April is Poetry Month!

We have been having some fun with poetry in library this month.

Concrete Poems - 2nd and 3rd grade

 A concrete poem takes on the shape of whatever it is about. Suddenly students realized you can write a poem about anything.  They wrote some great ones about pizza, a hockey stick and a book.

Poetry and Movement - 1st grade

It can be hard to sit and listen to poetry - especially at the end

of the day.  So we spread out to read some animal poems and

students had a chance to add movements to the poem.  We were fish, swimming fast, and octopus, a sea turtle and even an egg and the chick hatching out of it.

Poetry and Music - 3rd and 4th Grade

I played a piece of classical music to students (without giving them the title or any information about it) and asked them to think about what it made them imagine and how it made them feel.  Then I played it a second time and student wrote poems based on the music.  While I did get a few poems about how long and boring the piece was - and hey, a good poem about boredom could be interesting - I also had students do wildly creative and thoughtful poems.  Here is one of my favorites:

A ship in the middle of the ocean

A ship in a storm

A ship that someone has fallen off of.

 - 3JB student

List Poems - 2nd Grade

We had been working on and reading an online book that the Poet Laureate, Juan Felipe Herrera was creating for the Library of Congress all year so it seemed like a good chance to listen to him read one of his own poems and talk about it.  Students love hearing the poem and then hearing what the poet has to say about it. 

We used Mr. Herrera's list idea to write our own list poems. Students wrote lists about why they love horses or about things they notice in the woods or about getting ready for school

Here is an interesting one:

To Do
1. Throw out my old smelly shoes
2. Feed my valuable gold pet goose
3. Cook a fresh moose for dinner
4. Make tacos with flattened tortillas to make sure they're thinner
5. Buy shoes that are brand new
6. After I told you to do the rest is up to you.
- 2MH student

And here is a great Harry Potter inspired one from a team effort from three students in 2KC:

Harry Potter
1. brooms flying through the air
2. wands waving through the air, wands waving everywhere
3. 1 drop, 2 drop, 3 drop 4 stir and stir and stir once more
4. Expelliarmus, Stupefy, wave your wand and try again if you get it wrong
5. Look in the ball... what do you see? A black dog? What does it mean?

Stay Calm and Read Poetry!

-Ms. J.