Poetry Break NCTE AWARD POET

Introduction
Ask the class the question, “Who loves ice cream?” Also ask, “What’s their favorite flavor?” Ask them to listen to the poems “Flavors.”

Flavors
By Arnold Adoff

Flavors

Mama is chocolate: you must be swirls
Of dark fudge,
And ripples
Through
Your cocoa curls:

Chips
And
Flips of sprinkles
On your summer face.

Flavors

Daddy is vanilla: you must be mean
Old
Bean
In the morning,
Cherry
Chunks by afternoon,
And
Sweet
Peach sometimes.

But mostly you
Are vanilla
Up
Your
Arms.

Flavors

Me
Is better
Butter: I must be
Pecans
Roasted,
Toasted;

Almond
Wal nut three
Scoop combination
Cone:

Melting under
Kisses.

It is a new color.
It is a new flavor
For
Love.

Extension
Read the poems a second time. Let the children discuss what their feelings are about the poems. Ask the children to write a poem about themselves and they can include pictures. (Their poem doesn’t have to refer to ice cream but it’s alright if it does.) The focus is imagery and their connection with the poems.

Cullinan, Bernice E. A JAR OF TINY STARS. Honesdale: Wordsong, 1996.

Arnold Adoff won the NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children in 1988. Mr. Adoff loved food and he referred to food in many of his poems. His passion for food is evident in his collections of poems, EAT, GREENS, AND CHOCOLATE DREAMS.