From a True Story to a Bit of Advice

Just Getting Gas

Photo by Amy LV

Students - Today's small free verse poem grew from a real experience that I had this week, one that I keep thinking about. I simply wished to hold onto this bittersweet memory (so sad, but so many people stepped in to help) by shaping the minutes and hours of that day into a poem to keep. I realize now that it is a bit of an advice poem, offering advice to myself and possibly to readers.

Consider paying close attention to your own life this week, to the small lessons you learn when you listen to your heart. Where have you been? What have you seen and heard? How have you grown? How might you shape this all into a memory or memory-and-advice poem for yourself or others? 

Feel free to use the words You might....

Our lives and stories matter. When we write about them, we learn. And once in a while, we may even teach without even knowing it.

As you may remember, a few weeks ago I had the good fortune to write color poems with the third graders of Greenacres Elementary School Greenacres Elementary School in Scarsdale, NY. We are lucky that Teacher Amy Correnti and her students are generously sharing their crayon color poems with us today. Enjoy these poems, noticing how one hue can bring a person to a character, to a moment, to life!

Thank you, Poets, for sharing with us today. I know that many of us will look for colors and see them in new ways this week thanks to you.

Denise is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup over at Dare to Care with a sacred seven poem and information about some upcoming poetry happenings. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

Please share a comment below if you wish.

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If you are under 13 years old, please only comment 

with a parent or as part of a group with your teacher.

Let Mint Speak....And a Peek

Front Garden...Hi, Mint!

Photo by Amy LV

Students - Last week, I visited Harold O. Brumsted Elementary School in Holland, NY as a volunteer for the grand annual Arts and Hobby Day.  I brought my red suitcase full of nature treasures and so enjoyed drawing and writing with both third and fifth graders. We drew and wrote about shells, pine cones, feathers, and chewed and drew mint leaves from my garden.  You can see some mint in the photograph above.  It is to the left of the picture, peeking up from in between the rocks.

Notebook Snip

Photo by Amy LV

Drawing a bit of mint, I was overtaken by the beauty of each leaf.  When held to the light, a person can see each tiny vein, each little hair on a mint leaf's stem.  This plant I pull so ruthlessly from my garden (it DOES take over) became new and precious to me.

After drawing for a time, I knew that I needed to write in the voice of the mighty, much maligned mint plant. Treated as a weed, I thought that mint deserved a chance to speak.  

To which other person, animal, plant, or inanimate object would you like to give voice?  Writing persona - or mask - poems is a ton of fun and also offers us insights we might not have when always writing in our own voices.

Today I am tickled to welcome Dana Kofitsas and her third grade poets from Stony Lane Elementary School in Paramus, New Jersey.  When you read these poems, you will see right away how these students have learned so many important things from their study of poetry. Read to notice their varied and thoughtful topics, figurative language, line breaks, endings, and use of repetition.  How lucky we are to have them here this week!

Click the Box to Enlarge

Thank you so much to all of these poets and to their teacher Dana Kofitsas for joining us today.  Poetry brings us together, teaches us about writing, and makes us whole.

On June 1, the second grade poets of Crossroads Acadamy Quality Hill visited the Poem Farm.  If you did not yet have a chance to read their wonderful anthologies, please go back to June 1 and enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!

Kiesha is hosting this past week's Poetry Friday roundup at Whispers from the Ridge with a song for summer.  Each week we gather together, sharing poems, books, and poetry ideas all at one blog.  All are always welcome to visit, comment, and post.

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.

Poetry Peek: Love that Poetry with Mrs. Sass's Third Graders

It is a delight to welcome teacher Heather Sass and her third grade students from DeWitt Road Elementary School in Webster, NY today.  Last month, I had the good fortune to spend time at DeWitt as a visiting author, and I was tickled to read these students' words of human celebration.  I asked their teacher, Heather Sass, if we might feature their work at The Poem Farm, and to my great happiness...she said yes!

Our class really enjoyed a novel/poetry study of LOVE THAT DOG by Sharon Creech. The main character, Jack, starts out unsure of himself and his poems. Throughout the book he gains confidence to write poetry and the reader is able go along for a funny, silly and sometimes sad journey. I watched my students grow as poets, each one feeling a connection to Jack, through his or her own growth as a poet.

Available Through Your Local Bookshop

To feed our poetry writing, we read poetry from poets such as Walter Dean Myers, William Carlos Williams, T.S. Elliot, Robert Frost and Valerie Worth, to name a few. We read and studied these poems to find examples of figurative language.  During this time, I stumbled upon this amazing book of poems, THE BEST PART OF ME by Wendy Ewald in which children celebrate physical differences. 

