Small Reads for Brighters Days
And here is my final (I think) sharing of poems (tomorrow–nonfiction) from my visit at Wealthy Elementary. With 5th graders, I was doing poems about the Lost Colony of Roanoke. They had just finished studying it, and I had planned a few possible short poem forms to work with. I was thinking we might contrast […]
Happy Poetry Friday! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) I wanted to give Wealthy Elementary School a small thank you gift for having me spend a week sharing poetry and nonfiction excitement with its students. So, I decided to write a poem. It’s hard to capture how involved and positive, and supportive this school’s […]
Oh, how much fun did I have writing Things to Do If… poems with 1st graders! I loved sharing with them how magnets are used to undent musical instruments. And also how buzz magnets make a cool noise when thrown into the air (I had found a pair in my basement while decluttering recently!). And […]
In addition to writing found moon poems with 4th graders last week, the 3rd graders also gave them a go. (You might recall the fabulous biopoem excerpts I shared last week from the 3rd graders.) The 3rd graders used Wonders from Wonderopolis.org as their source text. Each student had a printed copy of his or […]
During lunch one day with the Poetry Club (3rd-5th graders), I talked about mentor texts, which teacher Kim Doele had already introduced them to. I shared a Rebecca Kai Dotlich poem I love and how I used it as a really strong mentor text. Then I shared an excerpt from a lovely free verse poem […]
Happy Valentine’s Day! Well, I don’t usually post on Sundays, but I want to share these sweet poems about love and friendship that the kindergartners wrote with me last week. I had 20-30 minutes with each of three classes. The kids and their teachers were awesome, and I loved how enthusiastically they talked about what […]
Happy Poetry Friday! I have spent the entire week at Wealthy Elementary School in East Grand Rapids, MI, writing poetry and nonfiction with students, and it has been awesome! I’ll be sharing their poems throughout the next week. The 4th graders and I wrote found poems about the moon . Their teachers and I selected […]
At a conference last year, I was introduced to biopoems, a wonderful structured form to let students write about a person. During my visit this week Wealthy Elementary in East Grand Rapids, MI, I’m writing biopoems with third graders, but we’re not writing them about people. Instead, we’re using topics they’ve recently researched and written […]
Here are a few pictures from yesterday, when I did grade-level sessions plus kindergarten class poems about love. And I got to hear many amazing poems by members of the Poetry Club! Principal Morey and all the faculty and staff have been so enthusiastic and welcoming. Today, I’ll be doing lots of individual class workshops, […]
