NEW SPIDERS

  A Sparklemuffin in her web
 said to the Skeletorus,
 "Oh, I wish you were dead.
  Then I could eat you
  on a cracker with brie
  I'm sure you'd be
  so very tasty."

   This poem took a long journey to get to you. It started with a spider blog post by my friend David L. Harrison.  Then Jane Yolen wrote a spider poem in response to David's post.  When I read Jane's poem, I wanted to tell her about the two new species of peacock spiders that were identified by a Berkeley graduate student doing field research in Queensland, Australia.  The student Madeline Girard got to give the spiders their common names.  She chose Sparklemuffin and Skeletorus.  In playing with my email message to Jane, I included this poem.  I do like playing.  If you discovered a new species of worm, dragonfly or beetle, what who you name it?  Can you write a poem about your creature and draw a picture to go with it? So get your crayons, colored pencils or paints and have fun today. Celebrate the two new words you've learned.

Don't be afraid, writing poetry for children can be fun.