Poetry Friday: Food Love and A Special Announcement

Thank you, Linda B. at TeacherDance for rounding up all the poetry goodness this week.

This week upon arrival to the school I was subbing at, the person was there and gave me the opportunity to write poetry with her two fifth grade classes. I think it caught the students off guard (especially first thing in the morning and they are less familiar with me than my former school).  I made some adjustments and the second class took off.

I used the lesson from the poetry of Janet Wong’s A SUITCASE OF SEAWEED AND MORE.  It’s food poems are the best to lead off for writing to poems.

I like using the “Skinny”poem format as it’s quick in a short time  space (30 minutes). Everyone has a strong reaction to food that being you either love or hate particular foods.

The ‘Skinny” poem consists of eleven lines.  Three lines are the SAME word (in this case food). The first and the last line should be the same sentence. The remaining six lines are single words or a word phrase to describe the food.

These are general instructions for writing and I am not strict about following them as my main goal with students is to experimenting, playing with words, and hopefully a poem will result.

Made with Padlet

 

Could It Be the Return of Student Poetry Postcards?

Stayed Tuned!

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Poetry Friday: Skinny Poems Based on Poems from Pet crazy

Thanks to Kat at Kathryn Apel for hosting  all the goodness of Poetry Friday today.

This week I was in first grade for two days.  I was given time to share and teach poetry.  I used Pet Crazy by Sylvia Vardell  and Janet Wong to prime the pump.  Who doesn’t want a pet or have a pet?

I specially used the Anchor Poem, Response Poem, and Mentor Poem written by Kristy Dempsey and Janet Wong

[Anchor Poem]:

ALL WORN OUT
by Kristy Dempsey

Tippy-toe, Kitty Cat
is sneaking through the house,
pushing on a puff of yarn,
wishing for a mouse.
Kitty loves to play all day,
jumping, pouncing, leaping.
Where is kitty hiding now?
Shh! Kitty’s sleeping.

*

[Response Poem]:

THE GREATEST PETS EVER (Kristy)
by Janet Wong

Cats are
     the greatest pets ever!

They are
     so clean and clever.

Would I like
     a dog? No, never!

Cats are
     my favorites -- FOREVER!

[Mentor Poem]:

THE PERFECT PETS FOR ME (Ben)
by Janet Wong

Kristy likes neat pets.
Cats don’t drool.

She should meet my uncle’s dogs.
They’re super-cool.

My uncle’s dogs will sit and stay —
and stay and s-t-a-y.

Their house is kind of far,
but we could go there someday.

When we play together,
Kristy will see:

dogs are pretty much
the perfect pets for me!

Plus I found this great quick video of Janet reading to Tony Tiger: 
 
The class and I made a list of pets and a list of juicy words. We talked about the format of a skinny poem and with a template, off they went to create. Then as students finished we uploaded to Padlet. This give an opportunity to confer and revise with students. 

Made with Padlet
Next week, I will be hosting Poetry Friday at DEOWRITER.

Poetry Friday: Food Poems Inspired by A SUITCASE OF SEAWEED AND MORE by Janet Wong

Thanks to Margaret Simon at Reflections on the Teche for gathering all the Poetry Friday goodness this week.

Have you read this book?

If not, you need to buy it now or find it at your local library. It’s a great mentor text for getting students to think about their cultural background. Janet Wong published this book twenty-three years ago and just recently added back stories to the poems. More about that next week when Janet shares the answers to some questions I recently asked her.

I was back in the library this week. I had the opportunity to work with fourth and fifth graders. This book provided excellent food poems as mentors. I decided given the time allotment of thirty minutes over class, the SKINNY poem would be a good form for students to use to write a poem about a food for which they had strong emotions (good or bad).

When I take poetry workshops from Paulann Petersen, she often has words lists available for participants. I decided that given the 30 minute time linit, having a word list for describing food would be helpful. I provided this for students:

Today I have poems from fifth graders. I’m sharing poems all next week until our next Poetry Friday.

Arroz con Leche

By Jackeline C.

Mi favorito (my favorite)

Arroz con leche

Caliente (hot)

Sagroso (yummy)

Frio (cold)

Arroz con leche

Blanco (white)

Vapor (vape, steam)

Asucar (sugar)

Arroz con leche

Mi favorito

(I just love that she asked to write it in Spanish)

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Sushi

By Viktoria O

Fresh sushi on the table, yes! Tempting.

