Welcome to Day 10 of Wallow in Wonder! For my 2016 National Poetry Month project, I will celebrate learning and writing from learning, writing poems from each daily Wonder at Wonderopolis. As I did with my Dictionary Hike in 2012, I am looking to surprise myself with new inspiration daily. This year, such inspiration will show up in my inbox each morning. I will print it and carry each Wonderopolis Wonder around all day...and in the afternoon or evening, I will write and post the poem for the next day.
I invite anyone who wishes to take this challenge too. Just read today's wonder over at Wonderopolis, and write a poem inspired by it for tomorrow. Share it tomorrow at your own site, and if you wish to link in my comments for others to find (or share your poem there), please feel free to do so tomorrow, the day after the Wonder is published at Wonderopolis. If you would like to share any ways you have used Wallow in Wonder or your own site (safe for children only please), please link to the #WallowInWonder padlet.
My April Poems Thus Far
April 1 - So Suddenly - a poem inspired by Wonder #1659
April 2 - Thankful Journal - a poem inspired by Wonder #1660
April 3 - The Storm Chaser - a poem inspired by Wonder #779
April 4 - A Jar of Glitter - a poem inspired by Wonder #641
April 5 - To Make Compost - a poem inspired by Wonder #1661
April 6 - Deciding Now - a poem inspired by Wonder #1662
April 7 - Hummingbird's Secret - a poem inspired by Wonder #1663
April 8 - Limits - a poem inspired by Wonder #1664
April 9 - Sundogs - a poem inspired by Wonder #1665
April 10 - Perspective - a poem inspired by Wonder #128
April 11 - At the History Museum - a poem inspired by Wonder #115
And now for Day 12!
Daily Notes
by Amy LV
Students - You probably already know that I love notebooks. After all, I keep a whole blog about notebooks - Sharing Our Notebooks. So when I began thinking and jotting in my notebook about yesterday's wonder, "Why Are There Seven Days in a Week?" I got to thinking about recording things over time.
Many people like to keep logs of weather. These may be be small date books or leather journals, or even books made for recording weather such as this one - THE WEATHER WIZARD'S FIVE YEAR DIARY. Keeping track of weather teaches people about their surroundings and also lets them look back to see patterns in weather over time. You can find and read examples of these notebooks such as this one by John Andrew.
Scientists today are even using crowd-sourcing methods (having many people help with small pieces of a project through the Internet) to learn about weather of the past and to project future weather. You can see an example of this at Old Weather where the scientists are studying old ships' logs for weather observations.
Keep your eyes open when you visit flea markets; you might just find an old weather diary yourself! If you'd like to keep a weather journal, you might look at this one. You could use it, or you could make your own. Then, your children's children's children can see what the weather today is like - because you wrote it down!
Today was going to be a free verse day, but when I got writing, the poem wanted to rhyme. That happens sometimes!
This poem introduces a character who goes back in time reading a great-grandfather's weather notebook. Yesterday's poem introduced a character who imagined back in time and future in time too. I often wonder if the themes in daily poems come from somewhere deep inside a writer. How could they not?
Oh, and in case you were wondering if today's poem is true...it is not. As far as I know, none of my great-grandfathers kept weather notebooks. My mom's mom's dad did keep family scrapbooks, but no weather notebooks.
You can read another poem inspired by Wonder #1666 if you visit Wonder Lead Ambassador, literacy advocate, teacher, and writer Paul Hankins at his Wonder Ground blog where he, too, is writing daily poems from Wonderopolis wonders. He and I are in this together daily and some other writers are joining in on the fun sometimes too. All are welcome to wonder through poems with us.
Please don't miss a blog post at my other blog! Middle school teacher and librarian Stefanie Cole and her students from Ontario, Canada are visiting Sharing Our Notebooks this month. This is a wonderful post full of notebook inspiration, a video clip, and a great book giveaway from Stefanie.
Happy Day 12 of National Poetry Month 2016!
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