Poetry Friday: Dreaming for School to be Finished
School gets out next Wednesday. I am dreaming for that day. It has been a long, wonderful year but I am ready for summer. So in honor of dreams, I am sharing fro a discovery I made this year over at 7-Imp; Janet Wong’s Night Garden: Poems from the World of Dreams. The illustrations are by Julie Paschkis, a favorite illustrator.
I dream almost every night. Sometimes as a result I wake up feeling like I had a good chat with my parents. This is why I loved the line for “The Ones They Loved the Most”:
…”When you are chosen
remember to pull
at the air around you
when you wake
pull and gulp it down,
swallow hard,
and those sweet memories
will stick
like cotton candy.”
And that’s what I do on the nights when my parents visit in my dreams.
And I laughed throughout the “Talking in Her Sleep”. It reminded me of my college days. I would retire earlier than my roommate. Many nights, I would sit up and begin a gibberish sort of conversation and she would recount it the following day. One night, she invited out friends to watch this weird event in our room. I woke and was not happy.
“Night Garden”, the first poem, is my favorite. I just love the idea of our mind being a garden rich:
“…dreams grow wild
like dandelion weeds,
feathery heads
alive
with seeds__”
I am looking forward to school being done, my national boards test completed (this Saturday), and time to cultivate the seeds waiting to sprout in my head.
Happy dreaming. Happy Reading. Poetry Friday reound-up is at A Wrung Sponge today.
MsMac
Books, Kidlitosphere, Poetry Friday | Comments (4)Poetry Friday: Haiku from Mrs. Fisher’s Class
Here are three entries as a follow-up to the wonderful poetry unit that Mrs. Fisher’s class did.
A red velvet scarf
sits, alone and forgotten
awaiting winter.
Hannah
Alone, petite tree.
Overshadowed with weather,
An only child.
Marianne
Cheetah
Awaits patiently
still, silent. Staring at me
there in the moon light.
Alicia
Are they not great images?
I am very excited to have been selected to run a “Poetry as Writer’s Workshop” for my district’s teachers in August. Now I have to get organized.
I have an orignal poem over at Deowriter today.
Happy reading.
MsMac
Kidlitosphere, Poetry Friday, School | Comment (0)And the Winners Are…
Note to self: Sometimes giving away one signed book is difficult. Have at least three to give away if possible.
Trevor, Levi, and Kara
Last year, the week that Laini Taylor’s Blackbringercame out, I purchased a copy and both Jim Di Bartolo (husband and illustrator) and Laini signed the book. I always knew that it would be given away to a Silver Star student.
Just two weeks ago, Laini came to our school and did an amazing two hours with fourth and fifth grade. Students wrote why they deserved to have the book. Well, I just could not put them all in a hat an draw. So I had a few of the staff read them to help me decide.
Three emerged as winners. I only had one book. What to do? Buy two more books! (Thank you Marybeth) Have Laini sign them! (thanks, Laini)
So the winners are
Trevor, 4th grade: “I think fairies hunting down devils is very different…a main feature that struck me was that the main character Magpie isn’t as gentle or delicate as the other fairies you would read about and I think that is better in my opinion.”
Levi, 4thgrade: “I love fairy tales, they fill me up with dreams and everyone loves to have dreams…I like goblins because they are mischievouslittle creatures, unicorns are mythological creatures that bring joy to the world, fairies are magical creatures that help out…I hope you agree with me.”
By the way, Levi did this as a homework assignment.
Kara, 5th grade: “It sounds like a thriller to me. Also I have never read this author…I plan on becoming an author that writes adventure stories, fantasy fighting good and bad…there are no good books I can relate to, I mean she’s a fairy that’s not a major girly girl and she’s going to prove herself to the other fairies.”
Other entires got books from the book fair. This always makes me happy.
I am currently reading Emily of New Moon by not other than L.M. Montgomery of Anne of Green Gables. what a great escape.
What are you reading.
Happy reading.
