Write to Someone & a Peek!

Singing Chickadee

by Ava

I will record this poem as soon as my voice returns!

Students - This week I was tickled to find the tweet from Kindergarten Teacher Christie Wyman along with a charming singing chickadee drawn by Ava. Seeing her art inspired me to make something too. I wrote a poem to go with this art, especially for one person, Ava.  Many times, a writer will write to one person, but a reader might not know this unless the writer tells.

I began writing this poem with the word If....  If is a magical word, really, as a writer can follow it with anything at all.  I chose to write about sharing songs with the world, just as Artist Ava shared a song drawing that brought joy to my day.

You may notice that this poem repeats just one rhyme...with the oo sound.  In my notebook, I made a list of words rhyming with you to help me choose words that would make sense in my poem.  This is a technique I often use.

Word List

Photo by Amy LV

Chickadees are dear to our family. Years ago, I purchased the Dylan Metrano's beautiful chickadee piece from our book EVERY DAY BIRDS.  Unbeknownst to me, my husband Mark was planning to purchase it at the same time!

Original Papercut Chickadee from our EVERY DAY BIRDS

by Dylan Metrano

Here is our Georgia a couple of years ago, holding a stunned chickadee who flew into our window.  She has done animal rehabilitation work for many years, and she knew that this little one just needed a bit of rest before returning to the air.

Georgia and Chickadee

Photo by Amy LV

Sometimes the smallest birds, the smallest words, the smallest of gestures can be big indeed.

One hundred thousand welcomes to the Newfane Library Poets!  Last year, Director of Children's Programming, Cassy Clarcq, shared these wonderful poems with me, and at long last I am grateful and excited to be sharing them here.  Please enjoy the joy and variety in this selection of poems from last year's Newfane Library Poetry Celebration!

Please Click to Enlarge

I feel very lucky to host teacher and writer Brett Vogelsinger over at Sharing Our Notebooks this month.  Please drop by my other online space to read his post about notebook poetry drafting...and to be entered into a cool notebook giveaway as well.

Catherine is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at Reading to the Core with a celebration of International Women's Day! I will be celebrating this day by celebrating my wonderful mother's birthday this evening. Tonight we will share Chinese food, the carrot cake I just made from my great friend Sallye's recipe, and as always, this poem. Please know that the Poetry Friday community shares poems and poemlove each week, and everyone is invited to visit, comment, and post.  And if you have a blog, we welcome you to link right in with us.

Please share a comment below if you wish.

If you are under 13 years old, please comment only with a parent 

or as part of a group with your teacher and class.

Inspired by Nature, Inspired by a Teacher

Fingernail Clams Feeding from Western New York Woodland Vernal Pool
(Scooped from a Vernal Pool in Winter, Returned in Spring)
Video by Mark VanDerwater

Students - It is good to have a special place where you can go to be alone, to think and to pay attention to the world.  Here on our property, we have a vernal pool, a little body of water that just stays for part of the year, and my husband Mark loves to go and visit the critters.  There is a vernal pool at his high school too, and above, you can see a video Mark took of some of the teeny critters in wintertime, after they had warmed up inside his classroom.

When we are quiet and when we visit a place again and again, watching and writing, looking and drawing, we can learn very much.  About the world and about ourselves too.

I have another teacher friend who loves vernal pools too...

Today I am absolutely delighted to introduce Christie Wyman, a wise kindergarten teacher at Country Elementary School in Weston, Massachusetts.  I have followed Christie's beautiful teaching on Twitter (@MrsWymansClass), and I feel very lucky to welcome her and her last year's students to The Poem Farm today.  Enjoy this watercolor celebration of words...paying tribute to some plants and animals who live close by.  Welcome, Christie!  Welcome, writers and artists!

My Kindergarten students and I are inspired daily by the natural beauty of the school grounds of our PreK-3rd Grade elementary school and adjacent town conservation trails. 

Not far along one of the walking trails sits a vernal pool -- the first in a series of them, in fact. We visit this particular spot every 6-8 weeks to observe the changing of the seasons, learn about communities and habitats, and the wildlife that make their home in this truly magical place. Some animals are seen; some leave signs of their presence; others remain elusive throughout the year.

As the year progresses, our knowledge about vernal pools and their inhabitants grows. We use a schema chart with Post-its to record our thinking throughout the year, including our current and new learning, our misconceptions, and questions. Nature’s “cast of characters” inspired us in a new direction this year --writing poetry about them and painting their portraits in watercolors.

We began our poetry project by adopting a character. Each student researched their vernal pool community inhabitant and made a list of facts they had learned. After individually conferring about these facts, we gently -- ever so gently -- shaped them to take on a different form: poetry. Some Kindergarten poets chose to have their character do the talking, while others preferred to ask them questions. All are a lovely intermingling of science content knowledge and literacy learning. 

We’d like to introduce them to you now!

Thank you so much, Christie and students, for joining us today.  These poems are works of art are luscious, and if the critters and trees could read...they would surely feel honored.

Teachers - This is an exquisite example of tying poetry and art to science, and these young writers' poems would be magnificent mentor texts for other young writers studying habitats near to their own schoolyards.

In other happy news...  Many many congratulations to wise poet Irene Latham, winner of the 2016 International Literacy Association Lee Bennett Hopkins Promising Poet Award for her wonderful DEAR WANDERING WILDEBEEST!  Irene shared a bit of her revision process here in 2014, and I am so happy that her book - and her gifts - have been recognized with this generous award from Lee Bennett Hopkins.

Chelanne is hosting today's Poetry Friday party over at Books4Learning, and she offers a peek into Irene's book too.  Don't miss!  Each Friday, someone new hosts Poetry Friday, a listing of the week's poems and poetry ideas all around the blogosphere. All are always welcome to visit and share.  Happy Poetry Friday!

Please share a comment below if you wish.

If you are under 13 years old, please comment only with a parent 

or as part of a group with your teacher and class.