Michele Glassford

Readings

A Laughing Gas reading or workshop is always a lively event which encourages audience participation. Laughing Gas poems jump with rhythm, snap with rhyme, strike unusual imagery and always leave them laughing. Participants will learn about poetic forms and devices, such as onomatopoeia, metaphor, simile, rhythm, and rhyme scheme, among others. Laughing Gas: Rotten Rhymes and Scraps of Hot Air is a great book to get children interested in reading! Its rhythm and rhyme attracts the younger kids, but children of all ages love Laughing Gas because it’s filled with poems about everything from chicken pox, underwear, messy rooms, monsters under the bed, body parts, and yes, even gas. The book is uniquely designed using popular Scrapbooking techniques, so children love the colourful pages, as well.

Book Sales:

Copies of books can be brought to be sold and autographed, or pre-ordered.

Workshops

A Laughing Gas poetry workshop will be developed for the grade level of participants, however, all participants will learn about poetic techniques such as rhyme, rhythm, metaphor, simile, onomatopoeia, and poetic forms such as limerick, haiku, free verse, cinquain, sestina. Poetic devices are explained using examples from Laughing Gas: Rotten Rhymes and Scraps of Hot Air, among others so that students can see poetry in action and explore how the devices work outside of the abstract and within a poem. A Laughing Gas poetry workshop is full of fun and silliness and offers lots of opportunity for children to write and share their creations with classmates.

Special Equipment:

Flip chart of chalk/white board

Book Sales:

Copies of books can be brought to be sold and autographed, or pre-ordered.

Biography

Michele Glassford has been writing and performing children’s poetry for many year, but Laughing Gas : Rotten Rhymes and Scraps of Hot Air, published by Laughing Gas Press, is her first published collection of poetry. Michele was born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, but grew up mostly in Oshawa, Ontario. She has resided in Burlington, Ontario since 1994. Michele relies on rotten rhymes for relief from the often humourless world of legal practice. Michele is a member of the Law Society of Upper Canada and practices law in Stoney Creek, Ontario. She is also published writer and editor of the Human Resources Policy Pro published by First Reference.