I am participating in Screen Free Week
from Monday, April 29 through Sunday, May 6.
from Monday, April 29 through Sunday, May 6.
In the meantime, I invite you to pledge to unplug with me.
Let's play outside! Let's make something!
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Goodbye!
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Returning with a Daydream
Let the Cat Out of the Bag!
Photo by Amy LV
I'm back from Screen-Free Week, a week that I spent free from my blog, Facebook, and Twitter. I did use my cell phone, did take care of work related e-mails, and I read a few other blog posts. But my screen time was seriously diminished, and that was a gift.
Here are the last two sketches from Drawing Into Poems, my daily drawing/seeing/writing study into poetry from April (I took a break for Screen-Free Week). You can read more about this month-long project here on my April 1 post. I am so happy to have taken this time to slow down and focus on my seeing.
Day 29 - Rocking Chair
Click to enlarge the drawing.
Day 30 - Mancala Board
Click to enlarge the drawing.
Here is my last poem inspired-on-purpose by my April sketches. This one comes from the fountain sketch I made on my last day in Fort Worth Texas for the Texas Library Association Conference.
Click the arrow to hear me read this poem to you.
Students - Well, I was away for a week, and it is good to be back! But it was good to be away too. I transplanted a lot of roses and spent some cuddly time with our kittens, went for lots of walks, worked on a new manuscript, and fried up some dandelion fritters. All of these were good reminders for me to balance screen time with screen-free time.
You'll notice that today's poem has four short stanzas. It's quite close to what I jotted in the margins of my fountain sketch, but the part about spitting is new. New and necessary! You'll also notice that I've repeated the phrase "I want" three times. (Wishes seem to be on my mind lately.)
You'll notice that today's poem has four short stanzas. It's quite close to what I jotted in the margins of my fountain sketch, but the part about spitting is new. New and necessary! You'll also notice that I've repeated the phrase "I want" three times. (Wishes seem to be on my mind lately.)
Parents - You might be interested in the post I wrote for the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books blog including some ways to be screen free with children, and I also have a post at Pragmatic Mom about writing poetry at home with children. Please feel free to share these if you find them useful.
Much much gratitude to my friend Renee LaTulippe for her enchanting story about FOREST HAS A SONG this week over at her magical blog, No Water River! Renee knows how to make a person feel very special, no question, and this post made me beam. I feel very lucky. FOREST is also very happy and grateful to receive an enthusiastically lovely review from Wendy Lawrence over at the family that reads together.
I had a fabulous time at the Texas Library Association Conference last week. It was an honor to be part of two panels, both organized by Sylvia Vardell, and it was a delight to see old friends too. Thank you, Sylvia, for all of your hard work and hospitality, and thank you to Marianne Follis, Chair of the Children's Round Table (of the TLA), for having this idea and having us all to this wonderful conference. Over at Poetry for Children, you can watch video clips of poets reading at the 9th annual Poetry Round Up here and see all kinds of photos of P*CON here.
I had a fabulous time at the Texas Library Association Conference last week. It was an honor to be part of two panels, both organized by Sylvia Vardell, and it was a delight to see old friends too. Thank you, Sylvia, for all of your hard work and hospitality, and thank you to Marianne Follis, Chair of the Children's Round Table (of the TLA), for having this idea and having us all to this wonderful conference. Over at Poetry for Children, you can watch video clips of poets reading at the 9th annual Poetry Round Up here and see all kinds of photos of P*CON here.
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Moon Mama and a Poem about Writing
Phoebe and Her Two New Kittens (Born Wednesday!)
Photo by Georgia LV
Photo by Georgia LV
Students - Today's poem grew from a real farm happening this week. We foster kittens here, but we've never had kittens born here because we have our own cats spayed and neutered. Well, we were fostering a pregnant mother, Phoebe, and it was such fun to wait for her kittens. On Wednesday, they were born...two tiny snugglers.
Freya and Her Four Kittens
Photo by Georgia LV
So, I just began writing and writing, and the whole poem shaped itself around the idea of the moon. I loved that image. Then, on purpose, I repeated words: kitten, treasure, moon, snuggle. What was the hardest part of writing this poem? The ending! I believe it took me as long to write the last line as it took to write the whole rest of the poem. Sometimes writing is like that, but having faith that your hard work and persistence and willingness to wait for just-the-right-words, often gives you just the line you wish for.
Four of Freya's kittens are ready to be adopted right now, so if you are interested, please drop me a line to my e-mail address at amy at amylv dot com or leave a message in the comments. We are in the Buffalo, NY area. Here's a bigger picture of them for you to see!
Happy Mother's Day to all moms and teachers and friends of children everywhere! And children, a poem for your mother is a splendid gift!
Hope and Kittens
L-R: Tundra, Guinevere, Wilbur, and Otter
Photo by Amy LV
Today I am very grateful to welcome kindergarten teacher Nicole DiBattisto and her students from Quest Elementary in Hilton, NY. Last week, I had the good fortune to visit Quest as a visiting author. I know many of the teachers at Quest from writing workshops, and it was a delight to see them again. Librarian Stephanie Harney had students share poems in their pockets (and in her husband's shirt pockets), and the day was full of festive poem fun!
Nicole's young students wrote a poem about writing poems, and I had the chance to read it. After being charmed by their words, of course I asked if Nicole would be willing to share here. She was, and so I welcome Nicole and her poets to The Poem Farm today!
Isabella, Tessa, and Madison
Photo by Nicole DiBattisto
Write A Poem
by Mrs. DiBattisto's Class
Look at the world in a different way.
Look through your heart.
Write.
Break the rule
use white space
Wow how cool.
Sometimes a poem is long.
Sometimes a poem is short.
Maybe it will have a song.
Maybe it will repeat.
Maybe it will rhyme.
Write a poem...
anytime.
This how it all came about:
1. I threw out the idea of writing a poem about poems.
2. We started talking about what we knew about poetry and how to craft a poem.
3. Kids started saying what they knew.
4. I typed their words.
5. We looked and read what we had and moved things around, added some, and took things out.
6. I guided the students to think about how we could include what we know about poems into the actual poem.
7. We added some rhymes, noticed that we already had repetition and white space.
8. We read it a few times and decided we liked it the way it was.
And there it is! An absolutely delightful how-to poem about writing. Thank you so much to this class and to Nicole for sharing this poem and their process with us today. I imagine that many many students will be reading it for inspiration for their own poetry.
I would also like to extend a special thank you to teacher Joe Long and his fifth graders at Iroquois Intermediate in Elma, NY, for surprising me with their beautiful classroom door decorated as the cover of FOREST HAS A SONG. Around the edges of this door, you see leaves filled with poems - theirs and mine. Illustrator Robbin Gourley (I sent the photo to her right away) and I were simply tickled.
Door Decorated by Fifth Graders and Teacher Joe Long
Iroquois Intermediate
Photo by Amy LV
Anastasia is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at her poetry blog. Visit her place to check out what is happening in the poetic Kidlitosphere today!
Please share a comment below if you wish.
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One - A Sad and Happy Cat Day
Little Wilbur
Photo by Amy LV
Click the arrow to hear me read this poem to you.
