Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Elementary School Memorizing in Kindergarten...

Yesterday in my son's folder, I found a twelve line poem she has asked me to help him memorize in only a week.

Is she expecting more of him because he's good at memorizing? There's a bit of me wondering if he's to be giving this poem as the rest of the class acts it out, to be honest.

What do you think? Beyond a Kindergarten level? (This is a Christian school, so the content is Christian).

What the Tulips Say by Phyllis C. Michael

I wonder what the tulips say
To each other as they raise their heads.
Up from the dark-brown earth they come,
God calls them from their beds.

I walked quite close to them today
And thought I heard them sing,
"Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
Praise God, our Lord and King."

The red one spoke and the yellow ones nodded
Just as if they had done it before;
"Praise God! We live, we live, WE LIVE.
We live forevermore."

make it into a song, you'll be surprised how much they can recall:)

Or break it into couplets and associate an action/hand-motion to accompany each one. Choreography can sometimes help kids who are kinesthetically inclined or visual-spatial as learners.

MAYBE beyond kindy level, but just for recitation? Assuming reinforcement in class, I'm thinking that for a group recitation this is probably fine.

But I don't really know, since we homeschooled kindy.

I thought about making it a song, but am not so musical.

We've learned two lines already. I showed him a time-lapse video on YT of tulips "raising their heads" and have used a hand motion to help him with that.

Also, the second line begins with "To" and I related that to tu-lips. He loves the idea of lips on a flower.

Funny, he memorized the fifth line yesterday out of context. Perhaps I just should give him a copy and let him read it before bedtime? I don't know...I've never been in this position.

HK-I think you may be right about the reinforement of the whole class.

I hope so, anyway. DS would have stage-fright, I know, if required to do a solo.

Seems fine to me but our measure is off. My kindergarten son received a packet of song lyrics on American History to memorize and was tested weekly on a solo performance. He didn't pass each week for sure. The songs covered Rosa Parks, a Roosevelt or three, Georgia O'Keeffe, the Wright brothers, Henry Ford, various jazz musicians, and other American heroes.

When my son first started kindy- most had only just turned four- his class sang Christmas carols. They memorised eight songs! I couldn't believe it. But, as Huckleberry wrote, when they put it in song they can remember everything.

My kids attended a French immersion school in elementary, and French folks are very big on memorizing and reciting poems. They start at a young age - K or 1st grade. My kids never liked memorizing poems and typically spent more time whining about the poem than the time needed to memorize it. Perhaps it is beyond K level but I'm sure it won't be any big deal for him to memorize.

Memorizing all this stuff really seems like a thing of the past, especially since the invention of writing.

I believe there is value in memorizing poetry.
Why we should memorize poetry

In Defense of Memorization

My son in Kindergarten and his classmates recently had memorized parts for a play at school. Each part was about 1/3 of what your son was given.

However...
When I was Kindy my mom offered me and my sister $5 to memorize some scriptures. Big money to us. I had the beattitudes which is much longer than the poem above. I had it memorized perfectly in King James English in less than an hour. My sister who was older and had to memorize a chapter thought it extremely unfair.

In one of the churches we attended in the 3yr old Bible class the children learned the 27 books of the New Testament and could recite them in order. Quite neat to watch how quickly they learned with only a bit of reinforcement each week.

SO while most schools don't ask quite so much memorization/recitation, I have very often seen higher expectations with church and religious education. We committed a great deal of Scripture to memory when I was a child and I have been amazed that so much stayed with me permanently.

The learning is usually quite easy with rhythm and repetition. Make a game of it and I expect you will be amazed at how easily it comes. Good luck!