Available Through Your Local Bookshop

This book inspired us to write our own poetry. This was not my plan initially but I allowed my students' inspiration to lead us in our final project.

Below you can read each student's poem celebrating his or her favorite body part.  Please click the enlarge button (four arrows) below to see these poems and photographs full screen.

Here's how  we wrote these poems if you wish to try it with your students:

1. After reading THE BEST PART OF ME, we discussed and then listed what we each thought was our favorite part of our body and why on chart paper.

2.  I created a graphic organizer that included all of the elements that I wanted to assess including onomatopoeia, simile, and metaphor.

3. I “played” photographer and chose to go outside and take pictures. Students told me how they wanted their “favorite part” to be represented in their photo.

4. We spent time filling out our graphic organizers before writing on our final copy paper.

5. We constructed our two-page LOVE THAT (BRAIN, HAIR, MUSCLE ________) books out of yellow construction paper. We modeled our own covers after the original cover of LOVE THAT DOG.

6. The students cut out their final draft poems and their pictures and glued them inside the book.

One thing I would change would be that next time I will take the photos first, then let students use the photo as inspiration in writing their poems.

I am so proud of my class! Watching the excitement they now have about poetry brings joy to my heart.

P.S. We are reading HATE THAT CAT, the follow-up book to LOVE THAT DOG, just for fun. My class is so happy we do not have to say goodbye to Jack just yet.

Available Through Your Local Bookshop

So much gratitude to Teacher Heather Sass and these young poets for sharing their photographs and poems with us today.  This is a beautiful way to celebrate the coming of summer: with a celebration of all of the wonderful things our bodies can do!

The Poem Farm always welcomes poetry-celebrations-and-peeks from classes of students willing to share. Please just write me an e-mail if you are interested in featuring student work in this space.  Over at my other blog, Sharing Our Notebooks, I am happy to host teacher Katie Liseo and her adventurous student notebookers with a very inspiring post and giveaway of Aimee Buckner's NOTEBOOK KNOW-HOW. 

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.

New Puppies and Third Grade Poets

Madi and Dixie
Photo by Amy Holland

Jack and Hawk

Photo by Heidi Ludwig Zvolensky

Libby and Brewer

Photo by Heather Tielens

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

Students -  My nieces and nephews all have gotten new dogs within the past year, and so today I am celebrating all of them!  Libby and Teo have Brewer, Jack has Hawk, and Sam, Davis, and Madi have Dixie!  Woof!

Did you ever find something just when you needed it?  Well, that's what happened to me with today's poem. This poem is one that I found in my files, and I knew that it was the match for this Poetry Friday.  We're celebrating new lambs and kitties here, so it's a spring full of animal-love.

You will notice today's verse has two short stanzas.  The first one paints a moment, and the second is simply an exclamation, the real words that a person might say upon greeting a loved pet. There is one pair of rhyming words in the first stanza (fur/her) but the rest of the poem is just heart.  Write about love, and everything is good.

Today I welcome third grade teacher Peggy Wiedemann and some of her poets from Arcade Elementary in the Pioneer Central School District in Arcade, NY.  This class has been writing poems, and they were generous enough to allow me to share them here.  I invite you to notice their use of...

Description

by Alyssa

Conversational Structure

by Tyler D.

Repetition

by Jack

Line Breaks

by Tyler B.

List Structure

by Mary

Much gratitude to Peggy Wiedemann and her students for visiting The Poem Farm. Be assured that the rest of the class is full of poetry too!  It was a pleasure to read all of their poems and to share a few here today.  Lucky us.

For Metaphor Monday this week, Catherine Johnson shared my poem April Waking along with some beautiful photographs and metaphors to go with fiddleheads.  On Wednesday, she followed up with my husband Mark's Mother's Day fiddlehead frittata recipe.  But that is not all.  Unbeknownst to me, Catherine invited fellow poets to write and share fiddlehead poems at their own blogs.  You can read these festive and fun verses by following these links: Cathy Ballou Mealey, Freeda Baker Nichols, and Penny Klostermann.  Thank you to Catherine, Cathy, Freeda, and Penny for the wonderful surprise!

Jama is hosting today's delicious Poetry Friday roundup over at Jama's Alphabet Soup.  If you're hungry for all kinds of sweet and spicy poetry dishes....head on over to her beautifully set blog and enjoy.

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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