Occasion Poems: Back to School

 

Mr. Chomper the Pencil Sharpener

Photo by Amy LV

Students - This week I went back to school again, having been out of the classroom and working as an author and writing teacher for the past 22 years. A former fifth grade teacher, now I am a happy fourth grade teacher!

Students and teachers alike have been nervous about returning, and yet, the wonderfulness of children made everything good. I am thankful for my students and new colleagues.

 

Sometimes life offers a change or an occasion such as back to school time. Maybe you get a new pet or move from your old house. One person learns to ride a tricycle and another graduates from trike to bike. Changes are occasions...and we can write poems for them. What changes or occasions are you seeing in your life and in the lives of those you care about these days? Consider a poem as a gift…for your future self or for someone you love.

Kiesha is hosting this week's Poetry Friday party over at Whispers from the Ridge with the roundup and some poems by one of her favorite poets, Paul Laurence Dunbar. All are welcome each Friday as we share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship. Check out my left sidebar to learn where to find this poetry goodness each week of the year.

Please share a comment below if you wish.day 

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

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

New Teacher New Year - A First Day of School Poem

Oak Leaves and Watercolors

Photo by Amy LV

Students - I have been very lucky to meet many many teachers this summer.  My work takes me to different places where I have the good fortune to learn about different people and different classrooms and different ideas from teachers of all different grades.  Lots of times, I find myself wishing that I could be in school again, to have the chance to have this teacher or that one.  And one of the things that always strikes me the most is how a teacher can make a student feel, and how these feelings help or hurt our learning.  

This poem dedicated to teachers, teachers who are all also beginning or almost-beginning school, just like you.  Teachers who stay in our hearts, teachers who whisper in our ears even when we are all grown up.

And this poem is also dedicated to you, to students.  May your first day of school - and the days that follow - fill your minds and hearts and souls with goodness.

Like you, I have had many teachers in my life, and each one has made me a little bit of who I am.  This summer, one of my teachers (one I have never met) is award-winning author and our Children's Poet Laureate Jacqueline Woodson.  I am reading every single one of her books to help me learn both about life and about writing.  And what a teacher she is!  Two of her books that I am thinking about today, LOCOMOTION and PEACE, LOCOMOTION exquisitely explore, among other things, the power of teachers.

I cannot recommend highly enough all Jacqueline Woodson's books.  They are making me a better person, and I hope, a better writer too.

Available at Your Local Bookshop

Available through Your Local Bookshop

I am happy to share that my forthcoming EVERY DAY BIRDS, with beautiful cut paper illustrations by Dylan Metrano and published by Scholastic in both English and bilingual editions, is available (English only) for pre-order on Amazon.  The publication date is February 23, 2016.  

Available for Pre-Order through Amazon

Tabatha is hosting today's grand Poetry Friday roundup over at The Opposite of Indifference.  Visit her place to check out the poetry happenings all around the Kidlitosphere this week.  We're a warm and welcoming community, and everyone is invited!

Please share a comment below if you wish.

Struck by a Tiny Paper Home

Squishy's Paper Home

Home by Alex and Friends

Photo by Amy LV

Students - This past Wednesday, I visited Plank South Elementary School in Webster, NY, and at the end of the day, fourth grader Alex showed me her small toy turtle Squishy (can you see part of his name on that yellow sticky note?), and his neat paper home.  She began with the folded walls and floor, and her friends were helping her build the rest (not exactly in the way my poem says...I made some parts up).  When I saw this paper home, I thought, "If I were Squishy, I'd be happy to have such a cozy place to live!"  

When I was a young girl, I loved making homes for little animals out of boxes and anything I could find.  So, seeing Squishy's home struck something inside of me. Much of writing is about just this - being struck by things. And then notice when you are struck.  What do you find funny or quirky or deeply sad or fascinating? These are the things you should write about.  Taking pictures helps me to remember, but so does my notebook and so does this blog.  Now, because I wrapped my arms and ink and time around this memory, Alex and her friends and Squishy will always have a little piece of real estate in my heart.  Thank you, Alex!

You will notice that there is a rhyme scheme to this poem.  It is almost in squished together quatrains, except for the last lines which stretch out from four to five in order to slow down the ending.

