The Sandburg family enjoyed birdwatching and took care of many birdhouses and feeders throughout their property. Their daughter Margaret Sandburg was especially fond of birds and even created a blue bird trail with many bird houses mounted along the pasture fences. Carl Sandburg shared his affection for bluebirds through a poem. Bluebird, What Do You Feed On? Bluebird, what do you feed on? It is true you gobble up worms, you swallow bugs, And your bill picks up corn, seed, berries. This is only part of the answer. Your feathers have captured a piece of smooth sky. Your wings are burnished with lake-morning blue. It is not a worm blue nor a bug blue nor the blue Of corn or berry you shine with. Bluebird, we come to you for facts, for valuable Information, for secret reports. Bluebird, tell us, what do you feed on?
Write your own bird poem! Supplies needed: Paper and something to write with. Instructions: Look out your window or step into your backyard. Spend 15 minutes looking for birds. When you find an interesting one, write down a few words to describe it. What color is it? How large is it? Is it flying or standing still? Describe it's behavior. Once you have 5-6 words written down, you can start a poem! Prompt 1: Need some help to get started? Find a rhyming word for each of the words you have. Example: you wrote "high" to describe where the bird was flying. A rhyming word could be "sky". So that line of poetry could be: The bird flew high against the bright blue sky.
Prompt 2: Want to try another style? Write an acrostic poem. Using the word "BIRD" write a line of poetry that starts with each letter in the word. You can use your words from the observation activity to help. B _____________________________
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Last updated: May 24, 2020