Spicy

Fresh

Delightful

Bite

Spicy

Scrumptious

Treat

Meal

Spicy

I’m eating the sushi on the table. Tempting.

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Quesadillas

By Gabriela A

Nice and hot

Quesadillas

Delicious

Cheesy

Goodness

Quesadillas

Soft

Tasty

Meal

Quesadillas

Nice and hot

+++++++++++++++

Sushi

By Hunter J.

Sushi, we bite into the rice

Sushi

Savory

Delicious

Tender

Sushi

Salty

Tasty

Fresh

Sushi

We bite into the rice

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Chicken Wings

By Angel F.

Chicken wings are fiery

Chicken!!

Spicy

Hot

Delicious

Chicken!!

Mouth-watering

Burning

Rich

Chicken!!

Chicken wings are fiery

+++++++++++++++++

Pizza

By Osiris D.

Pizza is good

Pizza

Chewy

Delicious

Divine

Pizza

Dip

Soft

Cheesy

Pizza

Pizza is good

++++++++++++++++++

Caramel

By Dominik

Out of the package

Caramel

Oh

So

Good

Want

Some

More

Caramel

Out of the package

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Watermelon

By Sophie E

I wait for my mom to slice it up

Watermelon

Savory

Sweet

Bite

Watermelon

Yum

Drip

Juicy

Watermelon

I wait for my mom to slice it up

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Poetry Friday: A Response Poem

Thanks to Liz at Elizabeth Steinglass for hosting Poetry Friday

Back in April, during National Poetry Month, I had the opportunity to sub in a fourth grade class. I read the book CAN I TOUCH YOUR HAIR?: POEMS of RACE, MISTAKES, and FRIENDSHIP by Irene Latham, Charles Waters. This was a 2018 CYBILS Poetry finalist.

As the students listened, I had them write down words and reactions to the book. Afterward we made a list of phrases. It doesn’t always work to finish the poem when I’m one day in a class and then gone for awhile as was the case with this sub job. But I know when I returned to the class we’d finish what we started.

This past Wednesday was that day. I prepared the strips and shared them. We read them aloud and determined that since we had some one that began, “Each night…” they would serve as the beginning of a new stanza. As I was writing, I noticed this line: “Fists clicked-Chains Cracked” and felt it would be a good repeating line. The first line and the end were givens.

Then each student placed their strip where they thought it might go best. We reread the poem, took away a couple lines, and came up with this response to Irene Latham’s and Charles Waters’ brilliant book:

Each Night

Each night we talked at the table
We didn’t know how
to explain the curse they gave
Some whites ashamed
about how they treated blacks
Fists clicked-Chains Cracked

Each night we plopped chains
classmates crumbled in shame
Classmates black and white
Some kids sat in shame
Fists clicked-Chains Cracked

Each night we gave forgiveness
We didn’t know how
to explain the forgiveness they didn’t give
Black and white forgiveness
Fists clicked-Chains Cracked

Each night we forgave classmates
with an apology
Classmates black and white apologized
Thunder cracked
Chains cracked
We forgave them
Shame hit
We cracked
In the end, we became friends.

© Mrs. Brown’s Fourth Grade Class

Today (as I’m writing this on TH) went into the class and we looked it over. We discussed tightening the poem and removing words. I explained how Stephen Kind reduces his drafts by 10% and Richard Peck tries to fine ten words per page to remove, I gave each student a draft and asked them to select at least five words that could be removed.
 

After the discussion, our poem looked like this:

This is the final copy:

It was a fun lesson to do with this class. I feel so lucky to be able to work with students on these mini-lessons.

Poetry Friday: Student Poetry Month

Thanks to Irene at Live Your Poem for hosting Poetry Friday this week

I interviewed Laura Purdie Salas about her new book IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT in March. That interview is HERE.


Then I had an opportunity to work with a fourth grade class. We made a list of classroom inanimate objects. I am featuring their poems all week.

Messy whiteboards
we get scribbled on all day
messy scribbles, writing
People write on me all day
boards you write on forever

~Allison S

Jumping water bottle
bouncing as a chair
I am as running as a lion
keep you hydrated
healthy

~Taryn

The restless recorder
I am as cheesy as a chisel
definitely delicate
sweet, sour, smart,
silent restless recorder

~Macy

Poetry Friday: Working with Third Graders On Animal Sound Poems

Welcome to Poetry Friday. Thank you goes to Rebecca at Sloth Read for hosting everyone.

