Last Day & A Poetry Peek

Final Ride
Photo by Amy LV

Students - This wee verse grew from the time of year.  In classrooms all around the United States, schools are getting ready to let out for summer.  Beginnings and endings are full of feelings, and this poem simply lists a few of them.  Change is powerful and sometimes scary, beautiful and sometimes confusing.  Life is like that. The word "bittersweet" is one of my favorite words because it so perfectly matches a feeling I often feel.

This verse belongs to a family of such poems here at The Poem Farm.  You can find the other two family members here: Ready (for the first day of school) and Last Day of School (for the last day).

Today's poem is dedicated to Sheila Cocilova's second grade poets in Fairport, NY. It is also dedicated to all teachers and students at this looking-back-looking-forward time of year.  Enjoy your memories and your celebrating of important milestones.  Congratulations on your work, your friendships, what you have given to others, and all of the ways you have grown into being who you are meant to be.  Happy joyous summer!

Themed Poetry Anthologies

Tioughnioga Riverside Academy, Whitney Point, NY

by Kristie Miner and Cheryl Donnelly

Welcome to teacher Cheryl Donnelly and her fourth-grade students and Intermediate Literacy Coordinator Kristie Miner from the Whitney Point Central School District.  Below, Kristie and Cheryl explain the process they followed in helping their students create theme-based poetry anthologies.

Throughout the month of April, we followed Amy at The Poem Farm, enthusiastically reading her theme-based poems, learning from her daily writing tips. After the first week, students began to entertain the idea of writing poems based on their own themes, and from this, our theme-based poetry anthologies grew.  

Here you can see our anthology covers and read the students' poems and process notes.

Our Process:

• First, students created lists of possible anthology themes in their writers’ notebooks. Topics included special places, memorable events, hobbies, favorite sports and even favorite foods.       

• Next, students selected a theme and generated a list of topics that could be included within their theme.

• Students spent several days exploring published poetry, which then served as mentors for their own writing.

• Students were guided by Amy’s daily “instruction” as they crafted new poems or revised poems-in-progress.

• Finally, students published one poem from their growing collection. 

The biggest joy in creating our anthologies was watching the creativity flow out of every student. There were no parameters, and students responded with out-of-the-box thinking that resulted in unique, expressive and meaningful poetry. Most importantly, we learned that poetry resides within and around each of us—we just need to listen carefully to what it has to say.

Much gratitude to these teachers and students for sharing this fantastic project. Way to take on a challenge!  

Over at Sharing Our Notebooks, I am happy to host Shane Couch with his many cool notebooks full of writing and art.  Stop on over to learn about his notebooks and if you wish, comment to be entered in a notebook giveaway.

Carol (she and Catherine switched weeks) is hosting today's Poetry Friday extravaganza over at Carol's Corner!  Everyone is invited to read, eat, drink, share, and swim in poems and poem-celebrations of all kinds.  Every Friday we pass the roundup around, and we welcome all.

For those of you who are indeed finishing up school this week, please know that I will still be here throughout the summer, each Friday, versing away.

Please share a comment below if you wish.

Big Cat & Kindergarten RHYME SCHOOL

Oscar & Houdini (Both Need Homes!)

Photo by Hope LV

 

Click the arrow to hear me read this poem to you.

Students - Whenever these last days of school come around, I find myself thinking about changes.  How have my children grown and changed?  How have students I know grown and changed?  How have I grown and changed? Because we have kittens in the house right now, I am also watching them change day-by-day.  All of this rolled together into today's poem.

You will notice that "Big Cat" begins with the speaker comparing him/herself to a kitten.  I wanted to keep this same comparison through my whole poem, and you can see this in stanza two, especially in the verbs playing, pouncing, and pawing.  In the third stanza, the speaker is a grown up cat...a year has gone by.

It's neat to do this, keep one comparison throughout a poem.  Pay attention to your writing - if you discover that you have a strong metaphor in one line, ask yourself, "Hmmm....might I carry this through more than one stanza?"

Today I am thrilled to welcome kindergarten teacher Betsy Hubbard and her students from Fern Persons Elementary School in Olivet, Michigan, on one of their very last days of school.  It is a treat to host a writing party for them here at The Poem Farm!  

Teacher Betsy Hubbard

Photo by Shawn Hubbard

This school year has been a huge one in terms of my growth as a teacher. I have stepped out of many boxes this year and almost everything I did here with students was a first for me and a great experience.

My kindergarten students love reading and listening to poetry all year long. However, in April they enjoyed new adventures in poetry; writing their own! To find inspiration, the students first explored walking trails, creatures under logs and leaves, and a floral garden. With their writer's notebooks students made lists of observations, listened to quiet sounds and drew pictures of what they saw. Each student wrote poems about their outdoor adventures and drew matching illustrations with everything from watercolors to chalk.

Tyler and Lane Peek Under the Leaves
Photo by Betsy Hubbard

Zoe...
Photo by Betsy Hubbard

...Peter...
Photo by Betsy Hubbard

...and Kden Record Observations in Their Notebooks
Photo by Betsy Hubbard

We explored all kinds of poetry written by all kinds of poets, and we even listened to several poems from Amy here at the Poem Farm and peeked into other classroom poetry journeys.  From all this exposure, students began to learn about what makes poetry so interesting. VARIETY! Onomatopoeia, rhyme, and alliteration make poems appealing to the ear, while free verse can have a sound and meaning all its own. My kindergarten students learned from each other and shared their poetry with classmates, teachers, and third grade buddies who commented on their hard work.

Comment Compliments

Photo by Betsy Hubbard

Each student made a book of poems to treasure, and we taped comments to the back. This positive feedback was both a motivator and confidence builder. Students then had the task of choosing a favorite poem from their personal collection, and we created a classroom poetry anthology to collect all of their poetic memories!

I gave each of my students their personal copies of the anthology yesterday and told them they were each published authors. One young poet came up to me and said, "My mom is going to be so proud of me!"

I send many many thanks to teacher Betsy and all of her poet students for joining us today and for sharing their warm words and joy-filled illustrations. Congratulations, poets, on your class poetry anthology! I know that you will keep this book, Mrs. Hubbard, and each other in your hearts forever.
For more inspiration, you can follow Betsy Hubbard's blog at Teaching Young Writers.

Please share a comment below if you wish.

To find a poem by topic, click here. To find a poem by technique, click here.

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