Now We Aren't Quite Six

November 20, 2009 7:03 PM

I'm going to a birthday party for a five-year-old tomorrow, one of my students. His mom said not to bring a present, but I was hoping to put something fun in the card. I love A.A. Milne's poem Now We are Six and I'm wondering if anyone knows of a similar poem about turning five.
posted by easy_being_green to Grab Bag (7 answers total)

Not offhand, but I can think of two songs about being five.

When I'm Five - David Bowie

I'm Five - Barbra Streisand
posted by elsietheeel at 7:30 PM on November 20, 2009

I don't know if you'd count this as a poem, but there's always "I'm Five" (which I prefer in the Robin-from-the-Muppets version, not Barbra Streisand).
posted by Madamina at 7:30 PM on November 20, 2009

Here's a link to the Robin the Frog song. It starts about the 3:45 mark.
posted by Lucinda at 7:41 PM on November 20, 2009

I was looking for a skit that I think was on Sesame Street years ago: "I'm 5, 5, I'm 5 years old today". I can't find it. But I googled "poem fifth birthday" and there are several nice ones out there:

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/jaminacema/89886/
http://www.manick.com/Family/AdamPoem5.html
http://www.lovethepoem.com/birthdaypoems/42.htm
http://www.poemsforfree.com/your5.html
http://www.poetryscriber.com/Blog/mcscraic/Five+Is+A+Magical+Time+For+You+.htm

Another idea is to think of something that your class has been doing lately or something that you know the student is interested in and just write your own poem, making it very personal to his life.

this was fun; I wish my kids were little again
posted by CathyG at 8:06 PM on November 20, 2009

Best answer: The Milne poem is easily modified to be appropriate, if you don't mind messing with a classic.
posted by alexei at 9:02 PM on November 20, 2009

There's a comic strip called Being Five that might inspire you.
posted by IndigoRain at 12:34 AM on November 21, 2009

Response by poster: Good call, alexei. That's exactly what I did. Thanks everyone for the input.
posted by easy_being_green at 10:05 PM on November 21, 2009