Yesterday I was lucky enough to sub in Mrs. Martin’s room. I shared the “I Come From” poems in January.

I love teaching poetry when I sub. The tricky part is being able to get it down in the amount of time I’m given. Yesterday I had an hour which I could work with the class.

Georgia Heard’s book BOOM! BELLOW! BLEAT! has been a great mentor text.

We discussed some of the poems in the book. I really like “Rattlesnake Warning” and “You Can’t See Us, But You Can Hear. Us” for whole group participation. Then I shared my poem and asked what they noticed.

This lead to a discussion about

Here’s a sneak peak of the third grade poems. What I notice with third grade is their variety of animal choices: cockatiel, blue whale, chinchilla, canines, pandas, and a giraffe to name a few. We talked about being more specific that just “dog” or “bird”.

I will be publishing them during April’s National Poetry Month. And in the near future, I will have an interview with Georgia Heard.

Poetry Friday: Working with Kinders, Part I

Welcome to Poetry Friday. There is a celebration of women happening at Reading to the Core, it’s International Women’s Day. I have a poem at Deowriter about strong women.

Last October, at the Writing Poetry for Children Workshop, I was gifted with a galley copy of BOOM! BELLOW! BLEAT! By Georgia Heard (Its book birthday is next Tuesday).

I subbed in a kinder room on Monday and Tuesday this week. On Monday, I shared the galley with the TEN children (there was something going through the class). I gave them “homework” in that I wanted them to think of an animal to possibly write about on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, we had another day of TEN children (can you tell it was heaven? They are a busy group though and we had a bit of a cry fest after lunch). In the morning I read this book, SUPERHERO INSTRUCTION MANUAL. As I was reading, I realize that by having the class come up with superhero names (favorite color + animal) would help prime the pump for the animal sound poems they would write in the afternoon.

My mentor poem(to me, their sound reminds me of chk, chk, chk):

I shared it with the students. We noticed that I used Chk! Chk! Chk! three times for rhythm and we talked about using words starting with H. We made a chart of possible animals sounds next:


I gave the students a paper with the scaffolding and they went to work. I spent time conferencing with them. It’s so fun to see where they are with their writing and their confidence. Certainly, everyone has a poem. It was more of a challenge for some. Here’s some of their drafts.


I can tell that A. had thought about what she wanted to say. She walked into class telling me about which animal and kept asking when we would write.

L. wasn’t sure about what the sound of a red ladybug. We talked about it and she came up with “Fzzz”.

E. knew immediately he wanted a rainbow lamb. He also knew that it should say Meow-Baa and that they have have doggie ears.

K. wrote without needed me to make dots for the words. We conferred and he shared what he wrote.


E. is and ELL student. I love that she could read this to me.

I took their work and typed up the final copies. Each will have an additional sound line that didn’t fit on the page. On Monday, I’m subbing half day in the building and will meet with them to illustrate their final copy. You’ll get to see the final copies next week. At the request of the teacher, we are using initials for privacy.

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So I am sad to report that student poetry postcards most likely won’t happen this year.  That said, I am creating a limited edition poetry postcard for those who are interested in receiving a poem for National Poetry Month.
If interested please sign up here:

Poetry Friday: Two Verse Novels You Should Read and Announcements

Hooray it’s Poetry Friday. I’m a bit late today. But super excited to head over to to Linda at TeacherDance. Thanks, Linda.

On February 14, 2019, the CYBILS Awards announced Jason Reynolds’ LONG WAY DOWN as the poetry winner. I had the pleasure of sitting on the Poetry Round Two, something I haven’t done in a long time. The seven finalists were spectacular and it was difficult to select the winner.

If you have read the CYBILS Poetry winner and need a new read, please consider the two other verse novels which were finalists.

THE POET X
by Elizabeth Acevedo
HarperTeen; 1st Edition edition
March 6, 2018
978-0062662804

I had the pleasure to listen to the audio book.  The narrator pulled me into Xiomara’s life from the very first track.  Xiomara’s teenage life with strict parents and her coming of age made me reflect on my own teen years.  Her poetry book, her brother, and her life in the Bronx is vivid and rich. You can’t help but to fall in love with this book.  There were times when I sat in my car in the garage to hear how the chapter was going to end. Yay for poetry and the power it has on lives.