Students - Friday was a sad day and a happy day. The sad part was that kittenWilbur died. He was the runt of Freya's litter, and he lived for six weeks. We'd named him after Wilbur from CHARLOTTE'S WEB, in the hopes that he too would survive. But it was not to be. We tucked Wilbur's body into a tiny box, and in the rain, Mark buried him in our little graveyard underneath the pear tree.
The saddest picture we've had here at our farm in a long time is the picture of mother Freya licking her little Wilbur, trying bring him back to life. Writing today's poem helped me to do something with the teary feelings I held in my heart that night.
The happy news was that Phoebe (Freya's sister), who had two dark gray kittens as of Friday morning, gave birth to two more (sandy and orange) on Friday! This was a complete surprise as we did not know cats could do that. The four new babies are doing well, and the three (six week) old kittens are now ready for homes.
Phoebe and Her Four Kittens
Photo by Amy LV
Today I bring you two poems by student friends. The first is by fifth grader Grace McCormick, who some of you remember from Sharing Our Notebooks. Her class decorated their door to match FOREST HAS A SONG cover, and Grace's poem was written on one of the leaves. This joyful verse celebrates red boots, something the girl in my book wears on many many pages.
Red Boots
by Grace McCormick
Dakota's poem comes to us from Silver Star School in Vancouver, Washington. School librarian Ms. Mac from Check It Out always invites anyone who wishes to request a poem postcard in April with a poem written by a student in her school. I was lucky enough to receive this powerful one.
by Dakota M.
Thank you, young poets, for sharing your poems with all of us! We are very grateful.
Please share a comment below if you wish.
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Love Letters and Chalk Poems
Writer Tree
by Amy LV
Click the arrow to hear me read this poem to you.
Students - Today's poem is about the season we are in right now. Spring. When this time of year rolls around in Western New York, we are always very ready for it; winter is long here. And it always feels like there is one magical day when all of the trees mail their leaves to the sky. I notice it every year, and every year I marvel.
Today's poem relies heavily on a technique you may have heard of -- personification. In this verse, I make the trees like people, writing. We know that trees do not write, but in this poem they do. In this poem, they are like people who feel hope and relief and even joy.
The first two stanzas each have an ABCBDB pattern (every other line has the same end rhyme), but the third stanza is shorter. To me, this makes it feel more finished, breaking the pattern and all.
There's a bit of alliteration (same beginning letter repeating) too. Can you find it?
It is an honor today to welcome kindergarten teacher Betsy Hubbard and her kindergarten poets from Fern Parsons Elementary School in Olivet, Michigan. Many of you know Betsy from her warm, rich blog, Teaching Young Writers, and her students' families also know her through her classroom blog, Hubbard's Headlines. Some of you might even remember when Betsy and her students visited The Poem Farm last June with their book, RHYME SCHOOL. Today they share their chalk-a-bration poem, written at the end of April, National Poetry Month. What a fantastic idea! I welcome Betsy and her students....
Photo by Betsy Hubbard
Chalkery
It doesn't take long,
not hard to find a space.
Go get some chalk
and poetry the place!
~Betsy Hubbard
I began thinking, what if others shared writing underfoot? What if someone, somewhere wrote their favorite poem or an original poem and someone else stumbled upon it? I felt a rush of excitement at the idea of someone’s day getting a smile from shared words. Chalk-A-Bration was born!
Throughout last year, poets, students and my family shared poems and illustrations during the summer months. This year I decided to share the idea with my students again, and we got to work. We went outside with our writer’s notebooks and scoured for ideas. We illustrated our topics and lines as a planning tool and together wrote a shared poem. In partners, students illustrated each line of the poem in chalk outside. We put it all together and had our poem in pictures for everyone to see. It was a great way to celebrate the end of poetry month with kindergartners. Here is our poem in pictures and in words:
Senses Outside
by Mrs. Hubbard’s Kindergarten Class
Smelling flowers that smell like lemonade
a red bike
a can
a spiky ball
green tree
green grass that grows
hearing owl -- whoo, whoo
a yellow dandelion
a stick shaped like a Y
and those were our senses outside.
About chalk-a-bration, Saige says, "I like doing it (chalk-a-bration) because it is so beautiful, and I like doing the poetry because I get to make my own stories and pictures."
Sophia says, "I like poetry because its fun writing and drawing pictures to go with your writing."
Reagan says, "I like to draw with chalk, it is fun to do things like this with my friends. I love all the colors of things."
Chalk-a-bration is on May 31st, and I am also hosting Poetry Friday that day at Teaching Young Writers! I would invite any and all chalk holders to join in the chalketry celebration. It can be an original poem, a personal favorite, or an illustration to a poem. Anything poemy will do. When you're done getting dusty, post a photo on your blog and link it to teachingyoungwriters.blogspot.com on celebration day! You will be in good company. And, you can even come back on June 30th, July 31st or August 31st to do it again!
Don't you just want to get out and chalk? I do! Remember....May 31 at Betsy's place. Thank you so much to Betsy and these young poets for filling The Poem Farm with joy today.
Today I am guest blogging over at Kirby Larson's blog, Kirby's Lane, a wee bit about writing and the two selves I must be to do so.
Ed DeCaria is hosting today's Poetry Friday party over at Think Kid, Think! Stop by and check out the menu of poetry fun all around the Kidlitosphere this week.
Please share a comment below if you wish.
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New Baby at Heart Rock Farm
Nora Nuzzles Her Baby
Photo by Amy LV
Mother and Child
Photo by Amy LV
Click the arrow to hear me read this poem to you.
Students - Look who's here! Our newest addition, yet-unnamed. This morning I woke up to (my husband) Shepherd Mark's voice, "Nora gave us the most beautiful white lamb last night. It looks like it's a week old!" And so she did. And so it does. Welcome to this new child, a bouncy haiku on an emerald of a day.
In celebration of new life and another joyous spring morning, I am thrilled to share this beautiful Poet-Tree made by Susan Kellner and her first grade students at Harold O. Brumsted Elementary in Holland, NY. Some of you may remember Susan's lovely poet-tree from 2012!
Photo by Susan Kellner
Close Up of Leaves
Photo by Susan Kellner
Thank you to Catherine Johnson for sharing my fiddlehead poem from FOREST HAS A SONG at her blog today. On Wednesday, she'll share Shepherd Mark's recipe for a delicious fiddlehead frittata, this year's Mother's Day brunch at Heart Rock Farm.
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New Puppies and Third Grade Poets
Photo by Amy Holland
Jack and Hawk
Photo by Heidi Ludwig Zvolensky
Libby and Brewer
Photo by Heather Tielens
Click the arrow to hear me read this poem to you.
Students - My nieces and nephews all have gotten new dogs within the past year, and so today I am celebrating all of them! Libby and Teo have Brewer, Jack has Hawk, and Sam, Davis, and Madi have Dixie! Woof!
Did you ever find something just when you needed it? Well, that's what happened to me with today's poem. This poem is one that I found in my files, and I knew that it was the match for this Poetry Friday. We're celebrating new lambs and kitties here, so it's a spring full of animal-love.
