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Chalkabration is a favorite in my class, but we haven’t done it in a while. This great way to write and share poetry was created by Betsy Hubbard, one of the Two Writing Teachers’ Team. It usually falls on the last day of the month. I like to have something special happen on Fridays as a reward for a week of hard work. My students have been writing every day. They are reading and working hard, so yesterday I brought in chalk and art paper.
First we had to write poems. On Michelle Barnes’ site Today’s Little Ditty, she interviewed one of our favorite poets, Amy Ludwig VanDerwater, about her new book Every Day Birds. Last year we Skyped with Amy on the day she had received the proofs for this book. We had an exclusive sneak peek at the book. Amy’s Ditty of the Month Challenge is to write about something small. (And I just happen to have a treasure box full.)
After we wrote and shared our poems, my students used Sharpie markers to write out their poems on art paper. Here comes the fun part. Into a bucket of water, we scraped chalk, placed the paper in and Viola! marbleized paper! We used Prang Freart Large Drawing Chalk.
Here is a collection of chalked poems.
Bell by Emily
Pencil by Kaiden
I Can’t Breathe by Kielan
Seashell by Erin
Ruth Ayres invites us the celebrate each week. Click over to her site Discover. Play. Build. to read more celebrations.
Reflections on the Teche 