Welcome Poets & Happy Summer!

Many schools near me are ending their year this week, and so today I celebrate them by celebrating some young poets.  Thank you to the teachers and young writers who share these poems with all of us.

First, I am happy to introduce Third Grade Teacher Linda Crofts and Poet Alison Pynn from DeSales Catholic School in Lockport, NY.  Welcome, Linda and Alison!

Amy gave a high energy, engaging presentation to my third grade class. She got the students so pumped up, as soon as we got back to class I had the students pull out their journals to write about it. Some wrote poems and showed an interest in writing more, so the next day I pulled up The Poem Farm. We read some of the poems as well as her tips on writing. The students loved the idea that they did not have to write full sentences in poetry!

I asked each student to write a poem that I could put together in a classroom book. My input was simply to help them with spelling and give ideas on where the lines should break. I was blown away by the power of some of their ideas. I feel Alison's poem encourages readers to look more deeply instead of just taking things at face value. Also the question in her poem is one most children wonder about other families.

The Wall

There is a wall in my class.

The wall is boring.

Nothing to see.

But the wall is not just a wall.
The wall has a window.

But out that window

you can see

a home.

And in that home lives a family

so strong and

bright.

Who knows

if they ever fight.

by Alison Pynn

Alison's advice for poets is: I would look outside or behind me. Then I would write what I saw in poems and add a bit of fantasy. That means stuff I don't see. But not all my poems have a bit of stuff I don't see.  

Thank you, Alison, for your words and for this advice.  So much of poetry is looking beyond what we normally think about, asking questions and taking time to consider the world.

Today I am also pleased to welcome Kristine Baccaro and her fifth grade poets from Jefferson Avenue Elementary in Fairport, NY.  Please note both thoughtfulness and playfulness in these words and pictures.

Click the Box Above to Enlarge

Click the Arrows to Advance Slides

I can think of no better way to end the school year here at The Poem Farm than by sharing the work of young people.  How lucky I am to learn from them, in person...and on paper.

Happy happy summer to all!  I will still be here on Fridays throughout the summer, and I am also still scheduling author assemblies and writing residencies for 2019-2020.  Thank you for visiting.

You can read my Friday post celebrating Joy Harjo, our new Poet Laureate, HERE.

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.

Capturing Scenes & A Poetry Peek!

Easel Draft at Hamilton School

Photo by Amy LV

Students - Last week, I was very lucky to visit Alexander Hamilton School in Glen Rock, New Jersey.  As part of my visit to NJ, I took the train to see our daughter Hope at college in New York City.  On that trip, the moment you read about in today's poem....really happened.  So of course I wrote about it in my notebook.

Then I wrote about it in front of students at Hamilton School on the easel above.  And I couldn't stop thinking about it.

Certain scenes are like this - they stay in your head, stuck like peanut butter to the roof of your mouth.  Something so beautiful, peaceful, frightening, fascinating...wants to live on.  Writing helps us hold such scenes close.  Writing gives us our lives back again.  

Cesare Pavese wrote, "We do not remember days, we remember moments."  It's true.

Today it is my pleasure to welcome my friend Shirley Thacker, a wonderful teacher friend who studied with the Indiana Writing Project and taught primary students for 42 years.  A believer in writing and in building "communities of respectful brothers and sisters who accept all people and their strengths and weaknesses," Shirley joins us today to share how she writes poetry with second through fifth grade students after school and in summer Comp Camps at Wes-Del Elementary in Gaston, Indiana.  Shirley says, "Sharing is key...this is why I write. I want someone to listen."  Welcome, Shirley and welcome, young writers!

I believe there has to be a reading/writing connection.  If you read like a writer and write like a reader, your life is forever changed.  So that being said, I give a couple of weeks of choice writing while we immerse ourselves in reading in the genre we will write next.  Then when our new writing cycle starts, students will some background information to hold onto.

Before our poetry writing cycle, we have had a couple of weeks to look at poetry, reading a great variety of poems, so by the time we start writing poetry, we have learned some writing craft: onomatopoeia, just right word choice. bold nouns, vivid verbs, magic three, simile, metaphor, and more. 

