Chalk-a-bration | Reflections on the Teche

Archive for the ‘Chalk-a-bration’ Category

Acrostic Verse

Posted in Chalk-a-bration, Digital Learning, Gifted Education, Poetry Friday, tagged Creativity, student acrostic poetry on April 17, 2015| 9 Comments »

Join the roundup with Robyn at Life on the Deckle Edge

Use this button created by Leigh Anne Eck to post your Digital Poetry this month.

I am staying true to my blog title and reflecting today. I discovered a student of mine has been writing acrostic poems. Lani is new to my gifted class, in third grade, and works on math with me. She knew the others were blogging for the month of March, and she wanted to join in. Of course, I let her, and her mother welcomed the challenge by allowing her computer time at home to post. With the crazy number of posts during March, I was not completely keeping up. I thought I was until I saw this post from Lani from March 25th.

Since today is International Poetry Day for me… this is my poem…..

Hour long punishment
Expelled from school yesterday
Lectures from my mother
Practicality flunked sixth grade

My worst day ever
Everyone knows that I lied to get their attention

I hope that you liked my poem!!

This form intrigued me. As I said, Lani is a third grader, and none of her lines were true to her, so I assumed that she was writing a novel in verse as a 6th grade character. Here was another post from the same day.

Crazy unpredictable things have happened
Once I had a pig for supper
Maybe a dog would have tasted better
Eww!!!

Inviting you is not a problem
Never a problem because I need a witness

All my relatives have not survived
Nor my family
Dad did not want to come in fearing that he will be finished

Sometimes I do not know how people can lie
Even if they are lying to themselves
Everyone thinks that I am lying and I am!!!

After reading this, I had to have a discussion with Lani. I was wondering where she was getting her ideas from. She didn’t have an explanation. She just wanted to write poems, and she knew she was good at acrostic. The only time she had written a poem with me was for Chalkabration, an acrostic about March. I gave her loads of praise because it was a great poem.

I talked to Lani about her fictional character. She made some notes in her notebook. I encouraged her to keep it going. Since this conversation, we have had disruptions with spring break and testing, so I hadn’t checked in with Lani. These poems seem to get crazier and crazier. Not everything makes sense, and yet, I think I have a creative writer on my hands. I hope we can make time again to put aside the math book and write poems. I love how she gives me credit for “coaching” her.

Hard-headed
Ant=my brother
Reading maniac=my sister
Dare addict=my dad
Especially the hard ones
Sardines eater=my cousin
Tardy=my friends

Dummy=my other cousin
Arnold=my brother’s name
Reaction=crazy
Extreme dare

Elapsed time:02 seconds
Ventriloquist people call me crazy (look at them!)
Even my mother! Listen to what she calls it!!!!
Ridiculous lying is what my mother calls it

This a poem for MY International Poetry Month. It took me a few days but I finally finished it. (with a little help from Mrs.Simon and some ”coaching”)

You can leave comments directly to Lani here.

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Torn Paper Chalkabration

Posted in Chalk-a-bration, Gifted Education, Poetry, tagged Betsy Hubbard, palm tree poems, Teaching Young Writers, torn paper collage art on February 28, 2015| 5 Comments »

Ruth Ayres invites us the celebrate each week. Click over to her site Discover. Play. Build. to read more celebrations.

Join the Chalk-a-bration at Betsy Hubbard’s site Teaching Young Writers.

The last day of the month is Chalkabration time, a time to celebrate poetry and chalk and creativity. My students love Chalkabration, the brain-child of Betsy Hubbard. Yesterday was a bit chilly for chalking outside, so we did an inside art/poetry project with torn paper.

On Thursday, Paw Pride, a leadership group at my school, went to a local low income housing for the elderly to deliver socks we had collected. The apartments are housed in an old school. Outside where we gathered, there is a draping old oak tree with palm trees underneath. When Jacob arrived with his sister, he looked at the tree and said, “Mrs. Simon, can we write a poem about this tree?” Gotta love him!

“Yes, Jacob, tomorrow is Chalkabration!”

A Palm Looking Tree
At the end of February in southern Louisiana,you’ll most likely find a palm looking tree.
by Vannisa

Ancient Chickens
hiding among trees
spreading wisdom
running from tree to tree
in secret.
These are Ancient Chickens.
by Tyler

Paradise by Matthew

Coconut Tree
The top of peeled off coconuts.
With green roots coming out.
Sun shines on the coconut peels.
I want to be inside of it.
by Jacob

Palm tree haiku
by Margaret Simon

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Winter Chalkabration

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Chalk-a-bration, Writing, tagged chalkabration, gifted writers, winter poems on January 31, 2015| 6 Comments »

Ruth Ayres invites us the celebrate each week. Click over to her site Discover. Play. Build. to read more celebrations.

Join the Chalk-a-bration at Betsy Hubbard’s site Teaching Young Writers.

My students love Chalkabration, the genius child of Betsy Hubbard of The Two Writing Teachers. She invites us to celebrate poetry at the end of the month by chalking poems. Because of Thanksgiving and Christmas break, we have not chalked poems for 3 months. The excitement got us in a little trouble.

