Today we began our fifth grade poetry study by copying and studying "A Poem is a Little Path" by Charles Ghigna, who is known as "Father Goose."  This sweet poem is also the first of many poems that we will memorize in Fifth Grade, so I thought that I would write about the reasons to memorize. Here are eight reasons that I loosely borrowed from Lisa Van Gemert, the "Gifted Guru" and I share with you now:

1. It is a good way to practice remembering material, and to challenge ourselves.
2. It helps us to learn vocabulary when we learn it in context.
3. It helps us to learn English and its quirky syntax.
4. It can be a bridge to our learning and understanding in all manner of subjects.
5. It is a way to fill our minds with ideas that are worth remembering.
6. It helps us to appreciate and thus better enjoy other things in life when we make connections through poetry.
7. It is a way to know that others have felt what we have felt, and feel a connected emotional response.
8. It can be something beautiful that we carry with us.