Day one of poetry, students are sitting on the carpet and I tell them we will be learning how to write poems.  I invite them to watch a poem in the making. . . I am by the chart paper.  I usually choose something they won't want to copy, a topic such as coffee or my dog, Yuri.  They are watching me ponder and think.  They know that to write, you have to choose something you know about.

"I think I will try Yuri. .  .. I need a word bank to form the poem. I will write all the words that I can think of along the and down the right side of the chart paper. . . . "

Shirley's Poem Draft

(Click to Enlarge)

"Now I am ready to shape my poem. . .  Let me think. . ..hmmm"

Yuri 

by Mrs. Thacker

My little golden doodle,

Furry with beautiful eyes. . . 

like Yuri Zhivago.!

Reddish-brown like dried  pine needles.

Loved doggy school,  . . TWICE!

Can sit, shake paw, and go down. . . 

Naughty boy . .  .

Chewed Bic razor! . . .

Off to animal hospital 

lots of x-rays!  

My little lap baby,

YURI!

After this demonstration, I invite students to "Have a go at it"  . . . students go back with notebooks and have a no walk, no talk period of 10-15 min. . . while I write too!  Then we can buddy up for help and suggestions or sharing.

The next day I write a poem on a chart or return to my first poem to show revision in a different color marker. I want the students to get the idea that revision is part of writing.

When they are peer editing/sharing , I might be conferencing, walking around listening to their poems.  Students may publish or write new poems at any time.  Sometimes students will want to read more to get ideas. The room looks like a newspaper office with everyone doing what they need to do! This is the best 45-60 min in our day.

Here are a few poems from students in last year's Comp Camp.

Rainstorm

by Chloe (grade 2)

BOOM

Splash, drip

The thunder growling

Lightning!

Flashing through the windows.

It's getting louder,

And LOUDER.

Then it stops.

The sun is out!

A RAINBOW!
BYE!

See you later, 

Rain

Pink 

by Alaina (grade 3)

Pink is the color of...

A highlighter, my hair tie, my bed and blankets

Pink is the color of...

My shirts and pants, my notebook.

Pink is the color of...

Watermelon, jolly rancher, and sweatshirt.

Rainstorm

by Brock (grade 3)

I make people fright

I make them cry

I make puddles

I make sparks and electricity!

Chair

by Norah (grade 3)

I am a MAD chair!

Kids fall on me...

BAM!

Kids slam me,

Kids sit on me...

Huh, huh, huh!

Pay back time!!!

Mrs. Thacker

by Carter (grade 3)

Mrs. Thacker is the bomb!

Rad

So the best hugger.

The best storyteller

The best singer.

Awesome teacher!

Cool!!

Book Lover

Nice person

READER!

Darkness

by Callie (grade 5)

The sun is so dark

Darkness

I see a

Person. Oh wait, it's

A rock

Darkness

I hear a horse

Oh Wait, 

It's Mr. Shaffer

Darkness, 

I see the Darkest soul

Of them all!

Darkness,

Oh yes,

Darkness

Nature

by Ella (grade 5)

The wind was blowing through the trees,

The wind chimes sing a song with keys,

Around around everywhere we go.

Nature tells us something we don't know

Over there and over here

There's nothing ever to fear!

Summertime Storms

by Jennah (grade 5)

I don't have much fear

When storms are near

But when wind blows

My scared expression shows!

Crashes of thunder

Flashes some lightning

This weather is

My heart's everything

Hail starts to fall

From a sky full of gray

I wish I could

Be outside to play,

But Mom says," "NOT TODAY!"

Branches of trees 

Scatter the ground

There are so many things

Making a sound

Not a tornado was in sight!

I'm really glad!

Didn't take flight

Storm has passed

It went by

Very FAST!

Orange 

by Kasen (grade 3)

Orange is the color...

Morning and dawn.

Lawn in winter

Lava at the center of a volcano

Lots of things

On our beautiful earth!

Please Don't Go

by Malachi (grade 4)

Don't go bye bye

In front of my eyes.

Just don't die...

I love you KYE!

Please don't go

You stole my heart.

I know...

I will fall apart.

PLEASE DON'T GO!!!