MsMac
Books, Kidlitosphere, Libraries | Comment (1)
Poetry Friday: Photos and Poems from After School Poetry Club
Bars
Bars so slippery they always give me blisters
But I still always do it anyway
I think they’re fun
I see warm and cool colors
Like blue and yellow.
by Trinity, 3rd Grade
Flowers in the garden
Flowers in the garden dancing in the sun
Oh how I love to see the pretty flowers in the garden
Bush leaves shake when the wind blows
Pink and blue flowers and green grass sways.
by Brooklyn, 1st grade
Playground
The swings go swinging
The slide goes dripping
The basket ball so lonely
Just going
Drip drop drip drop
by Sarah, 1st grade
Pretty Tulips
Pretty tulips in the garden
Little hearts hidden in the flower
If you look very closely you will see love
by Jaegan, 1st grade
Rain
Small green buds
Dragonfly heart beats
A slick of rain falls
Tulips shine.
by Clare, 2nd grade
Tulips look like fruit
Like juicy apples and peaches
The stems like leaves on a tree
by Ember, 1st grade
In a forest
Blue violet bells hang
Softly misted
by Tasha, 5th grade
These students (and some others) have been meeting after school to do photography and poetry. These were their entries for the school art show. Poetry Friday is being hosted at Becky’s Book Review. Hop on over and see what others are sharing.
Will you be in Portland, Oregon, September 27, 2008? Look here for more details.
Heading out for the weekend. Enjoy!
Happy Reading.
MsMac
Kidlitosphere, Libraries, Poetry Friday, School, Uncategorized | Comments (3)Bellatrix, Butterflies, and Bear Claws: Laini Taylor Visits Silver Star
Quick: Besides Blackbringer and Harry Potter, where can you find “Bellatrix”?
Look to the night sky and find the constellation Orion. Bellatrix is the blue star of the left shoulder in the constellation. Bellatrix is Latin for “warrior woman”.
Quick: Who can taste with their feet? I know I can’t. Butterflies can. And moths? They have amazing tongues, some as long as 11 inches!
Bear claws do not hold a candle to the talons of a Harpy Eagle, an animal strong enough to crush a human skull. Intrigued?
Fourth and fifth graders certainly were as Laini Taylor talked about her life and her love of research for her books. She also combined a lot of fun; pulling pink wigs from a secret blue case that five students bravely wore so that she would feel so alone with her pink hair.
Laini created a fabulous slide presentation with hands on props such as the Mysterious Box of Claws and Talons and butterfly specimens (no animals were hurt: claws are museum quality replicas and the butterflies died naturally in a Butterfly Zoo).
Her slides not only showed her family members but explained the main points of Blackbringer, her book as well. Students also saw examples of the revision process on her upcoming book, Silksinger.
What I loved most was the way in which Laini combined facts about science (and math) into her imaginary world. Her slide presentation also did this. Students saw some pretty incredible slides of the natural world: Harpy Eagles, Grizzly Bears, moths, butterflies, and my favorite, dragonflies.
I loved this modeling for the students. I am hopeful that perhaps one of them will look at science in a new way. Perhaps the student who doesn’t see the point of science, will have a new found purpose: to make his or her writing even better. The other thing I loved was the playfulness that my students showed after her visit. I saw fifth grade girls pretending to be faeries and begging Laini to bring them home. Fifth graders usually are way to cool; it was refreshing to see.
This summer I will re-read Blackbringer with a totally new eye for how the names and ideas were created. I am looking forward to reading Silksinger as well. (comes out in 09). This summer when I am at Bryce National Park and I will look at the night sky with a renewed enthusiasm for the stars.
For the moment I need to re-read the essays of students who want a signed copy of Blackbringer. It is going to be difficult to choose.
If you are looking for a dynamic author for your school, Laini Taylor is some one you need to contact.
Happy Reading.
MsMac
Kidlitosphere, Libraries, School, Uncategorized | Comment (0)Author/Illustrator: Nicole Rubel
Quick! Who illustrated Rotten Ralph? (Answer: Nicole Rubel)
Quick! Who wrote and illustrated Hot and Cold in Miami, No More Vegetables, Grody’s Not So Golden Rules, A Cowboy Named Ernestine, Twice as Nice: What It Is Like to Be a Twin, and Ham and Pickles: First Day of School? (Answer: Nicole Rubel)
So I am embarrassed. Really embarrassed. For more years than I know, I have associated Nicole Rubel with the Rotten Ralph books which I dearly love. He is such a naughty cat! And only in having Nicole Rubel come to our school did I learn about her other books. They are a lot of fun. Quirky, colorful and engaging.