I am so pleased to welcome Natalie S. today!  Earlier this week, I also visited another school - Douglas J. Regan Intermediate in Lockport, NY.  As a part of that visit, I had the opportunity to eat lunch and write with several fourth grade writers, including Natalie from Breann Kolacz's class.  Natalie offered to share this poem with all of us for today's Poetry Friday gathering.

Old Bedroom

by Natalie S.

Come join me 

As you open the door

You will see 

The bright 

Yellow wall

With the 

Butterflies and 

               Flowers                

Everywhere you look

Is a memory I’ll

Treasure for ever

You see the 

Bright sun through

The big window

You can hear 

The birds chirping

As they soar 

Among the clouds

And stars

Don't you feel like you are there?  Thank you so much, Natalie, for this lovely tour of memory and beauty.

Gena has won this month's drawing over at Sharing Our Notebooks.  Gena, if you see this, please drop me a line with your snail mail address and your choice of book. Congratulations!  And to all who notebook or know notebookers, I am looking for new posters over at Sharing Our Notebooks.  Right now I am particularly interested in all kinds of unusual notebooks and also notebooks kept by boys or men.  It would be good to get some guy notebooks up over there, so if you know any notebooker of any age, I would so appreciate it if you would send that person my way.

Heidi is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup today over at My Juicy Little Universe.  Be sure to CHeck out the CHallenge she has offered for MarCH!

Please share a commnent below if you wish.

100 Reasons to be Thankful

Celebrating with Gratitude

by Amy LV

Students - This week, my friend, second grade teacher Sheila Cocilova, and I have been talking about writing occasion poems.  She has been writing poems about Dr. Seuss, and I have been thinking about the fullness of February. The other week, a wise friend (Who were you?  I forgot!) told me that someone should write a poem for February, a month stuffed with special days, or August, a month with almost none. Writing back and forth with Sheila reminded me that the 100th day of school is near now, and her work on those Dr. Seuss poems inspired me to try writing an occasion poem too.

It can be wonderful to get an idea from a friend!  On a day when you're not sure what to write, why not just walk around and look at what everyone else has been writing?  Perhaps all friends could just put out their folders or notebooks and folks could walk around quietly, reading what each writer has placed on top to share. Allow each of these offerings to invite you into a new writing idea you might not have planned on your own.  Today I have Sheila to thank for mine.  Thank you, Sheila!

And thank you as well to Tarak McLain.  Several years ago, I heard Tarak's voice sharing thirty of one hundred of his important beliefs on a This I Believe npr program.  His voice and thoughtfulness have helped me and have helped many students of all ages find ideas for their own opinion writing.

Today's small verse, as you have likely figured out, is a simple list poem.  And a thankful list is something you can keep yourself.  Science shows that people who write down and think about what they are thankful for are happier people?  This makes sense, don't you think?  You can keep a poster of things and moments to be thankful for with your classmates or you can keep your own gratitude journal like my friend Catie does.  I once knew a teacher and class of students who kept gratitude journals as part of their writers notebooks.  There are many ways to be thankful on this beautiful planet.

Here's an invitation!  I hereby invite any class that begins a 100 Reasons Celebration List to share it here.  Teachers - Please just send me an e-mail to amy@amylv.com with your photograph, and I will add your picture (the year doesn't matter...these posts come back each year in varioius ways) to the bottom of today's post. 

Here is a thankful list written by Librarian Gretchen Seibert's students at Edison Elementary in Tonawanda, NY.

Edison Students' Gratitude List 2015

Photo by Amy LV

Gratitude List by Edison Students 2015 - Close Up

Photo by Amy LV

I am thankful to have made so many friends here at The Poem Farm.  Thank YOU!

Speaking of gratitude, if you haven't yet seen Olga McLaren's Grandmother Journals over at my other blog, Sharing Our Notebooks, don't miss them.  They're something else.

Please share a comment below if you wish.

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.

