Lucky kids who WRITE as a part of LIBRARY! Lester Laminack (I think it was him) said something to the effect that reading is breathing in and writing is breathing out.

The kids did a good job of writing poems that included at least one or two of the three “required” words. If they wanted to attempt another draft, I’d suggest “sticking” the other required word(s) in there somehow. The point of the exercise is to show that we don’t need “inspiration”; to make a game of poetry, a puzzle of it; and to force ourselves to find an image or memory for any word.

One of my favorite poems can be found at Mrs. Fisher’s classroom link. It is Olivia’s simple poem:

Loud drums beating
as I am surrounded
by a soft blanket
wearing my good
luck ring.
by Olivia

This poem reminds me of sitting in the park late at night, waiting for fireworks to begin…I love the simplicity of this poem. It is short, yet it very effectively conveys an image. My only question: what is the significance of the good luck ring at that moment? Why would she be wearing it? Or thinking about the fact that she is wearing it? If Olivia were willing to try a second draft, I would suggest adding a line (or even just a title) to answer those questions.

Those are wonderful poems! It looks as if your students were really inspired to write.

It’s great having computers so the kids can experiment with line breaks and shaping their poems, isn’t it?