You will notice today's verse has two short stanzas. The first one paints a moment, and the second is simply an exclamation, the real words that a person might say upon greeting a loved pet. There is one pair of rhyming words in the first stanza (fur/her) but the rest of the poem is just heart. Write about love, and everything is good.
Did you ever find something just when you needed it? Well, that's what happened to me with today's poem. This poem is one that I found in my files, and I knew that it was the match for this Poetry Friday. We're celebrating new lambs and kitties here, so it's a spring full of animal-love.
You will notice today's verse has two short stanzas. The first one paints a moment, and the second is simply an exclamation, the real words that a person might say upon greeting a loved pet. There is one pair of rhyming words in the first stanza (fur/her) but the rest of the poem is just heart. Write about love, and everything is good.
Today I welcome third grade teacher Peggy Wiedemann and some of her poets from Arcade Elementary in the Pioneer Central School District in Arcade, NY. This class has been writing poems, and they were generous enough to allow me to share them here. I invite you to notice their use of...
Description
by Alyssa
Conversational Structure
by Tyler D.
Repetition
by Jack
Line Breaks
by Tyler B.
List Structure
by Mary
Much gratitude to Peggy Wiedemann and her students for visiting The Poem Farm. Be assured that the rest of the class is full of poetry too! It was a pleasure to read all of their poems and to share a few here today. Lucky us.
For Metaphor Monday this week, Catherine Johnson shared my poem April Waking along with some beautiful photographs and metaphors to go with fiddleheads. On Wednesday, she followed up with my husband Mark's Mother's Day fiddlehead frittata recipe. But that is not all. Unbeknownst to me, Catherine invited fellow poets to write and share fiddlehead poems at their own blogs. You can read these festive and fun verses by following these links: Cathy Ballou Mealey, Freeda Baker Nichols, and Penny Klostermann. Thank you to Catherine, Cathy, Freeda, and Penny for the wonderful surprise!
Jama is hosting today's delicious Poetry Friday roundup over at Jama's Alphabet Soup. If you're hungry for all kinds of sweet and spicy poetry dishes....head on over to her beautifully set blog and enjoy.
Please share a comment below if you wish.
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Locket - Poems about Objects
Remembering
by Amy LV
Click the arrow to hear me read this poem to you.
Students - Today's poem is, once again, simply about an object. I adore lockets. They go along with all kinds of old mysterious things that give me dreams and wonders: graveyards, old buttons, bones, books that smell good, shells, bottles in interesting shapes... I've admired the rhyme locket/pocket for some time, and today it rose in my mind as I sat at my desk, looking at all of its cubbyholes. Writing in my notebook, I jotted,
Click to enlarge the image.
Then, the poem just started showing up on the page, line by line. You will see that I ended up shortening the line breaks when I moved to typing the poem. This switch from handwritten first drafts to typed later drafts is very useful for me.
Click to enlarge the image.
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Eraser Dust, Poetry Art, and Chalking!
by Amy LV
Click the arrow to hear me read this poem to you.
Students - Today's poem comes from a childhood memory of a young second grade friend who used to collect eraser dust. I've written David's pencil shaving collection before, yet this idea of collecting small bits of others' trash is still fascinating to me. Just imagine if eraser dust could talk...what we would learn!
Today I am tickled to welcome teacher Jennifer Beach and her third grade students from Glenwood Elementary School in West Plains, Missouri. Earlier this week, Jennifer sent me an e-mail with photographs of her students' beautiful poetry art. I asked her if she would be willing to share her class's process for their foil art, and lucky for us....she was willing! I turn you over into the artistic and thoughtful hands of Jennifer Beach. Please click to enlarge any of these wonderful images.
Photo by Jennifer Beach
While looking for ideas for National Poetry Month this last April I came across Find a Roll of Foil and knew I had to use it in my class in some way.
Photo by Jennifer Beach
Long story short, my class and I read this poem and talked about it. We studied all the normal things that you do with poems and then we decided to find a roll of foil for ourselves! What wonderful imaginations the kids have.
Photo by Jennifer Beach
We have many times made line drawings and decorated them with markers so this was a natural progression from that. We brainstormed with partners all of the things you could make from foil, and we made two lists: things we've made from foil and things we'd like to make from foil. (After the project we also made a list of recycled items that could be used to make art like bottle caps, paper tubes, tin cans, etc., and I challenged them to create something new over the summer using some of these items to share with me in August!) We decided instead of making a foil sculpture we wanted to make pictures to hang on the wall. The kids used their ideas to help them draw pictures.
Cat by Kalina
Photo by Jennifer Beach
The pictures were drawn by the third graders onto a piece of plain paper in order to plan their artwork. I asked them to stick with a simple outline that had one large main figure in the middle. We then drew the outlines onto pieces of tag board. We used Elmer's Glue All to trace the outline and all major lines and set it aside to dry overnight.
The next day we covered each entire piece of tag board with Elmer's Glue stick (the purple kind that dries clear is really the best because they could see where they had already spread glue) and placed a piece of foil on the top. We used cotton balls to press and smooth the foil down and then Q-tips to fine press around the glue lines. Once that was done, we used the handle end of a paint brush or a dull pencil to etch the designs in the figures. Many of the kids wanted to see examples of different line designs so we looked up artwork by famous artists that incorporated lines into their art.
After they finished their lines, we covered the entire pieces in black liquid shoe polish, let them dry for a few seconds, then rubbed them off with paper towels. The other third grade class used the solid shoe polish and instead of wiping it off just left it on. Theirs turned out a darker almost blue look, like old silver. Emilie's ladybug from that class is an example, and they were just as pretty. Both classes had just exceptional work.
Ladybug by Emilie
Photo by Jennifer Beach
The kids were so excited and just loved it, but it was a time consuming project. I was really impressed that my 9-year-olds finished such fine pieces of artwork, and we had a lot of fun reading the poem and looking at The Poem Farm. They have been so excited with our poetry month. We also made: poetry paper bag kites, spinner poems, hand print poems, and poetry mobiles.
Poetry Paper Bag Kites
Photo by Jennifer Beach
Poetry Kite by Hayden
Photo by Jennifer Beach
Poetry Art
Photo by Jennifer Beach
Spinner Poems by Ethon and JD
Photo by Jennifer Beach
Hand Print Poem by Adrianne
Photo by Jennifer Beach
Poetry Mobile by Katie
Photo by Jennifer Beach
What a very fortunate class to have made these works or art and these memories together. Thank you, Jennifer and students, for sharing with us here today. I am truly grateful.
Today, Betsy is hosting both Poetry Friday and Chalk-a-Bration over at Teaching Young Writers. Head on over to find links to other chalk-y poems and all manner of poem-love. Here is the haiku that folks will be reading on our front step today...
Poem Rock
Photo by Amy LV
Poppy View
Photo by Amy LV
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Female Praying Mantises and Truth
by Amy LV
Click the arrow to hear me read this poem to you.
Students - I have no idea why I wrote the phrase - Praying mantis prays for life - in my notebook the other evening. But I did. And then the other lines followed. In the morning, however, I knew that I needed to do some research. I wondered, "Is it really true what I've heard? Do the female mantises REALLY eat the males after mating?" So I did a bit of reading, and I found out that while this does happen, it is not as frequent as I had imagined.