Thank you so much, Shirley and poets, for joining us here at The Poem Farm today! It was a treat to have you here and to read your words.

I would also like to thank the amazing Donna Farrell, for her gorgeous work redesigning the look of The Poem Farm, Sharing Our Notebooks, and my website.  I am incredibly grateful to her.

Please visit the latest post at my other blog, Sharing Our Notebooks and comment by Saturday, October 14 to win a copy of Caroline Starr Rose's latest book!  She's sharing a poem AND a peek inside of her notebooks.

You can find more poems and poemlove over at Violet Nesdoly/poems as the warm and wise Violet is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup, where everyone is always welcome to read, comment, and link 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.

One - A Sad and Happy Cat Day

Little Wilbur

Photo by Amy LV

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

Students - Friday was a sad day and a happy day.  The sad part was that kittenWilbur died. He was the runt of Freya's litter, and he lived for six weeks. We'd named him after Wilbur from CHARLOTTE'S WEB, in the hopes that he too would survive.  But it was not to be. We tucked Wilbur's body into a tiny box, and in the rain, Mark buried him in our little graveyard underneath the pear tree.

The saddest picture we've had here at our farm in a long time is the picture of mother Freya licking her little Wilbur, trying bring him back to life.  Writing today's poem helped me to do something with the teary feelings   I held in my heart that night.

The happy news was that Phoebe (Freya's sister), who had two dark gray kittens as of Friday morning, gave birth to two more (sandy and orange) on Friday!  This was a complete surprise as we did not know cats could do that.  The four new babies are doing well, and the three (six week) old kittens are now ready for homes.

Update on May 14, 2013 - Third grade teacher Jennifer Wright and her students read this poem and allowed it to inspire their own heartfelt and honest poems of loss.  Jennifer explains her lesson and shares some very beautiful poems at her wise blog, Teaching Simplicity. 

Phoebe and Her Four Kittens

Photo by Amy LV

Today I bring you two poems by student friends.  The first is by fifth grader Grace McCormick, who some of you remember from Sharing Our Notebooks.  Her class decorated their door to match FOREST HAS A SONG cover, and Grace's poem was written on one of the leaves.  This joyful verse celebrates red boots, something the girl in my book wears on many many pages.

Red Boots

by Grace McCormick

Dakota's poem comes to us from Silver Star School in Vancouver, Washington.  School librarian Ms. Mac from Check It Out always invites anyone who wishes to request a poem postcard in April with a poem written by a student in her school.  I was lucky enough to receive this powerful one.

by Dakota M.

Thank you, young poets, for sharing your poems with all of us!  We are very grateful.

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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Tiny Tubas & A Classroom Peek!

Georgia Makes Music!

Photo by Amy LV

 

Click the arrow to hear me read this poem to you 

(and to hear Georgia play a blade of grass!)

Students - I had no idea what to write about for today's poem.  I was sitting outside at our picnic table, just looking around at the pretty day, when I saw some thick grass.  I picked a piece and tried to make some music the way I tried to do in the 1970s. I placed the fat grass between my two thumbs and blew into it. Georgia came out and said, "That's not how I do it."  And then she taught me her way.  It was much better, and I could make lots more noise. How to get a poem idea? Just look around!

Today's poem is a how-to poem, a poem that gently teaches someone else how to do something.  You'll see that especially the second stanza gives specific directions.  If you have never tried writing a procedural, or how-to, poem, you might like it.  Do you know what my favorite line is?  The last one!  I love saying these words - tiny tubas!

This is my third recent poem-with-quatrains (Hand Me Downs, A Place To Go). Sometimes it's easy to just fall into a particular rhythm of writing.  Do you know what I do when that happens?  I break it!  So right now I am telling you - none of the next week's poems will be written quatrains.  And you know what else?  Two of next week's poems will be free verse poems.  I just decided.

For this May Poetry Friday feast, I am very very happy to welcome  Stacey Buck, a speech-language pathologist from Chicago and her poet-student Tia. Stacey will tell us about how she uses poetry in her work with young people, and Tia will share a poem along with her draft and process notes.  A very warm welcome to Stacey and Tia!