MARY’s MONSTER: Love, Madness, and How Mary Shelley Created Frankenstein
by Lita Judge
Roaring Brook Press
January 30, 2018
978-1626725003

I have a confession.  I think the only Frankenstein book I’ve read was one adapted for early readers.  I think this is the year to correct that after reading Mary’s Monster. Lita

Judge created an amazing Gothic story about the creator/writer of this British classic.  I was drawn into the story of Mary’s life and so unaware of her hard life. The art in the book was incredible.  The darkness of the content is sure to give teens a book that they can’t put down. I read it in one sitting, or rather staying up way beyond my bedtime to finish.

I also really enjoyed the back matter that Judge put in the end of the book.

Announcement Time

March is an exciting month with a fantastic blog tour featuring Laura Purdie Salas’ new book, IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT.

Return on Thursday, March 14 for an early Poetry Friday and an interview with Laura.

 

3/11               Mile High Reading

3/12               Reflections on the Teche

3/13               A Year of Reading

3/14               Check It Out

3/15               Radio, Rhythm & Rhyme

3/17               Great Kid Books

3/18               Simply 7 Interview

3/19               My Juicy Little Universe

3/20               Live Your Poem

3/21               Reading to the Core

3/22               KidLit Frenzy

                        Beyond LiteracyLink

And on the heels of Laura’s new book, I can announce that GAIL ALDOUS won the copy of

Gail, please email me your snail mail address book.

Poetry Friday: Students + Writing = Poems

It’s Friday and that means Poetry Friday. Thank you to Robyn at Life on the Deckle Edge for hosting.

I was very excited to get this SNOWMAN – COLD = PUDDLE . In fact, I was so excited for the book I accidentally bought two. So guess what, I will be selecting a lucky person for my extra copy. Just comment below.


Last week, I had the opportunity to sub at my former school. The teachers were gracious enough to make space in the day for me to teach Equation Poems based
Laura Purdie Salas’s new title.

It’s never enough time to fully polish and revise the poems. After reading the book and talking about the idea on a one line poem, the students dove in. I worked with second and third graders. Some second graders were able to create the illustrations.

One second grader took the paper home to finish.


Here are more examples:

The above are my second graders who had more time to work.

Process: We read the book. Made a few group ones. I created a list of possibilities for the sum or difference. (=family, =heaven, = honesty {one of their life skills they are working on} )I had a sheet with the format and asked the students to write three. They then selected their favorite to illustrate.

Here are some that were written but not illustrated:

Blanket + Cat = Nap

~Liana, 2nd grade

Winter + Waves = Storm

~Elisha, 2nd grade

Horses + Saddle = Heaven

~Beatrix, 3rd Grade

Me + Family = Love

~ Vicka, 3rd grade

Me + Sick = Chicken Noodle Soup

~ Jayden, 3rd grade

Me + Homework = No, No, No

~ Daniel, 3rd grade

Sad + Cry = Puddle

~ Ricky, 3rd grade

Person + Forever Sleep = Heaven

~Naomi, 3rd grade

Triangle + Ingredients = Pizza

Moon + Stick = Lollipop

Stick + Stone = Hammer of Thor

~John W, 3rd grade

Max + Daniel = Honesty

~ Elvira, 3rd grade

Sister + Doom = Sadness

~ Malachi, 2nd grade

Book + Learning = Smart

~Samantha, 2nd grade

Have a poetic week. Over at Deowriter, I’m remembering Paul Janeczko.

Poetry Friday: A Poem From a Former Student

There’s a lot of poetry goodness happening today. It can be found at Writing the World for Kids. Thank you, Laura.

Last week, I heard from a mom how her daughter missed Poetry Rocks and was still writing poems. I sent a post card to the daughter and asked about her poems. Last night this appeared on my Facebook page.

Puppies Are So Cute

They are cuddly, too.

They like to play a lot

They like to run a lot too.

They are also a good pet

and sometimes they get a little
sleepy and they go to bed

And then in the morning they play,

play all day long.

©Rylee, 2nd grade

I love how much she knows about puppies. I believe she has a puppy at home.

She has an idea about line breaks. And the word sleepy and the repetition of play, play so fun.

Thank you, Rylee!

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Hope to see you all next week. The post will be available early. I will be revealing the CYBILS Poetry Winner for 2018. I’ve been working with some fabulous judges to decide. The finalists are giving us a run for our money.