When a female mantis is hungry, she may eat the male after mating, but usually she does not. This is more likely to happen in captivity, and it is more likely when the female is hungry. When a praying mantis female does eat a male after mating, he unwittingly sacrifices his life for her health and the health of her eggs.
When a female mantis is hungry, she may eat the male after mating, but usually she does not. This is more likely to happen in captivity, and it is more likely when the female is hungry. When a praying mantis female does eat a male after mating, he unwittingly sacrifices his life for her health and the health of her eggs.
The title of this poem serves as a warning. Just as we should not grocery shop when we are hungry (we will buy too much), a male praying mantis should not woo a female praying mantis who is hungry (she may devour him).
Research is important in all genres of writing. It would be terrible if my poem made all female praying mantises out to be killers. They are not! Truth matters, and writers must be responsible to the truth.
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Waving Hands - What is The Weather in Your Heart?
Windy Heart
by Amy LV
Click the arrow to hear me read this poem to you.
Students - Today is the last day of the school year for my children. For Hope, our eldest, it is the last day she will ever attend her school, the school where she's been a student for five years. It is a bittersweet time, and I imagine that the wind is blowing in her heart today. It sure is in mine. Today's poem is not a new one, but I haven't shared it before today. It's a "sighing feeling" poem.
You'll notice just a hint of movement in this one. Lines 4 indents to give a waving feeling between lines 3 and 4. It's subtle, but it's there.
Warmly wise Tabatha Yeatts is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup, so you'll want to head on over to The Opposite of Indifference to see who's sharing what goodies today!
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Baby Cereal and Fourth Grade Poets
Yum!
by Amy LV
Click the arrow to hear me read this poem to you.
Students - Today's poem is an older one, and it's from a whole collection of baby poems that I have written. Since Mark and I have three children, we have lots of baby stories, and for a time, I thought that I might join my baby poems together into a book. Now I don't think so. I am working on different projects, and so the baby poems are sitting and waiting for another day, another month, another year.
You may have noticed that every line of today's poem begins with the same word. I got the idea to try this from a poem titled Good Books, Good Times!, from a book by the same name, by Lee Bennett Hopkins. There's another interesting technique to notice too, another idea I learned from Lee's poem. Can you find it?
To write this little poem, I used Lee's great poem, "Good Books, Good Times!" as a mentor poem. This is a great thing to do. Find a poem you love, notice something you find interesting about the writing, and then try that interesting thing yourself! Stand on that poet's shoulders to attempt something new.
To write this little poem, I used Lee's great poem, "Good Books, Good Times!" as a mentor poem. This is a great thing to do. Find a poem you love, notice something you find interesting about the writing, and then try that interesting thing yourself! Stand on that poet's shoulders to attempt something new.
Today I am happy to host fourth grade teacher Nathan Monaco and his students from the Arcade Elementary in the Pioneer Central School District. I thank them for sharing their poetry unit journey. Welcome, Nathan and students...
This year my 4th grade classroom had fun with an author study unit about poetry using Amy VanDerwater’s writing. She was generous enough to allow me to use her poetry and her artwork from The Poem Farm as freely as I wanted. The unit wound up being 3-4 weeks long, and I combined Amy’s poetry with other themes I had learned about through writer’s workshop.
Aiden's Notebook
At the beginning of the poetry unit, my students were less than enthused to say the least. They shared their malcontent about poetry in general and basically summed it up as boring. I let them know that they had not been taught poetry by me yet and that they were going to be learning about a poet who they had never heard of. Each student received a bound copy of a book that my teaching assistant and I had made. This book contained some of Amy’s poetry split up into sections according to the "technique" sections (line breaks, question poems, mask poems, personification, etc.) on The Poem Farm website.
Before delving into the different types of techniques, my class spent one week learning about the 5 Doors of poetry by Georgia Heard, using each door to think about poems by Amy. If you have never heard of Georgia Heard, she has a book titled Awakening the Heart: Exploring Poetry in Elementary and Middle School where the idea of the 5 Doors comes from.
I spent one day on each of Georgia Heard's doors:
•The Heart Door– things that you love, things that are important to you
•The Memory Door – memories from your life: happy, sad, funny, etc
•The Wonder Door– things that you are wondering about, questions you have
•The Observation Door– things that you observe in the world around you
•The Concerns About the World Door– things that concern you, or things that you are thinking about for the world, issues in the world.
One could also invent/introduce all kinds of other doors such as a humor door, but I decided to leave that out as 4th graders can take that too far and ruin the whole mojo of taking poetry seriously.
Day 2 - The Wonder Door
by Evelyn
Day 2 - The Wonder Door
by Gabbie
After the week of comparing Amy’s poetry to the 5 Doors, we were ready to explore her techniques as described in her website. We read her poetry aloud, discussed why her poems were organized in such a way, patterns the students saw, and of course we talked about the importance/unimportance of rhyming in poetry. Only one technique was talked about each day, but we kept track of the different techniques on poster boards in the room. If students were compelled to continue working with one technique, I allowed it, and as the unit went on there was always a technique that a student felt comfortable worked with. The class spent one week on the different techniques as well.
Week 2 - Personification
by Cheyenne
by Cheyenne
Our last week of this unit was spent publishing through a company called Studentreasures, a company that binds student work in hardcover for free. The actual publishing process for the company is a little tedious, (it took a whole week to publish poetry), but it was completely worth it.
Published Book Cover
by Andrew
by Andrew
Published Inside Book Page
by Marissa
by Marissa
We completed our unit in late March/early April. Now, in the beginning on June, I still have students choosing to create poetry during writer’s workshop time. Some students have even created poetry journals, and I would be very confident saying that all students thoroughly enjoyed the poetry unit.
Thank you again to Nathan and his fourth graders for sharing their journey today. I feel lucky to have had my poems included as part of their study.
All best to all of you for a beautiful week full of poetry and adventure!
All best to all of you for a beautiful week full of poetry and adventure!
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Goodbyes and Kindergarten Poems
Photo by Amy LV
Click the arrow to hear me read this poem to you.
Students - While summertime is full of sweet goodness, sometimes goodbyes are a little teary. When the ends of school years come, I always find myself thinking about the good memories that threaded through the months, the memories that our children, all children, teachers, and I will hold onto forever. So this poem is a bit of a list, a list of school memories to cherish.
In writing this poem, I decided to write from a teacher's perspective because I am a teacher and a grown-up, and I think that I understand what teachers feel. Also, when I wrote these words, I wanted students to know that their teachers always remember them. Some of my former students are almost thirty years old now, and I have not forgotten. I remember their boxes full of collections, the novels they wrote in spiral notebooks, and the way they shared their favorite books. I remember our giggles, our tough times, and the way we grew up together. All teachers do. See that repeating line? I won't forget. Children matter greatly to their teachers.
For today's Poetry Peek, I am so happy to introduce kindergarten teacher Erin Jarnot and her students from Elma Primary School in the Iroquois Central School District as they celebrate poetry on this summer Friday. Welcome, Erin and young poets!