Her presentation to the kindergarten through third grade classes was delightful. What I really loved was how she really emphasized using the library for research. She talked about growing up as an identical twin, her love of patterns, tiles, and collage. The classes were engaged. Especially when she took input for the students to create two original sketches with Rotten Ralph.
Rotten Ralph and Sara, day at the beach.
And perhaps a most original idea: Rotten Ralph swallowing all the ocean water! This is from the K-1 students.
If you live in the northwest, I highly recommend having Nicole Rubel visit your school. She was truly a fun presenter.
Happy Reading.
MsMac
Books, Kidlitosphere, Libraries | Comment (0)Poetry Friday: A Ring, A Drum, and A Blanket Poem
Last month Elaine at Wild Rose Reader suggested writing a poem with the words “blanket, drum, and ring” as a result of an interview with Janet Wong. It was an assignment given by the late Myra Cohn Livingston to her students (JW was one of them) in a master poetry class at UCLA.
This poetry prompt eluded me all month! I left a comment on Elaine’s blog and Janet Wong responded with a suggestion to have the students draw before writing. So I did with Mrs. Fisher’s 4th grade class two weeks ago. I brought in my mother’s Navajo story ring which she gave me months before her passing, a swatch of a Pendleton wool blanket and my father’s drumsticks as a visuals. They drew and wrote.
This week, rather than me play editor, I took the class to the computer lab and they played with the line breaks. Samples are here and others are on Mrs. Fisher’s Class Page.
I have to point out Kymberlee’s poem. She sat for most of the time and felt stuck, “I don’t know what to write”. We chatted and then she wrote. Wow!
Outside a thin
Blanket
Of snow
Lays upon
The ground.
I look at my ring.
The snow so cold,
My ring looking so warm.
Then I look at the pattern
in the snow
then the pattern on my ring
so alike almost the exact same.
I couldn’t keep it off my
Mind until
My mom’s homemade soup
The same golden color as my ring.
By: Alicia
Loud drums beating
in the park awaking
people with every beat. But
there is no drummer to this
drum. It is the spirit of the
tribes long ago.
People hear the drummer but
there is no site to see.
by Jacey
Heard in the distant,
The drum gets louder
And louder
get closer to the drum beat
When I get to it.
It was my
Heart that is making
The drum beat.
by Kymberlee
Ring of fire surrounds the valley,
a black angel rises from the ground,
a white angel comes from the glistening heavens, and a voice as loud as 100 bombs exploding shouts go get him, Zinkof,
and the 2 angels start fighting.
Zinkof gets hurt
but has enough strength
to overcome his enemy.
by Tim
Personally, I still haven’t captured the poem for this prompt. But wow, wow, wow to these fourth graders. Wow to the experience of bringing them into the computer lab and having them play with the line breaks.
Poetry Friday Roundup can be found at writer2b.
Happy Reading.
MsMac
Kidlitosphere, Poetry, Poetry Friday, School, Uncategorized | Comments (4)National Poetry Month: What I Discovered
It is the first time that I have saturated three grade levels (3rd-5th) with poetry all month. It made sense, these students have been engaged in state tests all month. I wanted library time to be a respite. It was worth it.
I discovered:
conversations about poetry increased with staff and students.
one teacher wrote poetry with her students for “Poem in Your Pocket Day”.
I have poems for this blog until school is out.
a way to teach how to write the pantoum form with students. I did this for Earth Day.
I need to post more than Poetry Friday with poems. (and I will)
I may have connected with a third grade student for the first time when I published his haiku poem about hating haiku.
Students you least expect will deliver amazing words in poems.
This next week I am working with a fourth grade class to finish their “ring, drum, and blanket” poems. I posted a comment on Wild Rose Reader about this poem eluding me.
Janet Wong posted a suggestion and I ran with it. I am going to have the students revise a bit and I hope to have them for the post next week. But some of the drafts are amazing.
As far as my own goal of 30 days =30 poems? I wrote 26 poems during the month. Not quite my goal but I am learning lessons,letting go of my perfectionism.
I am really happy with my poem, “For My Granddaughter”.
Thank you, Elaine for the copy of The Llama Who had No Pajama. I can’t wait to get it.
