Wednesday, May 23, 2018

Writing Together Makes Life Good


Poetry Books!
Photo by Amy LV




Students - Today's poem is dedicated to all of you...to all of my poem reading and writing friends!  Here in the United States, it is the end of the school year.  These last few weeks and days are inviting me to reflect upon the many clever, sharing poem lovers I have met all year long.  I am thankful.

And sometimes, when I feel thankful, I write.  I wish each one of you many poems and many good poem reading and writing friends.

On this bright day in May, please keep reading to find a lovely gift for all of us...


Today, on their last day of school, I could not be happier to welcome Teacher Lauren Coffey, Volunteer Teacher Patricia Nesbitt, and the fourth grade poets of McNeill Elementary School in Bowling Green, Kentucky.  It has been a joy to read these students' poems and to learn about their process.

Please sit back and enjoy this collection of beautiful, thoughtful words...


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To celebrate these young poets' work, I am offering a giveaway to a commenter on this post.  Please comment with words to these poets on today's post to be entered to win a copy of my POEMS ARE TEACHERS: HOW STUDYING POETRY STRENGTHENS WRITING IN ALL GENRES.  I will draw the name of one commenter next Thursday, May 31 and will announce the winner next Poetry Friday, June 1!  Thank you, Heinemann, for the book to share.

And now....it is Friday and I continue celebrating my new poet friends from Bowling Green, Kentucky as I also invite you to visit two places.

Over at my other blog, Sharing Our Notebooks, the magnificent 6th Grade Blog Takeover continues.  Michelle Haseltine's students are running the show over there for the whole month of May, and it has been a joy!  Please note that I will be drawing another giveaway winner of a commenter on one of this week's posts.  And I'll be drawing that winner's name tomorrow!

And this week, you can find the Poetry Friday roundup over at Margaret's place, Reflections on the Teche.  Learn all about what's happening poetry-wise in the Kidlitosphere this week and read Margaret's lovely sonnet for sandpipers too.

Please share a comment below if you wish.

11 comments:

  1. Lauren Coffee and 4th grade poets-my students and I loved reading your poems! We noticed precise words, repetition, ending with a bang!, great titles, conversations, stanzas, line breaks...WOW!! I used this as our opening lesson for students as they were choosing their best poems to publish.

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  2. Thank you, Kim. We are so proud of our students’ effort and enthusiasm for this poetry project. They explored their hearts, and the result was beautiful.

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  3. How delightful to read your poems! I was transported to the places you wrote about and the people and animals and things you care about by your words. Your sensory detail made me feel like I was right beside you as your shared the treasured places and people of your heart. How wonderful to end your year with this opportunity to write and to have this slide show so you can revisit the poems again and again. Way to go, 4th grade poets!

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  4. I loved reading the love these students had for their topics, from family like a great grandmother and a brother, from places like the ocean and a pond with a willow tree, from activities like gymnastics and music and painting, they've written from their heart. Thanks for sharing, Amy and 4th grade poets. And thanks for your poem, too, Amy. Endings are especially poignant this time of year with the end of school and graduations happening.

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  5. Not only do you create beautiful, thoughtful and powerful poetry....but you draw like-minds to each other. I loved seeing the poems of these ten year old poets. I have so much to learn from them.

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  6. Thank you, Lauren Coffey and students, for sharing you wonderful poetry. "Jack" by Landon Gilbert reminded me not to be judgmental when someone makes a mistake... like they often do with my name, too. And I liked how Avery Duncan wrote of then and now in the two stanzas of "Elizabeth." I love all the wondering expressed, the use of repetition, and perhaps most of all the exploration of friendship in so many of the poems. Thank you, Amy, for sharing this post and I love your poem -- perfect for to use in a poetry unit. :)

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  7. This was such a perfect poem for the last week of school with my wonderful writers! Thank you!

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  8. Clearly these young poets are writing from their hearts about what is important to them. Then, the alchemy of poet and reader-- "And somehow/poems made us care." Yes! Thanks so much for sharing their poems and yours as well.

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  9. Your poem is a lovely gift to all you have read and written with this year!

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  10. Congratulations to all these young poets for their thoughtful, creative writing! Wishing all, including you, Amy, a summer where poetry keeps on sprouting up between the sidewalk cracks. XO

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  11. What a rich offering these students had, I loved the slide displaying the poetry books and the info on where poetry hides–all such fertile material to build poems from! The students created moving and heartfelt poems. And thanks too for your lovely poem Amy!

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