Kindergarten Poets: Krysia, Breanna, Grace, William, and Nick
Photo by Erin Jarnot
Teaching poetry to kindergarteners might seem like a challenge, but I was up for it! With the right resources, tools, and great authors/poets to use as models (thank you Regie Routman and Amy VanDerwater), anything is possible!
Before beginning any formal writing of poetry, I exposed my students to TONS of poems – some that rhymed, some that didn’t, some that you could sing as songs, some that you couldn’t, some that were long, some that were short, some that had repeating lines, some that didn’t. This was helpful when teaching how to write poetry because I could easily refer back to something we had previously read, and the kids would remember it.
Another step I took with my class before writing poetry was getting their brains “thinking like poets”. I used many objects from nature (sticks, rocks, shells, leaves, tree bark, etc.) and did a lot of comparing with these objects. I told my students that poets describe what things are like and we would use the nature objects to get our brains “thinking like poets”. My favorite object was a plain old stick from a tree. It was about 2 feet long, thin, smooth with a slight bend in it. Some comparisons the students came up with were:
It’s a wizard wand.
It is smooth like a snake.
It is like a walking cane.
It is like a light saber for fighting.
It is a wand for a band conductor.
It is like your pointer for teaching.
Each object had its own set of comparisons. I emphasized using the words “like” or “as” when the boys and girls were comparing different things.
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Colors
by Nick
Squirrels
by Grace
Then came a few lessons right from Kids’ Poems – Teaching Kindergartners to Love Writing Poetry (Regie Routman).
The Getting Started and Sharing Kids’ Poems sections are must reads. They are short and really inspiring. If you have the mindset that a poem can be about anything at all, and that just about anything can be written as a poem, it will make teaching poetry a lot of fun! I used the student samples right from this book to show my students. They thought it was neat to see the unedited versions of student poems. They could relate to them because the sample writing looked just like their own writing. My students also loved hearing the names of the students who wrote each poem in the Regie Routman book. They belonged to real kids, just like them.
We did a lot of modeled and shared writing before the students worked independently. On those days, we’d write poems together. Sometimes I’d write one of my own, sometimes I’d mimic a poem that was from the book. I thought it was important for the students to know that sometimes poets think of a poem in their head and say what it would sound like out loud before going back to write it. That seemed to help some of the students organize their thoughts a bit.
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Milli
by Krysia
I gave the boys and girls a choice at this point. They could try a poem if they thought they were ready, or they could do some familiar journal writing. A few students tried the poems right away, and surprisingly, a few of them got the hang of it. After about a week of modeled and shared writing of poems, I gave all students special “poetry paper” which was 8 ½ x 14 paper with writing lines on it (because you write a poem down the page instead of across the page) – this gave the students a different perspective since they usually write on 8 ½ x 11 pieces of paper. Now it was time to get to work.
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Summer
by Breanna
We worked for about two weeks or so just writing poems. Each day for my mini lesson, I would add new things the kids could try in their poems (repeating line, topic ideas, more comparing strategies, punctuation, lack of punctuation, etc). The boys and girls thought it was neat that when writing poetry they could kind of “break the rules”! One girl even wrote her entire poem in capital letters just because she could – she didn’t have to follow a sentence structure format.
After many days of writing and writing, I collected all the poems and typed them up. Students then illustrated pictures to match their poems. I kept the student copies and bound a small poetry collection for each student including all of his or her poems. I mimicked Regie Routman’s set up of the student poems in her book. Overall, they turned out really well, and everyone was very proud of their work – me included!
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Thank you so much to Erin and her young poets for their generous sharing of both poems and process today. I hope that they will continue to find and write poems all through the summer, perhaps taking some of that big long paper home with them!
Star Wars
by William
Thank you so much to Erin and her young poets for their generous sharing of both poems and process today. I hope that they will continue to find and write poems all through the summer, perhaps taking some of that big long paper home with them!
Margaret is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at Reflections on the Teche where you can find the poetic goodies for this week and learn about Margaret's students' writing marathon too. Happy Poetry Friday!
Please share a comment below if you wish.
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Old Memory and a Poetry Pole
Setting Songs Free
by Amy LV
Click the arrow to hear me read this poem to you.
Students - Today's poem is a made-up story poem. Somehow, last night, I started thinking about whale songs getting trapped in ice, and then I imagined being lucky enough to warm one and free one. Just imagine if we could hear whale songs in the winter air. When something is too good to be true, we can make it true in a poem. We can even pretend that it's a real memory, even a memory that happened "before we were born".
If you have never heard whale songs, here are some humpbacks to cheer you up and make you think. And if you wish to learn more about whales and their sounds, visit the Right Whale Listening Network. My brother-in-law Jamey works here at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and for a time, he was what we called a whale crossing guard. The world is full of fabulous mysteries....
Back on land, I have a special guest here today. Last fall, my teacher friend and colleague, MaryAnn Gangi, told me about her neighbor's poetry pole. She connected the two of us, and I have been thinking about it ever since. Today I could not be mroe excited to welcome Cathryn Smith, Chair of the English/Philosophy Department at Monroe Community College in Rochester, NY.
Keeping Poetry Alive One Pole at a Time
by Cathryn Smith
The Poetry Pole
Photo by Cathryn Smith
One afternoon several years ago while looking through an internet site on National Poetry Celebrations, I came across an article about Portland, Oregon, where an entire part of the city installed poetry poles in their front yards and organized a poetry pole walk. As soon as I read it, I just knew I had to have one too, so I scribbled "poetry pole" on a piece of paper and stuck it on my wall at work so it would stare and me and I wouldn't forget.
Which I promptly did, forget about it, until one day last August, when I looked up and realized the time was now. So I trucked down to Home Depot and bought a pole, stained it, attached a brochure box to the front, a solar light on top and then late one night when no one was watching, I dug it into the dark rich soil of the front garden bed and voila, our neighborhood's first poetry pole.
Initially, people thought it was a funky new "for sale" sign and asked me about the price of the house. Once I told them what it was, folks started to sort of crept up to it, look around, tentatively open the brochure box, pull out a poem, look around again, glance up at the house, shut the box, and walk away with poem in hand. Sometimes kids would come up two or three at the time to the pole and dare each other to "get one."
The pole has also become a repository for other poems and poetry-related texts. Once someone left a review about poetry from the Wall Street Journal; one afternoon, I came home to a whole packet of poems shoved in there that someone had written and wanted to distribute; someone even left 20 dollars that took me about half an hour to fish out of the box, it was stuck so deep inside.
People walk by as I am working in the garden and wave at the pole; “We love it, “ they say. “Thank you for doing this. The poems you choose make us think.”
But the best story so far is this: I am futzing about in the kitchen putting away dishes, washing pots and pans when I hear someone outside calling out, "Wait, wait, it’s Billy Collins. I love Billy Collins. Just a minute. Hold on." I slap the dish towel over my shoulder and gingerly tiptoe towards the front door, poking my head around the corner. I see a woman pulling out one of the yellow sheets of paper that holds this month’s poem “Today” by Billy Collins. She calls to her son, who has skipped a few feet ahead, to come back and listen, and begins reading the poem as they walk away down the sidewalk and off into the cool spring evening. I lean out the door to watch then, hear the cadence of her voice as she moves from stanza to stanza, watch her son look up and then skip ahead again a few steps as she continues to read, her voice fading quickly as they both disappear into the night.
