POEMS - End of Year G1

A poem is assigned to be memorized every grading period, sometimes with costumes or props. Let me have a quick recap.

English.

3rd. Pitter Patter. Costume: Raincoat. It has no remarkable content that I can remember.  I now wonder where it was from.

4th. The Star. Costume: All Black with Star Mask. This is the last piece for the year. It is an interesting choice. The first part was pretty familiar among the kids. It was initially given with enough time to prepare. As it turns out, it was moved to an earlier date so roughly two days only after the regular written exam was left for us to really concentrate on it. It helped that P had been exposed to the first three or four stanzas of the poem long time ago because of our nursery rhymes cds and tapes. In addition to that, the poem, itself, has good rhyming sets. We made it.

Filipino.

1st. Ang Daigdig. Outfit: Sunday dress. Typical poem memorization was done.

3rd. Iwasan ang Kayabangan. Costume: All Black with sungay ng usa or Lion head dress. This is one very remarkable piece in Tagalog which displays more than memorizing the lines and hand gestures. It is a pair work which involves interaction between the two performing characters. Given ample time to prepare the child, we managed to not only memorize but also focus on the proper tones and whole body actions. It is way better than typical poem recitation which uses “pinoy singsong.” It has characters and if delivered well, can be a good performance piece for two.

4th. Ang Huwarang Bata. Outfit: School Uniform.

I couldn’t remember the other poems. It probably means that it has no remarkable content to remember. I think it is such a waste to let the kids memorize such poems. (^^)

Even though I am not a real big fan of poems, there are two poems that has left some fragments in my mind. First is the poem, “Ina, Ilaw ng Tahanan.” I remember my parents letting me learn it before I started school. It has the impact of the importance of my mother who played teacher to me even before I started school.

Second poem is a selection from one of our textbooks in second grade. The book itself was pretty thin and I was able to read it way ahead of our class. It seems that the stories there were not enough. We had to memorize this particular poem. It’s about a girl who wanted to go to a fair with her dad. The poem described the fair, the girl and the one thing that caught her eye in the fair: a doll. However, there is a line in the poem that the father said to the girl before going to the fair: “you can go to the fair, but remember, don’t buy everything you wish.”

Looking back on this poem and why it has stuck to my memory makes me a little sad. I’ve never really thought why this, of all poems, has remained in my memory. Now, I realized why. I was definitely able to relate to the little girl who wanted that doll but could have one. It was just so heartbreaking.