We Did It!
Photo by Amy LV
Students - Life is chock full of moments to feel happy about. One accomplishment to feel happy about is a writing piece finished and shared with friends or with readers we do not even know. Today I am grateful to share all kinds of writing by poets and songwriters of different ages. Today's poem is for the writers of the pieces you are about to read...and for all of you who celebrate writing with me all year long. Thank you!
Please sit back and take great pleasure in these works...
First, I welcome First Grade Teacher Mark Kehl of Arcade Elementary in Arcade, NY and his young poet, Colton.
Colton had overheard his parents talk about their previous home. He is only 8 but is writing about a house that they had for 11 years. He is an old soul.
Welcome, now, to First Grade Teacher Amanda Urbanski and her poets from Cattaraugus - Little Valley Elementary School in Cattaraugus, NY.
A musical welcome to Music Teacher Heather Holden and Songwriter Zoe Lesika of Lindbergh Elementary in Buffalo, NY. Zoe approached Heather with the beautiful melody she wrote which turns my "Song" from FOREST HAS A SONG into a real song. It is beautiful, and I am so grateful to Zoe for writing it and for Heather for reaching out and sharing it.
From FOREST HAS A SONG
Illustration by Robin Gourley
(Click to enlarge)
Beautiful melody by Zoe Lesika
And a hearty welcome to Sixth Grade Teacher Helene Albrecht and her two classes of poets from Oradell Public Schools in Oradell, NJ.
From Helene:
During Poetry Month we began over a month long unit on poetry where students were immersed in reading and writing different kinds of poetry. The children listened to music while writing poetry inspired by paint chip colors. They also wrote color poems by Writing the Rainbow, The Poem Farm's challenge to pick a random crayon from a box of crayons to create poems.
I introduced my students to blackout poetry using different text. The amazing pictures that were created can be found on our Instagram @la.in.6a. Many of the ideas for poems, such as list poems and just because poems, came from 30 Days of Poetry, a name many of us ELA teachers use to describe our poetry units. Among others, I used the following websites as resources: Mrs. McKeown's Thirty Days of Poetry, 30 Days of Poetry, 30 Days of Poetry (II).
At the end of our Poetry Unit, we invited the parents in so that we could share our creations. The children chose one of their favorite poems from their Poetry Notebook and created a slide for our class slide shows which you can view below.
Lucky, lucky us. Thank you to everybody who was part of these beautiful celebrations. I celebrate and thank all of you today! Please, kind reader...leave these writers a kind comment.
If you have not yet visited, Linda Rief has opened her gorgeous notebooks this month over at my other blog, Sharing Our Notebooks. Please visit and leave a comment by next Thursday, July 29 to be entered into a giveaway of one of Linda's books. You can find all kinds of notebook inspiration over there!y
Heidi is hosting today's Poetry Friday by celebrating her students and their over at my juicy little universe. Visit her warm space for this week's roundup of poetry and friendship.
Happy happy summer to all! I am on a blogging holiday for July...and maybe longer. During this time, I will complete a writing project for the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, draft a proposal with an illustrator, organize the poems already here, and make some jam! You can still find me at The Poem Farm Facebook Page, Twitter, and Instagram, sharing old poems from the archives and other things I find along the path of summer. Much joy!
xo,
Amy
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