Hound Dog Adventures

Unpopular Rex a video by Amy Merrill1 on Flickr.

Welcome to a new kind of "Poetry Break!" My "Poetry Breaks!" always consist of me popping into classrooms to share poems with students and their teachers. For this "Poetry Break!" I created a video (after about 437,000 re-takes, I finally called it a night and used this one! Oh, and I also had several technical difficulties! So please bear with my novice video-making skills!).

The idea began with Mrs. Connie Buchinsky, a first grade teacher at my school. She asked me for poem ideas to utilize in a lesson. We chatted about poems, poetry books, and her lesson. After she took home J. Patrick Lewis' book National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry, she showed me the poem she had chosen. I loved it and proceeded to tell her a story about a personal connection that I made to the poem. Connie loved it and told me I needed to make a video of what I had just told her. She wanted to be able to incorporate the story and technology into her lesson.

So, I figured I'd try a virtual "Poetry Break!" This way, I can share more poetry love with more students, more often, and allow students to access the poems whenever they wish! (I feel it is so important to hear poetry read and recited aloud ~ so many, many benefits to this! This could be a whole post itself!).

I will attempt to post a "Poetry Break!" video a couple of times a month. I think it will be a fun and worthwhile adventure!

If you'd like to read my post about Hug Your Hound Day, click  here!

Thanks to Connie, for inspiring me to create "Poetry Break!" videos!

Hug Your Hound Day: September 9, 2012

Happy Hug Your Hound Day!  Today is my own hound dog's special day!  Mickey joined our family a little over a year ago.  He is a Treeing Walker Coonhound.  We rescued him from a local organization.   He is believed to be three-years-old and he is the most gentle, loving boy that you could ever dream of giving a great big HUG to!  

Mickey was named because of his hound spot that is shaped like Mickey Mouse ears!

Mickey thinks he is smaller than he really is . . . he sometimes squeezes into Miley's bed!

Of course, Hug Your Hound Day is the perfect occasion to read a great book or two about hounds!  

 Charlie the Ranch Dog written by Ree Drummond and illustrated by Diane deGroat is a delightful picture book that stars a lovable hound.  Learn more about author Ree Drummond and her real ranch dog at her website Confessions of a Pioneer Woman.

 Meet the real Charlie, who was the inspiration for the book . . . 

I know you'll fall in love with Charlie and won't want to miss his holiday book . . . 

If you have never read Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls, you should consider putting it on your "to read" list.

Mickey loves movies that are inspired from great books.  Here's one of them . . . 

                             (for all you Dave Mathews fans, this is his movie debut!)

Click here to read all about all of the different varieties of hound dog Obreeds.  

 Join Facebook's event for Hug Your Hound Day's celebration.

Go ahead and take a Book Break with a hound today!