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Laugh A Lot Poetry
Making Poetry Fun For Everyone

VIDEOS:

Darren Sardelli - School Visits
 

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr (Poem)
 

If I We're The Principal
 

Little Boy Blue, Please Cover Your Nose
 

Parent-Teacher Conference (Poem)
 

Additional Information:

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Award winning poet, motivational speaker, and children’s book author, Darren Sardelli, makes poetry fun and exciting for everyone. His poems are featured in 12 children’s books in the U.S. and England, and 6 textbooks in the Netherlands, Germany, and Israel.

Since 2004, Darren has visited more than 300 elementary and middle schools, and has inspired thousands of students, teachers, and parents to start writing poetry. During a visit, Darren brings poetry to life by performing his funny poems for the audience, talks about the importance of writing down ideas and the wonderful things that can be done with them, shows students how to make a poem surprising, humorous, and exciting, helps them realize that they are capable of amazing things, and writes a funny rhyming poem with them in his workshops. Mr. Sardelli’s poetry programs are interactive, entertaining, inspirational, educational, and fun! (Grades K-8)

Event Description

Darren Sardelli has poetry programs specifically designed for Pre-K, K-2nd, 3rd-5th, and 6th-8th grade students. A typical day consists of 1-2 assemblies and 3-4 poetry workshops.

Poetry Assemblies

Darren Sardelli’s poetry assemblies are the funniest assemblies around! Not only does he make poetry fun and exciting for students, he also opens their minds to new ideas and unlimited possibilities. During an assembly, Darren talks about how he felt about poetry as a kid (he wasn’t a fan), who and what inspired him to start writing, where he gets his ideas from, the wonderful things that can be done with ideas, why he enjoys writing so much, and tells the story of how he broke into the children’s book industry. Throughout his presentation, Darren shows students some of the books his poems have been published in and acts out his funny poetry as well. Mr. Sardelli tries to make everyone feel like they are part of his show. He encourages the crowd to participate in different ways – they might shout out the answer to one of his poetry riddles, explain what they would do differently if they wrote the poem, ask and answer questions related to poetry, and participate in interactive poems throughout the assembly. By the end of an assembly, students realize that poetry can be entertaining, funny, cool, exciting, and fun.

Poetry Workshops

Darren Sardelli’s poetry workshop is unlike any other workshop you’ve ever seen. He breaks down the writing process in a fun and enjoyable way and gives students a new and fresh perspective on thinking and writing. During a workshop, Darren writes a humorous poem with a specific grade (up to 2 classes at a time). After choosing a topic (let’s say the students want to write a school poem), Darren might ask them to think about what life would be like if they went to school under the sea. All of the sudden, students start thinking about dolphins picking them up for school, field trips to the deepest parts of the ocean, and Mermaids doing the Mambo in music class. The more creative the students get, the more enjoyable the writing process becomes. When kids are having fun, they tend to come up with their best ideas. Darren brings their ideas to life by incorporating them into the poem. He also shows the students how to structure each line, develop a certain rhythm and meter pattern, and find the most effective words for the poem. By the end of the workshop, they’ll have a funny, creative, imaginative poem that everyone is excited about.

Testimonials

"I got the chance to see Darren perform at another elementary school. When I saw how the students and teachers responded to his poetry, I invited him to my school right away. He has a wonderful gift of making poetry cool for kids."
—Alzbeta Sykora, Dinkelmeyer Elementary School, North Bellmore, NY

"Darren really kept the children’s attention – which is hard! His message and delivery was very effective! The initial feedback I’ve gotten from teachers, staff, and parents is that they really enjoyed Darren’s presentation and that he was more engaging than some of the past authors who have visited."
—Jean Feinstein (Bellerose PTA President), Bellerose Ave. Elementary School, East Northport, NY

"Thanks for making this world a better place by letting us ease up and learn to laugh."
—Dana Parrott, Elementary School Teacher, Amarillo, Texas

"My 6th grade students were very responsive to Darren, especially the boys who think writing is dumb. All they wanted to do was write humorous poetry as soon as they got back to the classroom. I’ve never seen anything like it."
—Kim Harrington, 6th Grade Teacher, Blairstown Elementary, Blairstown, NJ

Poems appear in:

Rolling in the Aisles , Tinkle, Tinkle, Little Tot, Peter, Peter, Pizza Eater, My Teacher's in Detention, Dinner with Dracula, I Hope I Don't Strike Out!, What I Did On My Summer Vacation (Meadowbrook Press), Dinosaur Poems (Scholastic, UK), READ ME OUT LOUD! (Pan Macmillan, UK), BUSES TO BOOKS (ABDO Publishing), Portobello Road 4, Camden Market 4, Camden Town 4(Diesterweg, Germany), Pound A Poem (Metro Publishing, UK), Stepping Stones (Noordhoff Uitgevers, The Netherlands), Galaxy Pizza and Meteor Pie (Laugh-A-Lot Books, New York), TAKE OFF! (Eric Cohen Books LTD, Israel).