Stacey Buck, Speech-Language Pathologist:

As a speech-language pathologist, I work primarily with children who have language delays or disorders. Many have been diagnosed a learning disability as well - a language based learning disability. For review, the five areas of language are: semantics (vocabulary, figurative language), morphology (grammar at word level), syntax (grammar of sentence), phonology (sounds, closely related to literacy), and pragmatics (social skills, theory of mind).

I like that poetry is short enough to read and begin work in the course of 30 minutes. Students come to my office for an hour and we have typically other goals to address (think about those 5 areas of language), so I like the flexibility of poetry.

In 2010, when Amy was writing a poem a day, a 2nd grade student of mine loved the riddle poems, so she decided to write her own. This girl did not say complete sentences at age 5 when we met, and struggled to write even 1 sentence on a given topic in 30 minutes by the time she was leaving 1st grade. To see her so enthusiastic to write a riddle poem was amazing!

Since then, I have continued to look at The Poem Farm daily as it is my home page - a nice reminder to use with students and a more positive way to start the day than a news website.

This school year, I have used poems from the online books, Poetry Tag Time and P-Tag with students from 4th-8th grade.  To give some specific ideas of how I use poetry, the following are two examples using poems from The Poem Farm posted during National Poetry Month 2012.

1. Tia, a 3rd grader, wrote a story poem (included in this post) inspired by Amy LV's Draw. In my office, she has worked to include more details in her sentences (ex: using prepositions, complex sentence structure), and sequence her ideas for narratives (personal, expository, or fictional).  The structure of a story poem encouraged her to work on sequencing narratives in a different way, while reading Amy’s thoughts on the writing process encouraged her to use more details to share her own process for her poem.  It has been exciting to watch Tia be so motivated that even when she’s rubbing her eyes due to fatigue, she doesn’t give up.

2. A 5th grade girl worked with Amy LV’s Prescribe.  In my office, she has worked on not skipping over unknown vocabulary, ‘figuring out’ figurative language and using ‘thinking verbs‘ orally and in her writing.  I chose this poem for its multiple meanings - ‘guide’ and ‘tear.‘  Interestingly, this girl knew those meanings and was able to explain which meaning was used in the poem. However, the overall meaning of the poem still escaped her since ‘heart’ ended up being the tricky word.  She could only come up with one meaning - “the muscle that pumps blood in your body.” Once she realized that ‘heart’ had to do with “love” and “interests,” she was able to explain the overall meaning of the poem as well as share what it meant in her own life. What success!

Here are a couple of tips for parents, other SLPs, or teachers whose students may struggle with aspects of language:

* Use your problem solving skills. Some poems are fairly straightforward, and are easy to understand. You might choose this type of poem when you want to have a student’s work focus on writing (maybe it’s sequencing ideas or using temporal terms; maybe it’s a certain kind of sentence structure like relative or adjective clauses). Some poems have multiple meanings and/or figurative language. You might choose a poem containing these if you want to focus the work on vocabulary and comprehension. Of course, you can do writing, too, with this second example, but rarely do I ask children to synthesize all of these pieces if they are each areas of need for the student.

* Pay attention to the little pieces. When a student gets confused in a conversation, for example, think about why she did. Was it a word meaning? Was it the long sentence with passive voice and negation? Was it that she missed a plural marker you said? Similarly, when a student ‘gets’ something you weren’t expecting her to ‘get’, think about what was different this time. Has she had lots of personal experience with the topic? Does she love idioms? (I know a student like this. I was lumping all figurative language together until I realized this area was a strength for her.) These are then your keys to strengths to play to and areas of need to work on
with the children in your life.

And now I welcome Tia! Please enjoy learning about her process, reading her final story poem, and then studying her rough draft.

Tia:

Tia's Process Notes

Tia's Final Poem

Tia's Rough Draft

Thank you very much to Stacey and to Tia for joining us today.  It is a privilege to have these peeks into the classrooms and conversations and thoughts of students and their teachers.

And this week is a joyful one indeed.  For this week I got to see the beautiful watercolors for my first book, FOREST HAS A SONG (Clarion, 2013). Artist Robbin Gourley made each poem sing with her whimsical and gorgeous paintings, and I feel like the luckiest-first-book-author-in-the-world!