Kelly at Big A, little a is rounding up poems today.
Kidlitosphere, Poetry Friday, School | Comments (5)White is Wednesday Full of Poems
I discovered upon reading Elaine’s post at Wild Rose Reader that color poems were the exploration of the week at The Miss Rumphius Effect . This was the perfect idea for my third graders today. Here are a few from Mr. Johnson’s and Ms Padden’s class:
Blue is the color of
Light blue sky all up above
Up, up it goes to the sky
Eight little white puffy clouds
Bright and happy
Eight white clouds with the sky
Reading a story of the sun
Reading about the clouds
Yellow so bright for the sun
–Bailey, 3rd grade
Brown is for bear
Even browner than ever
Are you afriad or are you not?
Run, run little bear
–Sierra, 3rd grade
Red, shiny bumper
At lightning speed
Cameras flash all over the stadium
Extreme crashing
Racing cars ZOOM
–Devon, 3rd grade
Yellow is the color of
the sun shining up high
a sunflower bending in the wind
a lemon, so sour
a star shining in the sky
the shine of the school bell
–Emily, 3rd grade
Red is the color of the sunset
Everybody can do anything
Anybody can win
Dreaming of darkness at night
–Forrest, 3rd grade
Blue is the color of my team
At bat, working hard
Shooting balls out of the park
Eating hot dogs at the game
Blowing hot-dogs
All of them cheer me
Losing by one
Last inning home run
–Tanner, 3rd grade
You are my sunshine
Entering my house with a bright light
Letting me see through the shadows of the dark
Luring me into the kitchen for some tea
Out to the porch I go with my tea
Wonderful, wonderful sun.
–Maya, 3rd grade
Happy Wednesday. Happy Reading.
MsMac
Kidlitosphere, Poetry, School | Comment (0)Poetry Friday: Winning Poem and Third Grade Haiku
Yesterday 3rd through 5th grade celebrated “Poem in your Pocket Day”. Students either had a poem in their pocket or the could turn an original poem into me. My classes have been reading and writing poetry as well. Today a winner was selected from the basket of poems and Mikyla’s poem was selected. She wins a copy of Poems in Black and White by Kate Miller.
This is Just to Say
I have eaten
ALMOST
All of your
Chocolate
That you were probably
Saving for
Your slumber party with
Your friends tonight.
Forgive me
It was so
Delicious
That I think
I might
Just have to
Eat the rest.
Please!
–Mikyla, 4th grade
I read Dogku by Andrew Clements, One Leaf Rides the WindbyCeleste Davidson Mannis, and Wing Nuts: Screwy Haikuby Paul B. Janeczko and J. Patrick Lewis with third grade. Then they tried some. I found it helpful to provide some starting lines for them to choose and then have them make it their own. The one haiku, “WASL”, refers to our state testing that is occurring right now.
My younger sister
Funny, loves to play, she’s two
She’s still my sister
–Darina, 3rd grade
Haiku not fun
Boring, I do not like it
I don’t understand
–Jamal, 3rd grade
one leaf rides the wind
like a wind blows in water
and take it with you
–Olesya, 3rd grade
WASL, so much fun
Can be hard, but yes, still fun
WASL, fun, fun, fun
–Kailee, 3rd grade
right now I am in
library, it is fun
books that read to us.
–Alexus, 3rd grade
Play in the garden
Worms eating ivy leaves
Worm tummy is full
–Aislinn, 3rd grade
Play all day outside
Play with my dog at a beach
I am hungry now.
–Katya, 3rd
Jedi, very cool
Jedi fast and powerful
Jedi have the force
–Bailey, 3rd grade
Loud, fast, and crazy
Dog running in the kitchen
to make some noise
–Justin, 3rd
Lone garden tulip
neatly, leatly in a row
let’s make this flower
–Breanne, 3rd grade
The Well Read Child is doing the Poetry Friday Round-Up today. Head there for more poetry.
This weekend, I am
heading to Seattle to see my friend’s daughter’s Senior Photography Exhibit at the U of Washington, catching up on my 30 Days= 30 Poems, finishing Copper Sun by Sharon Draper, and going to book club to discuss Maisie Dobbs.
How about you? Happy Reading.
MsMac
Poetry, Poetry Friday | Comments (2)