Poetry Friday round-up is with Buffy at Buffy’s Blog.
I have grown-up children and am very grateful for it, especially in light of the new elf-on-the-shelf craze. I think I would fail miserably at being in charge of creative ways to position an elf each night. However, when December was coming, the elf-on-the-shelf became a topic in my students’ writing. One afternoon I left the room for a bit and when I returned, my students had positioned Jack the lemur hanging from a chair. Chloe said, “I think Jack has an elf inside him!”
Since then, Jack has found many creative ways to make mischief in our classroom. This phenomenon led me to respond with a poetic letter to Jack.
Dear Jack-on-the-shelf,
Your personality is showing through
the things you like to do.
Play Bananagrams.
Spell “I Love You.”
Hang with Santa.
Curl up in tissue.
Each day, Chloe looks for you
to see where you’ll be found.
You make our class time
full of joy.
I hope you’ll stick around.Love,
Mrs. Simon
I’ve been participating in Mary Lee Hahn’s #haikuforhope this month. On Twitter, we are all using this hashtag to share our small poems of hope. I’ve posted mine on this blog daily.
In class every day, we choose a quote to write from. On Monday, I wrote a haiku from this quote by E. S. Bouton, “True wisdom lies in gathering the precious things out of each day as it goes by.” I was talking to a friend about the birth of my grandson, and she told me about a book called Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Kabat-Zinn. Even within the happiest of moments, catastrophe lies. We need to use the art of mindfulness to be aware and live fully through these moments.
Gathering moments
of happy catastrophe
into precious life.Margaret Simon
Reflections on the Teche 
I love those lemur antics, Margaret, what fun! And yes, gathering moments in our ‘sometimes’ catastrophic lives is a good thing. Merry Christmas with your family and its newest member!
Cute! I love how your students invited you into their play. You seem to have a good grasp on the ambitions of this lemur. LOL. And, playing daily haiku with you has been fun too.
Love that your lemur has become an elf… and inspired your students and you. And “happy catastrophe”–so much in those two words.
How adorable is your lemur? And I love your poem to him.
Yay for elfish lemurs and precious life! I’m going to check out that book by Kabat-Zinn.
What a fun tradition to share with your students, Margaret. I’m going to look for the Full Catastrophe Living book!
I’m with you on feeling gratitude for having avoiding that whole elf-on-the-shelf thing–However, I do love how you and your class riffed on that idea so creatively with your lemur. I was just reading an article about the importance of incorporating and building on joy in school, and your post (and classroom) is a perfect example of that! I wish I could have seen your young poets’ faces when you shared your poem!
Oh my goodness, I much rather would’ve had a lemur on the shelf than any old elf! And my parents wouldn’t have bothered with any of that elf stuff even if it had been a thing back in the 90s anyways, far too much work. 😉
What a fun letter poem you wrote to Jack–I’m sure he and your students are loving it, and perhaps he’ll send a response… That “Full Catastrophe Living” book sounds intriguing, and I like the haiku that came out of it. Wishing you and your family much cheer and merriment for Christmas Margaret!
Sometimes we just have to go with the flow our students inspire! Love that they have hiJACKed the Elf on the Shelf tradition for your classroom.
Speaking of tradition (or maybe just routine), I think that starting January 7, I’ll begin each writing workshop with a bit of writing from a quote. (Thank you!)
The quote does not always inspire the writing but I like the habit of it.
I’m interested to realize that I don’t even know how the Elf on a Shelf thing even works. But then I’ve never been a perpetuator of the Santa myth anyway. I like the lemur on the ledge much better!
I also think just the concept of full catastrophe living is helpful. Thanks for that!