April Rain Song by Langston Hughes

I had a plan...

...but then today happened. On this particular Tuesday in April, it was pouring as the children arrived and the sidewalk was a sea of rain boots, rain coats, and umbrellas. 

I changed my plan. 

This is not always the wisest thing to do, but REALLY, it was too perfect. Seconds before the first class walked in the door, okay, AS they were walking in the door, I cued up the video of April Rain Song by Langston Hughes. How could I not?  

That first lesson was a bit bumpy, but I hit my stride and the next three lessons went well.  (I went back to that first classroom this morning and gave them the "new and improved" lesson.)

Here's what we did:

I read my message that reminded the students that it is Poetry Month and that we are all about writing poetry. I established context for our lesson with a discussion about rain and rainy days. I then projected April Rain Song by Langston Hughes.

April Rain Song
Let the rain kiss you
Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops
Let the rain sing you a lullaby
The rain makes still pools on the sidewalk
The rain makes running pools in the gutter
The rain plays a little sleep song on our roof at night
And I love the rain. 

~Langston Hughes

I read the poem twice and then we explored it line by line. We talked about how poets use their five senses when they write, for example, I asked the children to think about what sense Langston Hughes captured in the line, "Let the rain sing you a lullaby," and what he meant by that line. 

After reading and discussing the poem, we watched the April Rain Song video twice (by popular demand). I then asked the students to illustrate this Langston Hughes' poem or write and illustrate their own rainy day poem. Meet our poets and artists:

KM

KP

KL

KTJ