Goodbyes and Kindergarten Poems

Hope's Eighth Grade Graduation
Photo by Amy LV

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

Students - While summertime is full of sweet goodness, sometimes goodbyes are a little teary.  When the ends of school years come, I always find myself thinking about the good memories that threaded through the months, the memories that our children, all children, teachers, and I will hold onto forever.  So this poem is a bit of a list, a list of school memories to cherish.

In writing this poem, I decided to write from a teacher's perspective because I am a teacher and a grown-up, and I think that I understand what teachers feel.  Also, when I wrote these words, I wanted students to know that their teachers always remember them.  Some of my former students are almost thirty years old now, and I have not forgotten.  I remember their boxes full of collections, the novels they wrote in spiral notebooks, and the way they shared their favorite books.  I remember our giggles, our tough times, and the way we grew up together.  All teachers do.  See that repeating line?  I won't forget. Children matter greatly to their teachers.

For today's Poetry Peek, I am so happy to introduce kindergarten teacher Erin Jarnot and her students from Elma Primary School in the Iroquois Central School District as they celebrate poetry on this summer Friday. Welcome, Erin and young poets!

Kindergarten Poets: Krysia, Breanna, Grace, William, and Nick

Photo by Erin Jarnot

Teaching poetry to kindergarteners might seem like a challenge, but I was up for it!  With the right resources, tools, and great authors/poets to use as models (thank you Regie Routman and Amy VanDerwater), anything is possible!

Before beginning any formal writing of poetry, I exposed my students to TONS of poems – some that rhymed, some that didn’t, some that you could sing as songs, some that you couldn’t, some that were long, some that were short, some that had repeating lines, some that didn’t.  This was helpful when teaching how to write poetry because I could easily refer back to something we had previously read, and the kids would remember it.

Another step I took with my class before writing poetry was getting their brains “thinking like poets”.  I used many objects from nature (sticks, rocks, shells, leaves, tree bark, etc.) and did a lot of comparing with these objects.  I told my students that poets describe what things are like and we would use the nature objects to get our brains “thinking like poets”.  My favorite object was a plain old stick from a tree.  It was about 2 feet long, thin, smooth with a slight bend in it.  Some comparisons the students came up with were:

It’s a wizard wand.

It is smooth like a snake.

It is like a walking cane.

It is like a light saber for fighting.

It is a wand for a band conductor.

It is like your pointer for teaching.

Each object had its own set of comparisons.  I emphasized using the words “like” or “as” when the boys and girls were comparing different things.

Colors

by Nick

Squirrels

by Grace

Then came a few lessons right from Kids’ Poems – Teaching Kindergartners to Love Writing Poetry (Regie Routman).  

Available through Scholastic

The Getting Started and Sharing Kids’ Poems sections are must reads.  They are short and really inspiring.  If you have the mindset that a poem can be about anything at all, and that just about anything can be written as a poem, it will make teaching poetry a lot of fun!  I used the student samples right from this book to show my students.  They thought it was neat to see the unedited versions of student poems.  They could relate to them because the sample writing looked just like their own writing.  My students also loved hearing the names of the students who wrote each poem in the Regie Routman book.  They belonged to real kids, just like them.

We did a lot of modeled and shared writing before the students worked independently.  On those days, we’d write poems together.  Sometimes I’d write one of my own, sometimes I’d mimic a poem that was from the book.  I thought it was important for the students to know that sometimes poets think of a poem in their head and say what it would sound like out loud before going back to write it.  That seemed to help some of the students organize their thoughts a bit.

Milli

by Krysia

I gave the boys and girls a choice at this point.  They could try a poem if they thought they were ready, or they could do some familiar journal writing.  A few students tried the poems right away, and surprisingly, a few of them got the hang of it.  After about a week of modeled and shared writing of poems, I gave all students special “poetry paper” which was 8 ½ x 14 paper with writing lines on it (because you write a poem down the page instead of across the page) – this gave the students a different perspective since they usually write on 8 ½ x 11 pieces of paper.  Now it was time to get to work.

Summer

by Breanna

We worked for about two weeks or so just writing poems.  Each day for my mini lesson, I would add new things the kids could try in their poems (repeating line, topic ideas, more comparing strategies, punctuation, lack of punctuation, etc).  The boys and girls thought it was neat that when writing poetry they could kind of “break the rules”!  One girl even wrote her entire poem in capital letters just because she could – she didn’t have to follow a sentence structure format.