It just doesn't get any better than that.
Come visit the pole anytime. You will find it at 144 N. St Regis Drive, Brighton, NY, 14618.
A Few Past Poems from The Poetry Pole
Starlings in Winter, When Death Comes and Wild Geese by Mary Oliver
The Peace of Wild Things by Wendell Barry
Risk by Anis Nin
Let Evening Come by Jane Kenyon
Let Evening Come by Jane Kenyon
Sometimes by Sheenagh Pugh
One of my summer goals is to visit Cathryn's poetry pole in Brighton, and when I do...I will share more photos (and the poem I find) with you. Thank you, Cathryn, for this summer inspiration. If any readers take this on, please share here! You know that I am thinking about this right now too. Delightful!
Over at Sharing Our Notebooks, I am happy to welcome Emily Krempholtz! Stop on over to my other blog and read all about her different kinds of notebooks. Maybe you'll even win one!
Over at Sharing Our Notebooks, I am happy to welcome Emily Krempholtz! Stop on over to my other blog and read all about her different kinds of notebooks. Maybe you'll even win one!
Like The Poem Farm on Facebook for more poems, articles, and poemquotes!
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Elf Owl and Second Grade Gifts
Happy greetings from All Write!!! Summer Institute 2013. It has been wonderful to be in Warsaw, Indiana, celebrating reading and writing with so many new and old friends. I was so excited to be here that I got my days confused and actually posted early, by accident! Happy Poetry Every Day!
Elf Owl
by Amy LV
Click the arrow to hear me read this poem to you.
Students - Elf owls are very small birds, about the size of sparrows. They are desert birds who live in saguaro cacti in the southwestern parts of the United States and in Mexico. For today's poem, I pretended to be an elf owl and to speak as an elf owl. Learning new facts and spinning them into poems is one of the most joyful parts of my life. You will easily find the repeating line...and maybe you will notice what is perhaps my most-proud-rhyme ever!
by Anna
I would like to say many thank you hugs to Barbara Lehn and her class full of poets and readers. I very much enjoyed my first-ever-Skype ever with them, and one of these young poets, Matilda, expresses my gratitude best -
by Matilda
May you all enjoy the many gifts of poetry all summer long...and throughout your lives.
It's still not too late to register for Kate Messner's Teachers Write! free online summer writing camp. I'll be visiting for a session, as will many other authors, and it's a wonderful way to get back writing in community and in your own home at the same time. Kate Messner offers many gifts to the Kidlitosphere, and it was her Kid-Lit Cares: Superstorm Sandy Relief Effort that connected Barbara Lehn's class and me through educator, author, and mother Linda Booth Sweeney. Linda bid on my books and Skype visit, and I'm so glad she did. Thank you!
This week at Sharing Our Notebooks, I am so happy to have my friend Emily Krempholtz generously offering a look into many of her notebooks, past and present. This blot has been a bit fallow of late, and I could not be more grateful than to have Emily bring it back to life. Please stop by and get re-notebook-inspired and enter Emily's giveaway too!
If you happened to miss Monday's post, please visit it if you'd like to learn about Professor Cathryn Smith's poetry pole, a wonderful thing indeed!
Today Carol is hosting Poetry Friday today at Carol's Corner. Visit to discover a variety of poetic picture books and find a multitude of links to all poetry goodness in the Kidlitosphere today. Next week, I will host the festivities here and hope to see you back.
In the meantime, here is a writing technique for you to try, from second grader Caroline!
by Caroline
Please share a comment below if you wish.
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Summertime!
Lavender Sugar
Photo by Amy LV
It's summertime! Time for fireflies, time for milkshakes, time for finding snakes in the garden!
It is also time for me to post less frequently here at The Poem Farm.
Instead, I will be scribbling in my notebook, making lavender sugar (see above), picking strawberries, making cherry jam, and playing outside. I also plan to read more books and tidy up the blog here a bit, so you may notice a few changes as the summer months pass. I look forward to seeing you on Fridays, and wish you delightful summer days! Here are a few places you might like to visit:
Learn to make lavender sugar Vintage Folly. (I used 1 cup sugar to 1 Tbsp flower buds and have since ground them together in my blender.)
Read my most recent post, about an elf owl and sharing many second grade poems here.
Discover Cathryn Smith's magnificent poetry pole here.
Please share a comment below if you wish.
Like The Poem Farm on Facebook for more poems, articles, and poemquotes!
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Diving Into Poetry Friday!
Whee!
by Amy LV
I will upload audio for this poem as soon as possible (uploading troubles!)
Students - Summer is here, and with it...time at the pool. Our family belongs to a community pool in town, and I love watching our children swim. So far I haven't gotten in yet, but I will. I do love watching our son Henry dive, and that moment of suspension-in-air (especially when he hasn't yet been in the water) always makes me smile. This poem is about that moment between land and water when one wonders how cold the water really is!
You probably noticed some bouncing along in the line breaks here. I did that to mirror the feeling of jumping from a diving board, that letting-go feeling. Whenever I move lines around, it is for a reason.
This was a great month for me here at The Poem Farm. I met my second cousin Kat from Georgia, US through a poem, and I also met a new artist friend. George, from South Africa, will soon share a poem illustration here. The Internet is some kind of magic.
Today I am very happy to host Poetry Friday and also to welcome my friend Emily Krempholtz who is visiting my other blog, Sharing Our Notebooks. Allow yourself to be inspired by Emily's notebooks, and don't forget to enter her giveaway by simply leaving a comment.
If you keep an ad-free blog, I would like to share this icon with you as well as the site it links to. In this age of constant advertising, it's good to celebrate those marketing-free-zones that still exist. If you have created one of these zones, please help yourself to the icon, generously made-to-share by its designer. (There are other versions if you are not an owl-lover.)
Teachers - This week launched Teachers Write! over at author Kate Messner's blog. All are welcome to participate, and it is a lovely community and way to dig into summer writing. I have a new little notebook for this, and I'll be offering a quick-write on Tuesday, July 9. For more information, visit Kate's blog.
And now....the round up! I will be in throughout the day, linking to poetry goodness from all corners of the Kidlitosphere. Please leave a one-line description of your post with your direct link in the comments - your words will be my descriptions. Please remember the direct link! Thank you, and Happy Poetry Friday to one and all! Please watch for my comments throughout the weekend...they will trickle in. I look forward to visiting everyone...
This Week's Offerings:
Come on up to the treehouse and visit with Charles Ghigna and Charlotte Rose. They are trying to write poems -- in between all of the giggles! Too much fun at the Father Goose Blog.
At TeacherDance, Linda shares an inspiring article about writing about nature with children - beautiful work. Listen for her granddaughter's poetry too!
Our friends at TeachingAuthors today are giving a standing ovation in honor of the 75th Anniversary of the Caldecott award...and the sound of applause inspires a poem.
Inspired by a non-fiction book she read this week, Katya offers a Sarah Teasdale poem at Write. Sketch. Repeat.
