I am excited to share the debut poem collaboratively written by my Kindergarten poets. I emphasize collaboratively, because it, along with compassion, was one of our school-wide endeavors for the month of November. While we’ve been reading, responding to, and reciting loads of poetry since the school year began, this was our first attempt at creating together. Each member of our classroom community, teachers included, contributed their own idea.
Thankful
We are thankful for friends
Our dogs
Being healthy
We are thankful for birds
Our families
Dad’s new job
We are thankful for our fish
Teaching at Country School
Rescuing a cat
We are thankful for our school
Our moms and dads
The COVID vaccine
We are thankful for our Grandmas
Grandpas
Our cousins
We are thankful for our teachers
Brothers and sisters
Our homes
We are thankful for our class
Kisses
Plenty of food to eat
We are thankful for everything
— Wyman’s Wonders 2021-2022
Thank you for joining us this post-holiday (for those of us stateside) Poetry Friday. Click the link to join the roundup! Ruth is our gracious hostess this week. Her heart-wrenching Ode to Autumn in Haiti will undoubtedly shift most of our perspectives of what we are thankful for. You are always in my thoughts, Ruth.
Wondering and Wandering 
Oh, young poets! What a celebration of thankfulness here in your words. I feel as if we are all sitting around a table together, holding hands, taking turns sharing what we are most thankful for at this time. And this is really what poetry is…when your words reach me and it feels like we are in the same place.
I am thankful for your poem and for your teacher who knows how to connect words and people.
Lots of Love,
Amy
xo
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Thank you, Amy. It was pure joy. xx
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Oh, my heart. So wonderful. I am especially happy to hear your school is focusing on compassion. We really need that. A beautiful poem so nicely composed. My appreciation to the writers who helped create such a lovely, thoughtful poem. I love the feeling of being grateful and appreciative. It makes my heart smile.
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Mine, too, Janet. 🙂
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I absolutely love this collaborative poem. Thank you for sharing your Scholars voice.
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More to come, Donnetta!
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This is so touching, about the things that really matter. Thanks for sharing this!
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You are most welcome. 🙂
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Thank you for sharing this, Christie! Giving thanks together is so meaningful. How wonderful that you did this with the students, all their special things.
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It was pure joy, right down one of them being thankful for the vaccine. Cheers!
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The work of your young poets shines through in this collaborative effort, Christie. When young poets experience success in this way, they are far more likely to something in poetry that makes them crave more of that feeling. The poem makes great use of repetition, and its list like structure is ideal for inexperienced poets. You are setting them up to believe that poetry can deliver special words, meaningful words that they can call their own. Love it!
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Thank you, Alan! This is just the first of many. Stay tuned. 🙂
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This makes my heart so happy. I’m thinking of these children in 20 or 30 years, changed forever by this early experience with collaboration and poetry, making our world a better place. You are a master seed-planter!
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Thank you, Mary Lee. Hope you are enjoying your first free fall! 🙂
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Dear Wonders and your Teachers,
I am thankful for you and your poem! I hear lots of different voices in your list of things to be thankful for, and when you put them all together in one poem it’s like we are all standing in a circle, reminding each other to notice the biggest most thankful thing around us, which is LOVE. I hope you all are feeling plenty of love right now!
from Heidi Mordhorst
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We sure are. Thank you, Heidi! xx
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Oh, this is great! We have so much to be thankful for in both people we love but also in the practicalities of life, like Dad’s new job or someone who loves their teaching job (and I’m thankful for YOU). Wonderful job of sharing and trusting and being thankful, poets!
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Thank you, Laura!
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And I am, of course, always thankful for you and your writing wisdom. And donut giggles. I can’t look at one without thinking of you, LOL!
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I love the poem. Lovely! Nice work, young writers.
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Christie, your collaborative poem with your kinders is so touching. I asked my granddaughter Sierra what she is thankful for but did not ask her to expand her thoughts as your little ones did. It is a joyful poem filled by the heart of children who now understand what compassion is thanks to you, my friend. My greatest wish will be for Sierra to have a teacher like you next fall when she enters Kindergarten. It is hard for me to believe that she is moving on at such a rapid pace. I would love to feature your kinder’s poem in my Bedecked In Autumn Gallery. If they have a picture to add that would be special. Let me know if this is fine with you and your little ones.
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We’d love them. I’ll get someone on the artwork tomorrow. Thank you! And how can it possibly be nearly time for Sierra to go to Kindergarten? Time is flying by much to fast.
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“We are thankful for everything.” Yes! This is such a neat project and a great way to get younger students engaged in poetry. Thank you for sharing it — I’m thankful for it (and you)!
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I am thankful for your heart-warming poem from your students and you Christie, and I love the kisses in there too, thanks!
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