After many days of writing and writing, I collected all the poems and typed them up.  Students then illustrated pictures to match their poems.  I kept the student copies and bound a small poetry collection for each student including all of his or her poems.  I mimicked Regie Routman’s set up of the student poems in her book.  Overall, they turned out really well, and everyone was very proud of their work – me included!

Star Wars

by William

Thank you so much to Erin and her young poets for their generous sharing of both poems and process today.  I hope that they will continue to find and write poems all through the summer, perhaps taking some of that big long paper home with them!

Margaret is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at Reflections on the Teche where you can find the poetic goodies for this week and learn about Margaret's students' writing marathon too.  Happy Poetry Friday!

Please share a comment below if you wish.

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

Like The Poem Farm on Facebook for more poems, articles, and poemquotes!

Let's Not Talk About Bullies...

An Old Picture of Hope and Monster 

Photo by Amy LV

 

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

Students - I have been listening to the news lately, and there has been lot of talk about bullying.  The other day, maybe after too much news, this line popped into my head - Let's not talk about bullies.  Then, over the past few days, it kept on popping up in my head, and I could not shake it out.  So that's where this poem came from at first. Once I started writing, though, I realized that if I don't want to talk about bullies, there must be something else that I DO want to talk about.  And there is.  Kindness.

When we used to live in Amherst, NY, we had a neighbor named Nancy.  Nancy would feed birds right out of her hand, right out of the air, and she knew each chickadee by sight.  This past summer, our daughter Georgia volunteered at a wildlife rehabilitation center with our friend Margaret, and there she witnessed much kindness as people fed injured herons and orphaned possums.  Just yesterday, I walked into my credit union, and a man waited to hold the door for me to walk through.  Good people are everywhere, and I wish to celebrate them.

If you need a writing idea, you might try asking yourself...What do I NOT want to talk about?  What DO I want to talk about?  You might even want to begin with a line like, "Let's not talk about..." and see where it takes you.  (You can always take off that first line later!)

In terms of structure, you may have noticed that this poem repeats the word let's over and over again, usually at the beginning of the lines.  In my mind, I'm calling this an invitation poem as it invites the reader to do something...talk goodness.

You may also notice the circular structure.  The first two and last two lines are the same - I love doing that!

Today's picture is of our oldest daughter, Hope, a few years ago.  She is holding Monster, a wonderful cat who has since died.  We took stray Monster into our hearts years ago, and he returned the favor by loving some abandoned kittens we found in a ditch.  Sometimes animals are the most kind of all...

Congratulations to Diane Mayr (Random Noodling)....winner of last week's giveaway of THE POETRY FRIDAY ANTHOLOGY!  Please send me your snail mail address, Diane, and I will get it off to you.

Over Sharing Our Notebooks, Peter Salomon is still visiting on the eve of the publication of his book HENRY FRANKS. Stop by and read about Peter's first notebooks and enter yourself in the giveaway of his new book - the drawing is tomorrow!

Katya is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at Write. Sketch. Repeat. Visit there to see who's got what at today's poem party!

Please share a comment below if you wish.

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

Like The Poem Farm on Facebook for more poems, articles, and poemquotes!

Dear Students, & A New Book!

Wildflowers

Photo by Amy LV

 

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

Teachers and Students - Welcome to your new school year!  I have been thinking about you, about my own children and the new schools I'll be working in and this school year ahead.  It is indeed a type of meadow, full of surprises and growing, beauty and adventure.  I can't wait to see what new book titles will land in my notebook and what new friends I will make.

I guess you could call today's poem "a gift poem" since I wrote it with all new school-year-hikers in mind.  We often write with a special audience in our heads, and today my special audience is you.  

And now....a book announcement!  I am so pleased to share this brand new book with you today.  It's THE POETRY FRIDAY ANTHOLOGY, compiled and edited by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong.  With both a Common Core and TEKS edition, this book introduces the idea of breaking for poetry each Friday.

