Small Reads for Brighters Days
(continued from yesterday’s post) [Addendum: I am so disappointed in election results. I think it’s more important than ever to reach every kid through books and reading and writing, and telling them through each of these activities: you matter. No matter what your race, religion, or gender, you matter. You are a human being, just […]
Happy Poetry Friday! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) Shoot! I forgot until this moment that this was the first Friday of the month, so it’s a Poetry 7 day! But I promised my Young Authors Conference writers last week that I would share our work today, so I’ll have to have a two-post […]
As I mentioned yesterday, I led biopoem sessions at a Young Authors Conference all last week. The students wrote and shared amazing poems: a silly poem about brussel sprouts, a thoughtful poem about creativity, a heartbreaking poem about gender identity and fitting in, a scary poem about rats, a celebratory poem about soccer, and SO […]
Last week, I got to teach at Success Beyond the Classroom’s Young Authors Conference all week at Bethel University here in the Twin Cities. Each year, this is a great chance to write with 12-15 groups of 3rd-8th graders. I always do poetry, and this year, we did biopoems. I was introduced to biopoems at […]
I had the best time in Mishiwaka, IN, at the Penn-Harris-Madison Young Authors Conference! I presented three sessions and shared, read, and wrote with groups of K-1, 2-3, and 4-5 writers. We had a blast writing some very quick group poems, and I’m sharing them here with you. I’ll share some pics and more about […]
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 […]
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 […]
