminated poetry cards with an example of a poem type and a guide on how to write them.  The kids love it and pick one out to write.  I picked these up from Governess Australia.   

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 Poems By Judith Viorst
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Credit

You asked me to do it.
I promised to do it.
I planned to do it.
I started to do it.
I really meant to do it
Except I forgot.
Couldn't I get credit
For promising,
Planning,
Starting,
And really meaning to do it?

Guess not.

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Manners

Telling a lie is wrong.
Telling the truth is right.
Except when telling the truth is called Bad Manners
   and telling a lie is polite.

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The Hardest Thing
If you think that the hardest thing is saying you're wrong when you've been wrong,
I think you should know
That the really hardest thing is, when you've been absolutely right,
Not saying nyah nyah, I told you so.