Ruth Ayres invites us the celebrate each week. Click over to her site Discover. Play. Build. to read more celebrations.
This week was state testing week. We made it through. Because I am an extra teacher, I was assigned a small group to test. The routine was changed. I stayed at one school all day.
When on Friday the test was over, I resumed my routine. My students were so excited to see me again. They truly missed me. I think they also missed the flexibility of our days. It was as though they could breathe again.
I celebrate the love I share with my students while I am sad to realize the year is quickly coming to an end. So many activities planned; end-of-the-year picnics, talent shows, and field trips will interrupt my class again and again.
I want to stay calm about it all, so I planned a creative end-of-the-year project. We are making re-purposed books. They will paint the pages of a discarded book and add art and writing to them. They are already excited, and the mess making has begun. I celebrate creativity and mess making.
I am altering a book as well. This inspires the creative side of me. No one sees it, really, so I let go of my inhibitions about my art talent and just do it. Here’s a page I’ve painted waiting for a poem.
Pass the scissors
then the glue;
I am pasting poems
in a book.Make a mess
filling the pages
with happy words.Anyone can make a book.
Let’s make a book today!
National Poetry Month is at the end. I thought it would never come. Writing a poem a day has been a challenge. I celebrate all the poets out there writing daily and inspiring me and my students to do the same.
I celebrate Irene Latham who blogs here. She generously Skyped with my students on Poem in your Pocket Day. She listened patiently while they shared their own poems and responded with nothing but kindness. She even answered a question about whether or not she felt haunted. (Kids say the darnedest things.) But Irene handled it like a champ. She told my students that she likes to visit graveyards and feel the presence of people who have gone before.
Irene offered excellent advice about finding new words; brainstorm a list of words about your topic. Then mark them all out and start again. This forces you to find new and unusual words.
I also want to thank Laura Purdie Salas whose putrid poetry gave my students permission to write about poop and other yucky stuff.
And what would NPM be without Amy Ludwig VanDerwater? She wondered with us all month long and inspired my students to write about their world.
Thank you to all my readers who stuck with me each day as I attempted to entertain the poetic muse. Here’s to another wonderful National Poetry Month. Do not be mistaken, though. Poetry is made for every day!
Donna has the final line to the Progressive Poem and it is just right!
Reflections on the Teche 
I love your book and agree — there is much to celebrate in mess making + creativity. What a great way to end your year together, by altering books. I wish I were close enough to join you for a day!
Happy writing,
Ruth
I love you book and poem your book inspired me to write this
poem By Jessica Bigi
On sky shades of paper
April’s drawing snowflakes
Icy crowns on golden daffodils
Wintry blue swirls of paint
Feel pages of my book
Titled Spring Is Here
Love those golden daffodils. Happy spring.
Oh, what a great project! Makes me want to do this with you–but I can’t even heat up Chinese takeout at home because of cooking smells (with the house on the market, I mean), let alone make a wonderful, smooshy, colorful, wild mess of a poetry book. I am jealous. Love your poem and the spread you’ve shared. Hope you’ll share more of it!
I wish you could come over. We’d have fun doing this together. Thanks
Love Amy VanDerwater. She spoke at our Literacy Council last year and was amazing. Three cheers for Putrid Poetry! I’ll have to check that out. Thanks for sharing.
Margaret, I failed at NPM. 😦 I stopped about ten days ago. I’m ashamed and embarrassed that I couldn’t manage it. I have loved reading your poems and LOVE the book! Messy is awesome!!!
Writing a poem a day is challenging. It’s harder than SOLC. I think I put a higher expectation on myself with poetry. I really have no advice except to show up to the page. I am pleased I did it. Thanks for your support and encouragement along the way.
Your poems and the courage of your daily creativity is awe inspiring, Margaret: you gave the gift of beautiful poetry every day in April. Bravo!
Congrats on your poems every day, Margaret. It’s a big accomplishment to pull words that you want to share on a daily basis. I’ve made altered books with my students before, such a marvelous project, and something so special to keep as a year’s memory. Love your starting page!
Bravo to you for writing a poem a day! You have so many talents! Enjoy these final days with your students.
Congratulations on all the poems! This book idea sounds so fun. Maybe now that state testing is almost over (still one more week for me- three this round) a project like this can be considered. Except we have have three more district-mandated tests before the end of the school year. 😦
Wonderful work Margaret. I celebrate you. And I love this book of art you are creating.
Congratulations on meeting your goal of writing a poem a day, Margaret! It is definitely more challenging than SOLSC! I love your book idea! I may have to give this a try. You are always an inspiration!
So many poets writing this month that I couldn’t keep up with everyone. Can’t wait to stroll back through some of your posts. Love the altered books. Seems like a perfect canvas for capturing poetry, ” . . . for filling the pages with happy words.”
I love your creative re-purposed books idea. I may borrow it next year. Have fun in your final days of the year. 🙂
[…] To celebrate our year of writing, my students and I are making repurposed books. I’ve written about them on this blog a few times: here and here. […]