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Poetry Friday round-up is with Carol at Carol’s Corner.
Spring is in full swing and weeds are choking the ground. When we discussed service projects we could do for this quarter, Landon brought up the garden. He is in the garden club, so he knows it needs some loving care.
I suggested Thursdays. 30 minutes. Keep it a secret.
When Thursday came, the sun was high in the sky with a slight breeze and the perfect temperature to be outside. The kids didn’t forget.
Landon showed us the stash of gloves and tools, and we went to work on a small patch of weeds.
I was surprised at how excited they were to get down and dirty. Kaia said, “I have a poem.” We had also talked about writing secret poems for poetry month and placing them in the garden.
We hadn’t brought our notebooks (note to self for next week), but I had my phone, so I opened Notes and captured her poem. Jayden laughed when she got the chance to star in our poem.
We are the secret gardeners.
We don’t make a sound.
We are digging weeds
Right out of the ground.We are pulling and pulling.
Watch out for the bees.
What a charming day!
Jayden’s about to sneeze.
Aaaaah…..Choo!by Kaia, 3rd grade
Bouquet of flowers from the garden.
Poetry Month is just around the corner. My NPM19 Poem A Day project is Playing With Poetry. I am joining Jone MacCulloch and Mary Lee Hahn. We will be playing with Haikubes, Magnetic Poetry, Metaphor Dice, and Paint Chip Poetry. Join in if you’d like! We can use the Twitter hashtag #playwithpoetryNPM to find and support each other.
Reflections on the Teche 
Secret poems planted in the garden? That sounds incredible. You always have unique ideas to inspire your students, Margaret!
The pull of secrecy -! It’s magical. Thinking how this combines two fundamental elements in the human soul: We are meant to live close to the earth, to care for it; we come into it with an inborn desire to express ourselves – we need to write. What joy, Margaret.
Kaia’s poem is perfect & I love your secret good deed, Margaret. I’ll look for your ‘playtime poetry’ next month!
Just a terrific “teacher” poem…a secret poem, a garden poem….a make my teacher day poem. I love these gifts our students give us, especially the surprise moments of wonder when we can say: they hear, they watch, they listen. What we do matters, they seem to say. These kinds of surprises were worth more than gold to me. And better than any test score du jour! Bravo, Margaret and Kaia and a nod to Jayden!
Secret gardens and secret poems and sunshine and dirt – sounds like the recipe for a perfect day and surely for a perfect class. I love Kaia’s poem, too!
Good for Kaia to come up with a poem for the garden project! I like the thought secret gardeners that echoes your first thought about secrecy. Congratulations to Jayden for being the star. It looks like your secret gardeners are busy with their tools, blooms. and poetry. Thanks for sharing about the NPM project.
I love the idea of “Secret Gardeners!” I wish one would visit my yard! Seriously, I also love that kids are putting good out into the world, and then that they are inspired to write poetry! I can tell they have a great teacher.
Secret Poems….reminds me of one of my first book loves, Secret Garden. Kids in sunshine with poetry sounds like the perfect equation poem that has eluded me. Sunshine + children = spring poetry
I love the idea of poems hidden in the garden! Your gardening makes me want to get to work in my yard, but it’s still too early here. Keep us posted on your gardeners progress.
Oooooh! Secret gardeners and playing with poems…what a perfect combination. I love Kaia’s poem…I’m so inspired to start our poem-a-day challenge for April on Monday! (And I better get those Haikubes out!)
I love how your image for Playing With Poetry turned out! I’m looking forward to writing together!
What a great service project and such a lovely and fun poem that Kaia wrote!
I often find that kids are beyond thrilled to do things with their hands, to dig in and get involved – so much of their education is based on sitting in front of computers, which is important, but which creates a bit of a void that only doing something real and messy with your hands can fill!
Such a great learning experience on many levels — helping, teamwork, poetry, and nature are all fun! Kaia obviously has a flair for rhyme and meter. Nice work!
Very cute! You have some creative little poets there, Margaret!