I used a poetry lesson I had made a few years ago that I happened upon in my Dropbox folder. The poems were quite sophisticated for my little ones, but my instructions were to find words of light and words of dark. I don’t want Chalkabration to turn into fluffy writing. With this work reading high-level poems, their poems were more thoughtful. I especially like that Erin, a third grader, decided to use the haiku form. Our springlike weather allowed us to go outside and chalk up the sidewalk.

By Reed, 6th grade

A haiku by Erin, 3rd grade

By Margaret Simon

It doesn’t snow here, but even so, my students drew snowflakes to symbolize winter.

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Chalkabration Inside

Posted in Chalk-a-bration, Digital Learning, Poetry, Writing, tagged chalku on November 30, 2014| 5 Comments »

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Join the Chalk-a-bration over at Teaching Young Writers.

I can’t spend time with a 9-year old and not get him to write poetry. So while having frozen yogurt with my nephew, I told him about Chalkabration. We wrote the above poem together. I’m not sure what happened to the time, but by the time we made it back to my parents’ house, it was dark. We also discovered that their driveway was rocky, not smooth concrete.

My mother has an Ipad and this cool app called Tayasui Sketches. With her paintbrush stylus I wrote our poem and made a poor illustration of the frozen yogurt cup.

I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving holiday. Are you ready for the whirlwind of December? If you happen to be thinking about digital literacy, please join the round up.

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Chill-a-bration

Posted in Chalk-a-bration, Digital Learning, Gifted Education, Poetry, Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged chalk poetry, choka, Emaze, Halloween poems, zeno poems on October 31, 2014| 11 Comments »

Find more Poetry Friday at Teacher Dance with Linda.

Join the Chalk-a-bration at Betsy Hubbard’s site Teaching Young Writers.

It’s Chill-a-bration Time! That’s Halloween language for Chalk-a-bration. Halloween language for Poetry Friday is “Poetry Freakday!” I hope you enjoy our Freaky chalk poems. My students chalked up the sidewalks and chilled up an Emaze presentation. It was a sunny day, so we added some spooky shadows to our chalk poems.

http://app.emaze.com/1012993/chill-a-bration

A chilling chalk zeno by Emily

Candy chalk choka by Nigel and Tobie.

Shadow poem by Reed.

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September Chalkabration

Posted in Chalk-a-bration, Digital Learning, Slice of Life, tagged chalkabration, Laura Purdie Salas, Sugarcane on September 30, 2014| 5 Comments »

Join the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Challenge.

Join the Chalk-a-bration at Betsy Hubbard’s site Teaching Young Writers.

I have been using Laura Purdie Salas’s blog site in my classroom. Last week we joined in her weekly photo challenge “15 Words or Less.” She posts a new photo each Thursday and invites poets to quick-write a poem.

Yesterday, I used Laura’s new series, What’s Inside, to inspire short poems for Chalkabration. I even tried my own What’s Inside poem. I am not usually a rhyme writer. It’s hard. I wanted to rhyme like Laura, so with the help of RhymeZone, I found the word quill to rhyme with still. That made me think more deeply about the way sugarcane looks. Could it be a quill? Yes, in my imagination. Don’t you love it when words work out like that? It was a high-five moment. (Teachers need them, too.)

Following the lead of Betsy Hubbard and Stacey Shubitz, two of the six teachers who write for Two Writing Teachers, I used Emaze to show off some of our poems. I am encouraging my students to try this new format for their upcoming book talks, so I wanted to experiment myself. Click on the link below to watch our chalkabration celebration.

http://app.emaze.com/825079/september-chalkabration?autoplay

What’s inside sugarcane?

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August Chalkabration

Posted in Chalk-a-bration, Digital Learning, Writing, tagged chalk poetry, DigiLit Sunday, Haiku Deck on August 31, 2014| 3 Comments »

Please use this button on your site for DigiLit Sunday posts

Join the Chalk-a-bration at Betsy Hubbard’s site Teaching Young Writers.

My students love Chalkabration Day. (Thanks to Betsy Hubbard for inventing this special way to spread poetry love.) My students chalked the sidewalks on Friday despite the threat of rain. Excited about a long weekend, many of the poems have TGIF as a theme. Kielan wrote a cinquain for her birthday weekend.

I loaded the pictures onto Haiku Deck. I am disappointed that some of the pictures were cut off. I also wish that WordPress would support the embedded deck, but you’ll have to follow the link. I welcome any other digital ideas for publishing our Chalkabration.

Link up your Digital Literacy post here:

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Reading and Chalking

Posted in Books, Chalk-a-bration, tagged Betsy Hubbard, chalkabration, Kevin Henkes, Marilyn Nelson on June 30, 2014| 6 Comments »

Join the Chalk-a-bration at Betsy Hubbard’s site Teaching Young Writers.

