Happy National Poetry Month!
Welcome to Day 29 of this Year's Poem Farm Project!
Find the Complete April 2015 Poem and Song List Here
First, I would like to welcome all old and new friends to The Poem Farm this April. Spring is a busy time on all farms, and this one is no exception. Each April, many poets and bloggers take on special poetry projects, and I'm doing so too. You can learn all about Sing That Poem! and how to play on my April 1st post, where you will also find the list of the whole month's poems and tunes as I write and share them. If you'd like to print out a matching game page for yourself, you can find one here, and during April 2015, you'll be able to see the song list right over there in the left hand sidebar.
Yesterday's poem was Pocket Poem Song. Here is the tune that goes along with it, below. Did you figure it out?
A great big welcome to the fourth grade students in Bernadette Kearns' class at Beaumont Elementary School in Devon, Pennsylvania. They got it! Thank you so much for singing to us all.
And here, below, is today's poem. Look at the song list in the sidebar or on your matching form to see if you can puzzle out which tune matches this one.
Puzzle Present Box Top
Puzzle by Teacher Sheila Cocilova and Students
Photo by Amy LV
Poem Puzzle
Puzzle by Teacher Sheila Cocilova and Students
Photo by Amy LV
Friendship Puzzle Complete
Puzzle by Mrs. Cocilova & Students
Photo by Amy LV
Students - Yesterday, I had the good fortune to visit three schools - Jefferson Avenue Elementary, Brooks Hill Elementary, and Dudley Elementary - in the Fairport Central School District in Fairport, NY In each school, I met with the whole second grade class as they are all in the middle of a big poetry writing unit. I felt so welcomed and very inspired by these young writers and their teachers.
Teacher and writer Sheila Cocilova and her second grade students sent me home from Fairport with a puzzle present. Not a singing puzzle, but a real jigzaw puzzle that they made, and you can see a few pictures of it above. Below you can read the words that travel around the perimeter.
Poetry is like a puzzle
each word like a single puzzle piece
uniquely fitting together with others
to create a beautiful finished product.
Looking at my new puzzle, reading the names of these students and thinking about all of the students and teachers I visited with yesterday...I felt happy to have been in Fairport, and sad to not be there today. This made me remember times that I have moved from one house to another and times when children I know have told me moving stories.
I often say that one word I love in the English language is bittersweet. It means that something can be both happy and sad at the same time. That's how I feel about moving and about visiting schools. It is sweet to meet new friends...and sad to say goodbye.
It has been said that powerful writing grows when we can hold onto two feelings at once, two feelings like bitter and sweet. If you can remember a time when you felt both happy and sad...this might give you a powerful start to a new piece of writing.
Remember - tomorrow is Poem in Your Pocket Day! Don't forget to find a poem for your own pocket, and I hope that you enjoy yesterday's Pocket Poem Song too.
Please share a comment below if you wish.
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