From Janet and Sylvia -

In 2006 blogger Kelly Herold brought Poetry Friday to the “kidlitosphere.” Much like “casual Friday” in the corporate world, there is a perception in the world of literature that on Fridays we should relax a bit and take a moment for something special. Why not bring the Poetry Friday concept into your classroom and take five minutes every Friday to share a poem and explore it a bit, connecting it with children’s lives and capitalizing on a teachable moment? Pausing to share a poem—and reinforce a language skill—on Poetry Friday is an easy way to infuse poetry into your current teaching practice. 

Just in time for the 2012-2013 school year, get your copy of THE POETRY FRIDAY ANTHOLOGY, edited by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong. It's a new anthology of 218 original, previously-unpublished poems for children in kindergarten through fifth grade by 75 popular poets from Jack Prelutsky and J. Patrick Lewis to Jane Yolen, X.J. Kennedy, Margarita Engle, Nikki Grimes, Kathi Appelt, Guadalupe Garcia McCall, Georgia Heard, and many more. (See a complete list of our impressive poets at poetryfridayanthology.blogspot.com.)

The book includes a poem a week for the whole school year (K-5) with Common Core curriculum connections provided for each poem, each week, and each grade level. Just five minutes every “Poetry Friday” will reinforce key skills in reading and language arts such as rhyme, repetition, rhythm, and alliteration. 

I am tickled to have five poems in this anthology, and thrilled to have a few copies to give away!  For the next three Fridays, by leaving a comment, you will have an opportunity to win your own copy of THE POETRY FRIDAY ANTHOLOGY.  Please just leave a comment on this post to be entered in the first drawing.  The winner will be announced next Friday, August 24...at which time I will begin a new drawing for this book!

If you don't win...please check it out on Amazon and consider ordering a copy for yourself or your child's teacher.

On my other blog, Sharing Our Notebooks, it is an honor to host naturalist and teacher Bill Michalek and his notebooks this week.  Please stop by and read his thoughtful post and also enter your name in the giveaway for one of Bill's favorite books.  If you or your students keep notebooks, please remember that Sharing Our Notebooks is a blog to inspire just that work by highlighting all types of writer's and artist's notebooks.

Mary Lee is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at A Year of Reading.  Enjoy the treats!  Happy Poetry Friday!

Please share a comment below if you wish.

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

Like The Poem Farm on Facebook for more poems, articles, and poemquotes!

My Poem Writing Year #75 - Next Year

Some students and teachers are out for the summer already, and some can now count the days left on two hands.  This time feels almost too busy to reflect, but in the hurry scurry of finishing up papers, clearing out desks, finding a summer home for the class pet, and gathering up the missing library books...there is a moment of pause.  This is the end of something, maybe something difficult, maybe something beautiful, maybe both.  In a few weeks time, these same bodies will never live together, breathe together, figure-it-out-together, laugh together again.  It's like the end of a book, when you say "farewell" to the characters, close the cover, and sigh.

Thank you to all teachers this month.  As a mother and still-in-my-heart-teacher, I know what you do and believe it to be the most valuable gift of all. 

Joan suggested the other week that we share book lists and favorite ways to end the year.  Do you have something that you like to do at the end of the school year, a way to say goodbye or to remember the year together?   A favorite read aloud?  To talk about community, Roxaboxen, by Alice McLerran, is my book to hug.

Shop Indie Bookstores
 

The years went by, and the seasons changed, until at last the friends had all grown tall, and one by one, they moved away to other houses, to other towns.  So you might think that was the end of Roxaboxen - but oh, no.  Because none of them ever forgot Roxaboxen.  Not one of them ever forgot. 

from Roxaboxen, by Alice McLerran

At Two Writing Teachers, principal and guest-blogger Mary Alice shares a simple and elegant design for summer journals.  Check it out here.

Over at Write Time,  Linda's students write poetry as a way to celebrate all they have learned throughout the year.  Here are some of their poems and Linda's explanation of this powerful writing exercise.

Some teachers say goodbye by writing a poem for their students.  Read Kyle's poem to his fifth graders over at Ukulelear and Mary Lee's poem to her fourth graders at A Year of Reading.

How do you end your year? Please share in the comments, and I will include your thoughts in a future post.

(Please click on COMMENTS below to share a thought.)