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Have a few questions about poetry in Bigger. Trying to figure out how it's different from how we did it in Beyond.

Does anyone keep a poetry binder with Bigger? In Beyond, I kept a binder with sleeves for her illustrations and copywork for each poem. It doesn't seem necessary if you don't use it as copywork, but may be just nice to have photocopies of the poems separate from the TM. I noticed a couple of the Day 4 instructions may have them underline or circle on the poem to notice patterns and I don't want my TM marked up or have it already done for my next kids who do this guide.

Is the child supposed to have the poem memorized by the end of the unit? I didn't think so, but wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something.

Has anyone done both poetry copywork and cursive practice? I really didn't notice it was an 'or' situation until I read it in another thread. lol... So now I get that you don't have to do both, but wanted to consider it, especially if I'm going to make a binder for it anyway. Maybe just the first stanza or something to have her handwriting in there.

Thanks!

I'm going to make copies for my daughter to mark up. but not for any other reason, unless she just feels the urge to illustrate it since she loved that in Beyond! I think I'm just going to stick them in a file folder with three ring tabs...definitely nothing fancy!

I don't think they are supposed to have it memorized, but just to see how much they remember. We've only studied one poem, but I just started her off and when she got stuck I gave her a phrase to get her going again. My girl has an amazing memory and so this part is fun for her.

My understanding is that copywork would be for students not ready to do cursive, or already having completed a cursive program is just ready for more practice. We're doing a cursive program and not copying. Handwriting is NOT our favorite part of the day. There is no way I'm extending it longer than I have to!

I copy to poem for each of them so we all can see the poem together. I also have them either write the poem or I will retype it on cardstock and they will decorate the paper related to the poem. I use it as part of their art. My son's idea of art is always drawing planes and ships in attack mode even with bombs. I use every chance I get to have him draw other stuff. They do not have to memorize the poems because we use First Language Lessons 2 and there are poems there they memorize. There is an extra reward for memorizing the Bigger poems. My youngest thrives on competition so she is the one that will memorize.