Today's Poetry Friday roundup is over at Write. Sketch. Repeat. with Katya. Swing on by for a menu full of poetic treats.

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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V is for VULTURE & Very Special Guest

V is for VULTURE

Photo by Amy LV

Well, we're back on track now after our little W/V mix-up.  And what a great word for today!  Today's word, the very last in the V section of my dictionary, led me to the Turkey Vulture Society, some good learning, and a greater appreciation of scavengers.

Today's poem is a villanelle.  I once again turned to that great Paul Janeczko book, A KICK IN THE HEAD, to help me puzzle out form, and the villanelle is a tricky one. You'll see the 5 tercets followed by a quatrain as well as the rhyme scheme: aba, aba, aba, aba, aba, abaa.  You will notice that the first line of the poem repeats as the last line of stanzas 2 and 4 as well as the third line of stanza 6. You will also see that the third line repeats as the last line of stanzas 3 and 5 as well as the final line of the poem.  You may also notice that each line has 10 syllables.

If you are familiar with John Milton's poem On His Blindness, you will know the line - "They also serve who only stand and wait."  That line went through my head as I wrote about vultures.  There is something powerful in waiting, in patience.

When I told my daughter Hope that I was going to write a villanelle about vultures, she said, "Wouldn't it be neat to do a Dictionary Hike where each poem type had to begin with the letter of that day?"  Hmmm... Here we go: Acrostic, Ballad, Cinquain...

And now for our guest poster!

Georgia LV

Photo by Amy LV

Today I am most excited to welcome my eleven-year-old daughter, Georgia, to this space.  She is a frequent photographer of Poem Farm photos, and she has been taking her own Dictionary Hike this month, right through the letters of her name.  So far Georgia has written poems from:

G - GLIMPSE
E - ENTHRALL
O - ONCE

And today, she writes from REDWOOD.  Last night after I came home from a school meeting, Georgia met me at the door with her poem, and I asked right away if she would allow me to share the poem and her process.  I am so grateful that she agreed.  Below you can read Georgia's poem, see her draft, and read her thoughts.

Draft of R IS FOR REDWOOD

By Georgia LV

The first thing I did was to Google REDWOOD tree facts. I didn't know I would write about any particular tree. I found that the largest Redwood tree was 379 feet tall and that it had a name. I became enthralled (my second word) by this tree character and decided to find out all I could about him.

I jotted down any facts that I found interesting and then crossed them out if I changed my mind. I was also very intrigued by the name. What does it mean? Why was he called that?

I looked HYPERION up in the online dictionary and found it was a name for a titan (Greek giant). Then I looked at my facts and added a couple in.

I formed my poem around the facts and not the facts around the poem. This is the first factual poem I have ever done. It was a lot of fun. Try it sometime!

Thank you to Georgia for her openness in sharing her fourth poem of this month and her thinking process too.  Writing ABOUT our thinking helps us understand it even more.

Happy Poem in Your Pocket Day to all!  Today I have a poem in my pocket. The poem is Candles by Carl Dennis.  And since I will not see many people today, I will send in copies to my children's teachers.  Here it is for you!  What poem do you have (or would you like to have) in your pocket today?  Please share in the comments as we're all always looking for more beautiful poemfriends.

In case you are new to The Poem Farm, this month I am walking, letter-by-letter, through the dictionary, (closed-eyed) pointing to a letter each day, and writing from it. You can read poems A-W by checking the sidebar, and you visit Lisa Vihos and read her accompanying daily haiku at, Lisa's Poem of the Week. In today's comments, watch for Lisa's Haiku and also Christophe's haiku.  It is has been grand to poetryhike with new friends.

Do not miss this week's funny and informative post at Sharing Our Notebooks. Author and poet Suz Blackaby is sharing her notebooks as well as a clever writing exercise. Stop by to read her words and to enter the giveaway for her book, NEST, NOOK, & CRANNY.  The winner's name will be drawn TONIGHT!

Remember, tomorrow is Poetry Friday, the last of this year's National Poetry Month.

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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