Things to Do If You Are a Stapler & Other Back-to-School Poems

Well, my Things to Do poetry collection is nearly finished. I’ve been adding poems to and subtracting poems from the collection over the past few months. Here is one of the poems that I’ve scrubbed from manuscript. I think Things to Do If You Are a Stapler is a good back-to-school poem.


THINGS TO DO IF YOU ARE A STAPLER

Click your metal jaws together.

Grip my papers

with your teeth of steel.

Then bite down hard

with all your might

and bind them together

tight….tight…tight!

More School Poems

Things to Do If You Are a Pencil
By Elaine Magliaro

Be sharp.

Wear a slick yellow suit

and a pink top hat.

Tap your toes on the tabletop,

listen for the right rhythm,

then dance a poem

across the page.

BACKPACK
by Elaine Magliaro

What’s in my backpack?
Hmm…let’s see:
a tunafish sandwich,
raspberry tea,
an apple for the teacher…
and one for me,
a pair of scissors,
a stick of glue,
washable crayons…
and markers, too—
three sharp pencils
my Winnie Pooh
a bright red folder,
a paper pad,
a calculator to help me add…
and
a little love note from my dad!


Spelling List
By Brad Bennett

1. I’ve
2. always
3. loved
4. learning
5. new
6. words
7. especially
8. when
9. they
10. organize
11. themselves
12. into
13. an
14. unexpected
15. poem

(About Brad Bennett: Brad is a third grade teacher at the Thoreau School in Concord, Massachusetts. He is also a published poet. We met in 2001 at the First Annual Summer Poetry Institute—an institute for teachers sponsored by the Favorite Poem Project and the School of Education at Boston University. Brad and I have remained friends since that summer. We get together several times a year to talk about poetry, religion, teaching, and life.)


Click here for a great printable poetry resource from Scholastic that includes the following poems: Leavetaking by Eve Merriam; Back to School and First Day of School by Aileen Fisher; Hello Bus, Yellow Bus by Mary Sullivan; New Friends by Patricia Hubbell; Schools Tools by Monica Kulling; and New Pencils by Helen H. Moore.


Summer’s End by Judith Viorst

Now by Prince Redcloud

September Is by Bobbi Katz

Click here to read Lunchbox by Valerie Worth and Pencils by Barbara Juster Esbensen.

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The Poetry Friday Roundup is at the Stenhouse Blog.