Educational Poems for the Classroom Are If a Bad Dream Comes by Siv Cedering Fox and Sunflakes by Frank Asch

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A great way to get children more involved and engaged in the classroom is by using poems as a guide towards a student’s learning. The two poems, “If a Bad Dream Comes” by Siv Cedering Fox and “Sunflakes” by Frank Asch, are excellent examples that are capable of doing just that. Through careful analysis of each of these poems possible themes, developmental lessons, structures, and morals; it will be apparent that these poems, as well as any others, can adequately contribute to directing students to the path of an enriched lesson to learn.
“If a Bad Dream Comes” and “Sunflakes” are both poems that connect to a child’s reaction to a particular subject or problem. Every child has difficulties sleeping based on fear from a nightmare and the poem “If a Bad Dream Comes” is a great way to give the child an answer on how to make them feel safe. This poem is full of metaphors that connect one thing to another. For example, in stanza two “My blanket is a ceiling. My mattress is a floor…”, the child does not literally mean that the blanket is in fact a ceiling. Through the child’s imaginations, he or she envisions that the mattress plays the part of the floor. However, to the child who is hiding underneath the blanket, this is seen as a way to protect him or herself from the scary darkness of the bad dream. In the poem “Sunflakes”, it begins with the simile, “If sunlight fell like snowflakes…” This particular line allows children to attain the thought of what if sunlight could actually give the joy that snow can. Most kids have a ton of things to do in the winter with the snow, such as snowball fights, snowboarding, and building a snowman; but fun in the sun can be pretty limited, and without proper precautions, you could receive very bad ...

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...ects. “Sunflakes” can be used for science in the general knowledge of how sunlight is created and English in the use of prepositions. Most of the lines have prepositions, for example, “And my pillow is a door that I can lock against the night.”
In conclusion, the two poems, “If a Bad Dream Comes” and “Sunflakes” would be a great asset to any classroom. Children can easily connect with the main thought present within the poems. One lesson learned is that anyone can be scared, but there are ways that can help make you feel safe, as taught by “If a Bad Dream Comes”. The other lesson is that a child’s imagination can go beyond the impossible and enter the words of curiosity. Each poem gives a suitable reaction a child would envision if placed in that particular position, for example, hiding away from the dream and wondering if something could become something else.

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