It’s Poetry Friday and my poetry playmate Margaret Simon is our gracious hostess this week for the poetry roundup. Perhaps you’ll join us? Margaret is has some lovely (and fun!) Pi-Ku for us to enjoy. I confess I had never heard of Pi-Ku (syllable count 3.14…….) before. Can’t wait to try!
Two weeks ago, at the end of an interview with Elizabeth Steinglass, Michelle Heidenrich Barnes threw out a challenge to poets one and all — write a poem giving instructions to an inanimate object about how to do its job. Elizabeth has a terrific poem in her new book, Soccerverse, that does just that — Instructions for the Field. You can read the interview here.
Seeing as yesterday was National Notebook Day, I thought I’d dive into my notebook and tackle this month’s challenge with a poem giving instructions to my Kindergarten writers’ notebooks. Here are two sneak peeks inside notebooks in my classroom.
Here’s what I came up with.
Have you taken on this month’s challenge? If so, why not add it to the Padlet created to collect these wonderful instruction poems.
And just for fun, here are two other notebook and writing-related poems to share.
Thanks for hosting this week, Margaret. Bring on the poetry!
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Wondering and Wandering 
Christy, this entire post is marvelous! I didn’t know there was a Notebook Day. And, I love, Love, LOVE notebooks! Three wonderful poems…my favorite lines from each:
“loud their lines…honor their attempts…safe between your covers”
“whiling away the hours”
“lines and curves begin working together”
Thank you for sharing such joyous love of the notebook!
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I love seeing the kindergartener’s notebooks. And your instructions are just right. “Listen to their thoughts, stories, poems, worries.” I missed National notebook day, but it was Splash Day and Garden Day, and just too-much-going-on-in-May Day.
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Protect, honor, listen, support, keep them safe: strong use of verbs for why notebook writing is a sacred practice for children. I always say that your kindred have learned the art of writing so their voice can fly under your tutelage, Christie. I also tried writing a poem to a notebook for the challenge. You wrote many with different poetic styles.
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Love your welcoming poem, Christie. I hope you can share it with other kindergarten teachers so they can pass it along to their students.
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Beautiful, Christie! I adore the line, “Keep them safe between your covers.” Man oh man, are these students ever lucky to have such a “brave writer” as their teacher! I want to hug each and every one of those student notebooks for being so welcoming. đ
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These are wonderful, Christie. I love keeping a notebook & loved keeping one with my students. My first-grade granddaughter is not having such beautiful invitations and it makes me sad. As Michelle wrote, your students are lucky!
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Love your notebook poems, and seeing those samples. There is something so endearing about seeing children’s handwriting. đ
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Christie, this is beautiful. So many lines of perfection. I can’t choose a favorite. Lovely!
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I love all of these poems, but especially the instructions to the notebook. Kindergarten is a special time – so much depends on how things begin and that acceptance and celebration are integral to a positive beginning.
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