Playing with poetry has led to a playful poetry attitude in my class. My first class is reading poems aloud on the intercom for morning announcements from Great Morning: Poems for School Leaders to Read Aloud by Pomelo Books. Each day they pass it to the next-up. He or she chooses a poem they want to read and go through a quick practice to make sure they know how to pronounce all the words (especially the author’s name). I am pretty much hands off. They remember whose turn it is, come by the room to get the book, and just do it. Their read aloud skills are improving as well as their confidence. They are also learning that poetry can be fun to read aloud.
In the spirit of playing with poetry, I pulled out the individual white boards and proposed a game of collaborative poetry. They quickly changed the title to “Friends Poems.” Each friend wrote a line in the poem as we passed the boards around. The originator of the first line got the poem back and could add to it if they felt it needed more. This was fun and playful and built a sense of a writing community.
This one was written by Karson, Daniel, Breighlynn, and Jaden
I love the color of the midnight sky
shining stars
dawn and dusk compete
to meet eye to eye
the night is complete
I played along with my second group. We’ve watching monarch caterpillars in the garden. One day we counted 11 caterpillars. I’ve brought some home for spring break, but I’ll share more about this later. Here’s my collaborative poem with Kaia, Landon, and Jayden.
In the spring-sprinkled garden,
Listen as the bird tweets.
Watch the water run and flowers sway.
Look closely at monarch caterpillars.
Praise this amazing day!
Reflections on the Teche 
I love the idea of small groups writing poetry collaboratively! What a wonderful idea. I’m definitely going to try this later this spring. Thanks for yet another inspiration! (That first poem is especially terrific!)
Oh how cool and wonderful this is. I may use this idea when I sub. And what a neat way to use Great Morning! I am thrilled to have a poem in there being a tad new to the published world, but what I love most is this idea of poetry starting a school day. I heard Anne Lamotte speak and she said that the best thing you can do for yourself is to read a poem every morning to start your day. I would also say read it again and again to let it soak into your brain. Here are some quotes of hers. She is a gem and an encourager. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/187603140704620401/?lp=true I wish I could visit your classroom for a few days, Margaret, I know I would love it.
[…] (Click here to see her original post.) Today I am repaying the favor by borrowing a line from a collaborative poem she wrote with her students — “In the spring-sprinkled […]
[…] What a magnificent word — mizzles. Perfect, I think, for not only capturing the light drizzly rain but perhaps the miserable feeling one has when it continues for days. Days void of sun, as we have experienced here in New England for the last 3-4 days. My free-verse found poem today borrows or “lifts” lines from Thoreau’s entries which mirror my own observations 161 years on. How lucky we are to have this exquisite phenological reference. Credit is also due to Margaret Simon and her former students for “spring-sprinkled.” I’ve adored this term since they used it in a collaborative poem last year. You may read their original poem here. […]