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Today is the last day of June and it’s Monday, so what am I reading? I’m combining two posts today. I am missing my students because Chalk-a-bration was one of their favorite days of the month. I am at the lake with my parents with no access to kids or to a sidewalk (much less a piece of chalk), so I played with my iPad and wrote a quote from one of the books I read this week, how i discovered poetry by Marilyn Nelson.

What a lovely book! Marilyn Nelson writes a memoir of growing up in the late 50’s with 50 intimate poems. Each poem is both deeply personal as well as universal. Marilyn’s father was in the military, so they moved often. Marilyn captures the feelings of being moved from place to place. I was touched by the poems dealing with having to leave their pets behind. “Daddy pulled a puppy from the pocket/ of his flight jacket, and we imprinted/ like a gosling to a goose. Speida’s my dog,/ though he’s impartially affectionate.”

Marilyn’s mother prided herself on being a First Negro. As they move from base to base, they are often the only black family. “Making History takes more than standing in line/ believing little white lies about pain./ Mama says First Negroes are History…That lady in Montgomery just became a First/ by sqwunching up her eyes and sitting there.”

This little book is an important one with a very personal, first hand account of living in the late 50’s. #WeNeedDiverseBooks: This one is going on my shelf for my students as we study memoir and history.

The Year of Billy Miller took me back to being in second grade. There is so much to love about this book. Billy is just a fun kid to be with. He wants to be brave and stay up all night but ends up in his sister’s room falling asleep with her. Billy has to write a poem and perform it in front of an audience. I enjoyed watching the development of his poem. Kevin Henkes does not make Billy Miller a brilliant writer but shows us a real boy. He has the typical feelings of a seven year old boy and his family is most important to him. This book makes you smile.

I am currently listening to Inkheart by Cornelia Funke, a great book to listen to on my long car ride home today. What are you reading?

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Chalkabration Celebration

Posted in Books, Celebration Saturday, Chalk-a-bration, Gratitude, Writing, tagged chalk poetry, Donalyn Miller, summer on May 31, 2014| 5 Comments »

I’m not sure if this is fair or not, today I am combining posts for Chalk-a-bration and Celebration. (I can’t help but love the alliteration!) I let my students (the three who attended) chalk the sidewalks on the last day of school a week ago and saved the pictures to post today. Betsy Hubbard leads this fun blogtivity at the end of each month. We wrote lunes, a short poetry form that uses a 5, 3, 5 syllable count. And the theme, of course, was summer.

Matthew writes about his passion for magic:
Magic is my life
life is magic
do impossible

Go play on the beach
Come with us
We want you with us.
by Tyler

Vannisa’s poem did not turn out well in the photograph.

In the sun we play
until night
takes the place of day.
–Vannisa

slow lazy days
summer sun
too hot to think
–Margaret Simon

This week has been a week of slow days. I’ve committed myself to three things this summer, exercise daily (I have the sore muscles to prove it!), writing (Thursday I spent hours writing this sestina for Maya Angelou), and reading (I’ve read or listened to 6 books for Donalyn Miller’s #bookaday challenge). I’m glad there wasn’t much else going on this week, so I could establish this routine. Happy Summer!

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Celebrating Greg Pincus, Mothers, and Nature

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Chalk-a-bration, Gifted Education, Teaching, tagged chalk poetry, fibonacci poem, Gifted by Nature Day, Greg Pincus, Mother's Day writing on May 10, 2014| 11 Comments »

It’s Celebration time! What are you celebrating? Head over to Ruth Ayres’ site to read about other celebrations.

I. A huge thank you to Greg Pincus, author of 14 Fibs of Gregory K, for Skyping with my class…twice. Two groups of my gifted students talked with Greg and learned about the life of an author and how to write Fib poems.

Quotes from their thank you notes:

“Math and poetry are two of my favorite things, so combining them makes my life 10x more enjoyable.” Brooklyn

“You taught us some interesting things about the book like that some things in reality accidentally snuck themselves into your book.” Ian

“I really thought it was nice of you to talk to us, it being 7:00 at your home.” Matthew

“P.S. I would eat 12 donuts before I ate pie (but I still eat it.)” Nigel

“I like how you said humor is the sixth sense because you made a joke out of every question we asked, especially the pie question.” Gage

II. My principal asked my students to write chalk poems on the sidewalk for our Mother’s Day celebration, “Muffins with Moms.” So we had another Chalk-a-bration, and following our Skype with Greg Pincus, we had to make them Fib poems!

III. This week was our annual Gifted by Nature Day when all the gifted students in the parish gather for a day of playing strategic games and making art and poetry with nature. This year a group of middle school students led the art/writing activity. This was a great relief to us teachers. The activity was great, too. The students drew an object from nature, then retraced it on foam board. This pattern was used for a monoprint on colored construction paper. The students really focused on the details in their drawings.

After they made the prints, they wrote 6 adjectives and a metaphor or simile about their print. I told the students these were poems. I thoroughly enjoyed this day watching my students interact with kids from other schools and have so much fun playing and creating. The weather was great, too, so we enjoyed picnicking in the park.

I wanted to take pictures of all of their prints. Here are a few to celebrate!