I absolutely loved National Poetry Month and my #ThoreaulyInspired project, but I’m pooped! Writing a poem draft a day is a labor of love, indeed. Here’s a Padlet of the poems that I either created from scratch or revisited and revised from the past. I do feel more connected to not only Thoreau but the changing world around me.
I also wanted to share some sweet haiku that several of my Kindergarteners chose to write on National Haiku Day last month. I shared a line with them during a ZOOM session and here’s what they added. Not bad for their first haiku!
So now it’s May, National Notebooking Month, and I’m looking forward to lots of scribbling about whatever comes my way.
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Thanks to Elizabeth for hosting this week’s celebration! Happy Friday, all, and be safe and well.
It’s Poetry Friday and Elizabeth Steinglass is our hostess this week for the poetry roundup on her blog. I hope to see you there! Elizabeth shares a lovely poem about her favorite word, and. What would we do without it? No Frog and Toad, Burt and Ernie, peanut butter and jelly, or Elephant and Piggie! How sad!
My haiku this week was inspired by my first snowshoeing session of the season.
As we worked our way around the local golf course Sunday afternoon, we marveled at the number of visitors who had left their imprints before us.
Thanks for hosting this week, Elizabeth. Now let’s bring on the poetry!
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.
A Golden Shovel using “Why am I keeping this notebook” as an anchor line.A wee bit of free verse written with my Kindergarten writers in mind.
Thanks for hosting this week, Margaret. Bring on the poetry!
It’s Poetry Friday and Elizabeth Steinglass is our gracious hostess this week for the poetry roundup. Perhaps you’ll join us? Elizabeth is celebrating her new book, Soccerverse: Poems about Soccer. How fun, and congratulations, Elizabeth!
It’s spring, so bring on the robins!
This week I discovered a robin’s nest in my backyard. On Tuesday there were two eggs and on Wednesday there were three! Robins lay a clutch of 3-4 eggs, just one each day, so yesterday should have been egg number 4 or the start of momma keeping them toasty warm until their debut in about two weeks. I wasn’t able to check yesterday, but this afternoon I found four and no momma. I’m going to keep my distance for a bit and let her get settled to do her important work.
In their honor, and for Mother’s Day, I wrote a poem in letter form to mark the occasions.
If you’d like to learn more about writing letter poems, Amy Ludwig VanDerwater has wonderful advice for you and your students at The Poem Farm. And, if you adore robins, there are many delightful poems about them. You may find a list here.
Thanks for hosting this week, Elizabeth. Bring on the poetry!
My #NaPoWriMo Poem-A-Day project is Playing With Poetry. I am tagging along with Margaret Simon, Jone MacCulloch, Molly Hogan, and Mary Lee Hahn. We will be playing with Haikubes, Magnetic Poetry, Metaphor Dice, and Paint Chip Poetry (I raided Home Depot). I’m even throwing in nail polish color names as inspiration, just for fun! Play along, if you’d like! We are using the Twitter hashtag #playwithpoetryNPM to see what poetic mischief everyone is getting into.
Today’s poem created with online magnetic poetry, the nature version.
A peek into my poem and process:
We are in a weather pattern I am ready to be done with — clouds, rain, and cooler-than-I’d-like temperatures.
I’m snug as a bug under a lovely fleece blanket, so am using online magnetic poetry rather than crawling out to use my magnets scattered across the dining room table.
Creating these magnetic poems is a bit like making a flower arrangement with what you have in your garden. You notice what’s available, gather up what speaks to you, and arrange them in an aesthetically pleasing manner.
On April 1, the Poetry Friday family launched the 7th annual Kidlitosphere Progressive Poem organized by author/poet, Irene Latham. (Click here to learn more.) Many of us have signed up to provide a line for the 2019 poem. Author/poet Matt Forrest Esenwine kicked things off with some familiar “found” phrases merged to get us going. Today’s line comes from Elizabeth Steinglass. You may find her line here on her blog. Participants are having fun using song lyrics. I was excited to provide the 14th line on April 14th. You can read it here. I hope you’ll join us to see what happens next! Here’s the itinerary for the rest of the poem. We are in the home stretch now!
Wondering and Wandering 