Jama is buttering up her readers at Alphabet Soup today with a poem by Elizabeth Alexander.
Laura is reminiscing about summer camp today at Author Amok. Her post has bug juice, musical theater, and "Food, Glorious Food" poems.
At inside the dog... Steve offers up original poem about all the rain they've gotten in NE Iowa during the last week.
Tara has been thinking a lot about the DOMA decision, and the poem she shares at A Teaching Life reflects this.
At The Opposite of Indifference, Tabatha has a Voice of America recording with our U.S. Poet Laureate, Natasha Trethewey - about finding the poem that speaks to you.
Ruth shares a Charles Simic poem and essay about poetry at There is no such thing as a God-forsaken town.
Over at Today's Little Ditty, Michelle has an original Neil Gaiman inspired poem titled "My Mountain".
To help kick off the first week of Teachers Write, Catherine offers "The Cities Inside Us" by Alberto Rios to celebrate writers and writing over at Reading to the Core.
At Reflections on the Teche, Margaret shares an original ekphrastic poem prompted by Tabatha's summer poem swap.
At I Think in Poems, Betsy will soon have a poem about a gentle walk she hopes to take near her home. And don't forget this month's Chalk-a-Bration at Teaching Young Writers! June's chalking fun will be two day's from now, Sunday, June 30. Link on in with Betsy. Here's how!
Donna from Mainely Write shares her poem "Two Rainbows and the Moon", recently published in the ezine SHADOWS EXPRESS. Her poem is on p. 51 - the last page, and she encourages us to enjoy all of the poems in the book!
Robyn is in this morning with some thoughts on "Island Time" for summer. She has a poem by U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey and an original haiku over at Life on the Deckle Edge.
Matt has questions - lots of questions - on his mind today at Radio, Rhythm & Rhyme.
Today at Teach Mentor Texts Jen reflects on all the people who have impacted her life and how much people can mean to us.
Irene is in with Valerie Worth poems about household objects at Live Your Poem.
Diane is in with three posts. At Random Noodling she has an original poem called "Independence Day." Kurious Kitty has some thoughts on pyrotechnics. And KK's Kwotes has a quote by Robert Frost.
At Thoughtful Corners, Renee offers two original poems inspired by this week's "Sometimes" quick-write from Teachers Write!
Buffy shares the delightful poetry gift she received from Mary Lee as well as the poem she shared for the summer Poetry Swap. Visit Buffy's Blog to read both.
Karen joins us with a summer poem by Amy Lowell over at Karen Edmisten: The Blog with the Shockingly Clever Title.
At A Year of Reading, Mark Lee is sharing "Turtle" by Kay Ryan in honor of a recent surprise visitor.
Cathy joins Poetry Friday at Merely Day By Day with an original moose-and-summer poem inspired by yesterday's trip to the zoo.
At Teaching Tomorrow's Leaders, Robin offers an original poem about how memories drift, stack, and pile in her mind.
Over at Kimberly Hirsh: Learning Enthusiast, Kimberly jumps into the pool with "Swim Your Own Race", a swimming poem by Mbali Vilakazi.
Dia over at Dia Calhoun: Children's Book Author offers her original poem "Loon Rise", a poem about a bird born not to fly, but to call a call that resonates in the heart.
Little Willow shares "Under the Light" from Laura Whitcomb's book of the same name at Bildungsroman.
Fats Suela at Gathering Books offers "Mnemonic", a poem by Li Young-Lee about the art of remembering.
At Keri Recommends, Keri shares the poetry anthology GOOD POEMS: AMERICAN PLACES, edited by Garrison Keillor, in celebration of the upcoming holiday.
Janet's selection at All About the Books is the picture poem book THE MOON by Robert Louis Stevenson and illustrated by Tracey Campbell Pearson.
Jim shares his original poem, "New Strings for Ukelele" at Hey, Jim Hill!
At Poetry for Children, Sylvia gives lets us peek at the "Cliff Notes" version of her upcoming ALA presentation with Janet Wong. At the Poetry Friday Anthology blog and the Poetry Friday Anthology for Middle School blog, please help yourself to some printable poems to share whenever you wish.
Teachers Write! with Kate Messner has inspired Stefanie to start a picture book/poem about the Pee Monster. She shares her first draft of opening stanzas is at Morning Musings.
At Poetry for Kids Joy, Joy offers a painting, a dream poem, and a poetry writing suggestion.
Please share a comment below if you wish.
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This Picture - Writing What We Do Not See
Country Road
Photo by Amy LV
Click the arrow to hear me read this poem to you.
Students - One exercise I have tried in a writing workshop is to "write about a photo that has never been taken, a photo that should have been taken". This is a great exercise because there are so many meaningful snips in our lives that we do not document with pictures. As a second part of this exercise, sometimes the leader asks us to write about the story that does not show in the photograph. Every photograph has things you can see...and things you cannot see.
This morning, driving Henry home from his swim practice, we were tickled to see a parade of ducklings crossing the road with their mom. I put on my flashing lights, stopped the car, got my camera, and the two of us got out to look. Wobble, wobble went the ducklings into the tall grass, and my camera was not quick enough to catch it!
Today's driving surprise was an gift, a reminder of the unexpected beauties that wait around every corner. This photograph and poem, my souvenirs of that moment in time, nudge me to find magic in unlikely places. I find myself wondering about all of the befores and afters of every moment I have ever lived, the happenings right before and right after I leave a meadow or a room.
Keri is hosting Poetry Friday! Head on over to Keri Recommends to find out all of what is happening poetry-wise in the Kidlitosphere today.
Please share a comment below if you wish.
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Visit Sharing Our Notebooks to peek in all kinds of notebooks...
Visit Sharing Our Notebooks to peek in all kinds of notebooks...
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Sticky Hands and Shirley's Poets
Sticky Hand!
by Amy LV
(I will share an audio recording of this poem when my voice comes back!)
Students - It's clear to see that this poem is simply fun to read. That's why I wrote it...to have fun in my mouth. The verse is about a feeling I have every time I roast marshmallows (I like them burned, peeling each layer off, seeing how many layers I can eat). The word 'sticky' repeats so many times because this is how I feel when I'm licking my fingers clean.
I love poems that play with sound, poems such as: "Click Beetle Clack Beetle" by Mary Ann Hoberman, "The Pickety Fence" by David McCord", "Lemons" by Patricia Hubbell, and "Yellow butter, purple jelly, red jam, black bread" by Mary Ann Hoberman. Find these, and read them aloud with a friend!
For today's Poetry Peek, I am so happy to introduce teacher and writer Shirley Thacker from Indiana. I had the pleasure of meeting Shirley at All Write! this year, and it is a pleasure to welcome her sharing student work here at The Poem Farm.
I love poems that play with sound, poems such as: "Click Beetle Clack Beetle" by Mary Ann Hoberman, "The Pickety Fence" by David McCord", "Lemons" by Patricia Hubbell, and "Yellow butter, purple jelly, red jam, black bread" by Mary Ann Hoberman. Find these, and read them aloud with a friend!
For today's Poetry Peek, I am so happy to introduce teacher and writer Shirley Thacker from Indiana. I had the pleasure of meeting Shirley at All Write! this year, and it is a pleasure to welcome her sharing student work here at The Poem Farm.
I love the beginning of the school: new supplies, fresh ideas, and brand new composition notebooks. . . a home to exciting stories and heartwarming poetry. No matter if it is my looping classes (Grades 1 or 2) or my Composition Comp Camps--on the first day we always decorate our new notebooks with stickers or pictures to personalize them. I use Georgia Heard's AWAKENING THE HEART to have the students make a heart and fill it with topics that they are experts at for future ideas. I use Ralph Fletcher's HOW TO WRITE YOUR LIFE STORY to make a map to record the place/time they're most familiar with. . . themselves and their surroundings.
I begin my Poetry Study in Reading Workshop 2-3 weeks before I start it in Writing Workshop. Students will have read and enjoyed lots and lots of poetry before I ask them to write any. (Some will already be ahead of the game!) One of my favorite mentor texts is PEACH AND BLUE by Sarah Kilborne. It is rich with a variety of writing craft that I use for mini lessons. I had re read the section describing the pond when we talked about imagery. Bray wrote his piece about Rock Skipping.
Rock Skipping Pond
by Bray Wilson
When you skip your rock
A magic
Overwhelms you.
It feels so good.
PLOP, Plump, SPLASH.
As it sinks
The magic seems
To leave,
But really the magic
Never leaves.
That’s when you wonder . . .
What might
Happen next??
Sometimes ideas are generated from class discussions too. After reading SOMEDAY, by Allison McGhee, students paired up to discuss their somedays . . .which led to 'I Wonder' with some of them. Kingston wrote his 'I Wonder' for Comp Camp.
Why?
by Kingston Browning
Why do birds fly? Why can’t fish cry?
Why do we walk? Why can’t dogs talk?
Why do we pass away? Why can’t we stay another day?
Why don’t we live in ice and snow? Why do fibs just grow, grow, grow?
Why is the world so big and round? Why are things lost and found?
Why isn’t every day a sunny day? Why do pets run away?
Why are bugs so small? Why can’t we fit inside a ball?
Why?
Mentor texts: ALL THE PLACES TO LOVE by Patricia MacLachlan, OH, THE PLACES YOU'LL GO! by Dr. Seuss, or Mark Teague’s HOW I SPENT MY SUMMER VACATION are all great leads to the students’s special places. Madysin wrote about her desire to go to Hershey, Pennsylvania.
Hershey, Pennsylvania
by Madisyn West
Smells like Chocolate
Light Posts with Hershey Kisses on the top
In another state
Hershey Kisses on the pillows at night
I can’t wait to go there. . .
I know I will someday
I know it smells like Chocolate,
I know it is temperate,
I know it is sweet.
I can’t wait to go there. . . .
I know I will some day
Someday . . . Someday . . .
Out to the garden to pick green beans, listen to the birds, and watch the butterflies. Summer is good!
Much gratitude to Shirley and her young poets for joining us today with these delightful poems and suggestions.
This week, I shared a writing exercise at Kate Messner's Teachers Write! Summer Camp. You can read the exercise - and stunning writing in the comments - here and read my whole DEAR STRANGER letter here if you wish.
If you have not yet peeked into Linda Baie's notebooks, you may do so at my other blog, Sharing Our Notebooks, a place to highlight notebooks and notebook keepers of all kinds.
Michelle is hosting Poetry Friday over at Today's Little Ditty. Visit her place to find all of the poetry goodness being shared in the Kidlitosphere today.
Please share a comment below if you wish.
Like The Poem Farm on Facebook for more poems, articles, and poemquotes!
Visit Sharing Our Notebooks to peek in all kinds of notebooks...
Visit Sharing Our Notebooks to peek in all kinds of notebooks...
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Foxes and Welcome to George Welgemoed!
Little Fox
by Amy LV
(I will add audio to this poem when my voice returns - it was a talky week!)
Students - This is a poem that I found in my old file of poems for FOREST HAS A SONG. It's a forest-y poem that never made it into the book, but I still like it. You'll see how just as in After Marshmallows, I smushed some words together. Yes, I do enjoy doing that.
The other week, when our daughter Hope went to volunteer at the horse barn where she works, we saw some baby foxes playing in the woods nearby. They were adorable, and once again I found myself wondering how something so cute could be considered so crafty.Yet, in Aesop's fables, the fox is indeed the crafty one. You can see this is so here in The Fox and the Grapes, The Fox Without a Tail, The Fox and the Goat, The Fox and the Stork, and so many more here.
Today I feel very lucky to welcome my new colleague and faraway friend George Welgemoed to The Poem Farm. From South Africa, George wrote to me in June asking if he might make designs to go with some of my poems. As a furniture maker, George was searching on the Internet for a photo of a small key box. Through his searching, he Googled his way to poems about keys and found The Poem Farm. Lucky me! Honored, I said yes, and today you can see two such pieces of his digital work.
George does design work and web design for the South African Police Service and says, "Designs, or art as you say it, is only a way to express some of my thoughts. I read a lot on the net and every day search for a poem of something interesting, something that you can illustrate to give it more than the poem itself. Sometimes I have this idea with a picture and then search for a poem...I think that all poems should be visualized, to see the power of the words...I choose the poem by its power of words the strongest visualization or I choose a particular image and then search for a poem that fits."
Technically, George makes these designs by searching through the Internet by using Google search results, images that will fit his visualization of the poem. He uses only pictures that are freely available (not copyright protected), layering multiple images to make something new with Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator.
When making digital designs, sometimes George finds a poem first, and sometimes he finds an image first. Either way, he uses different fonts to form the idea of each poem, thus giving "more power to the words".
"Designs for me are a way to express one"s thoughts," says George. At first he was very shy to do so, but he hopes to make people happy through sharing his designs. I'm so grateful to have met him, and I hope you enjoy seeing these interpretations of my poems as much as I have. Please, I welcome you, to leave any questions or words to George in the comments of today's post.
(Click to enlarge each image.)
Thank you so much, George, for finding me here and for sharing your work with us!
I am home again after almost a week in Paramus, NJ at the Paramus Writing Institute, organized by principal Tom Marshall of Stony Lane Elementary. It was a pleasure to work with so many wonderful teachers and to see my colleagues Stephanie Parsons, Karen Caine, the whole faculty of the institute, and the children's authors who spoke: Vicki Cobb, Alexandra Siy, and Kati Hites. I had a magnificent time and learned so much. Thank you, Tom! (If anyone is interested in reading the poems I threaded through my keynote on Tuesday, you may read them here.)
If you have not yet peeked into Linda Baie's notebooks, you may do so at my other blog, Sharing Our Notebooks, a place to highlight notebooks and notebook keepers of all kinds. Tomorrow I will draw and announce the name of a new notebook winner.
Jone is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at Check It Out. Stop by her place and enjoy all of the rich poetic offerings in the Kidlitosphere today...
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Visit Sharing Our Notebooks to peek in all kinds of notebooks.
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Visit Sharing Our Notebooks to peek in all kinds of notebooks.
Follow me on Twitter or Pinterest!
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