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NPM16 #8 Poetry Friday Abecedarian

Posted in Poetry, Poetry Friday on April 8, 2016| 18 Comments »

Poetry Friday round-up with Laura Purdie Salas

Day 5 is with Janet at Live your Poem

National Poetry Month is in full swing. My students are steeping in poetry. They are writing and reading poems every day.

Amy Ludwig VanDerwater is a favorite in my classroom, so I shared her site The Poem Farm on Wonder Wednesday. She is writing poems every day about the Wonder of the Day from Wonderopolis. The thing that caught my students’ eyes was Amy’s abecedarian poem, To Make Compost.

Some of my students took the challenge to write an abecedarian poem. Emily was inspired to write about animals in a zoo. She imagined all the animals and searched for verbs and adjectives to describe them.

Koo-Koo Zoo

Any zoo has animals
But ours are special we have:
Caring Cats
Dancing Donkeys
Eager Elephants
Flying Ferrets
Giggling Giraffes
Howling Hummingbirds
Ignorant Iguanas
Jogging Jellyfish
Karaoke Kangaroos
Laughing Llamas
Magic Monkeys
Nerdy Newts
Offended Octopi
Parachuting Parrots
Quizzing Quails
Racing Rhinos
Sailing Snakes
Tap Dancing Tigers
Untidy Unicorns
Vanishing Vultures
Wrestling Walrusses
X-raying Eels
Yodeling Yachts
Zipping Zebras

–Emily, 5th grade

Vannisa worked for 2 days on her poem. She used a dictionary to help her find the words she wanted to say. She was looking for unique words to express her philosophy of kindness.

All of your actions are
Beyond what you think

Continuous caring
Decreases your selfishness
Exercises your soul

Follow
Good
Hearts
Into a
Jungle where
Kindness and
Love are
Major,
Never wasted

On a fast
Pace,
Quickly
Racing,
Spreading,
Tailoring
Under and over
Vines

Wildfire-spreading,
X-ing out negativity,
Yawing around the city,
Zigzagging everywhere, is love

–Vannisa, 6th grade

I am writing a poem a day to images. This is a picture of flowers growing in our front flower bed taken through the arrowslits in the entryway to our house. Our house is like a castle, complete with a turret with arrowslits. When I Googled arrowslits, I the word embrasure came up as a synonym. Here is a draft of my first ever abecedarian.

A window
Beyond the
Downstairs
Embrasure

Flowers burst open
Give light to the view
Here, I stop
Invite spring in

Just to
Kiss blinking stars
Linger outside for this
Moment

Never would I’ve imagined
Open stars landing here
Popping and
Quickening to life, they

Return to
Stand
Tall each year
Under this

Veranda of the castle
Wings waiting to fly
eXciting space with
Yearning and
Zest

–Margaret Simon

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NPM16 #7 Merciful

Posted in Photography, Poetry, Spiritual Growth, Writing, tagged cinquain, Liz Steinglass, mercy, Spiritual poetry on April 7, 2016| 5 Comments »

Day 5 is with Liz today. Click here.

Join the Spiritual Thursday round up at Reading, Teaching, Learning.

For Spiritual Thursday, we are reflecting on the word “Merciful” today, Bobbie Ann Taylor’s One Little Word.

A Merciful Cinquain

Failure
clouds my vision
like fog in the morning
drapes the coming sunshine in
mercy

Every morning I drive to my school in the country while the sun rises. I am often in awe of the way the light plays in the sky. This image of fog covering the sun made me think about my feelings of failure. These are natural, I suppose, as a teacher who cares deeply for her work with children and as a writer putting her words out to the world every day.

Liz Steinglass inspired me to use a cinquain form (2, 4, 6, 8, then 2 syllable lines.)

One tenet of faith that I have trouble grasping is mercy. We are already forgiven even before we ask it. When I fail, I tend to wallow in self-doubt. I need to repeat the mantra I am worthy until I believe it.

“Surely goodness and mercy will follow all of my days. I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” Psalm 23

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NPM 16 #6 Go inside a Stone

Posted in Poetry, Teaching, tagged Charles Simic, stone on April 6, 2016| 6 Comments »

Day 5 is with Carol at Beyond Literacy Link

Charles Simic in his poem “Stone” invites us to “go inside a stone.” So I invited my students to explore rocks. I found a collection in the closet. Some child of mine collected them. I thought I remembered them being there.

I tried to write with my kids. I listed 5 steps for finding a poem: 1. describe it, 2. analyze it, 3. compare it, 4. associate it, 5. apply it. Source for this activity is found here in the River of Words teacher’s guide.

But I was stuck. Oh, I wrote some lines like these:

The stepping stone
for my foot
grips and holds
me in wonder.

Another try:

On this smooth stone,
time stands still.

Some days I can start and stop like this all day, but eventually something emerges. Today, nothing. I was taking myself way too seriously.

Until Jacob said, “Inside a rock is a rock and a rock and another rock, a never ending chain of rocks.”

I wrote his words down in my notebook. Took them straight out of the air and a poem started rolling out right there.

Jacob wasn’t as successful. He was disappointed. No, not disappointed exactly. He was mad. I took his words and made a poem with them. This is my disclaimer. With complete credit of the original lines to Jacob.

Jacob’s Rock

Inside a rock
is a rock
and a rock
and another rock.

A never ending chain of rocks.

Inside a shell
is a shell
and another shell
and a crab,
a crab?

A creepy, crawling crab in a never ending shell.

Inside my heart
is a beat
and a beat
and another beat

Beating hard as a rock for you.

–Margaret Simon (with help from Jacob.)

Free image from Pixabay

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NPM16 #5 Ansel Adams inspires

Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, Teaching, tagged Ansel Adams, NaPoWriMo, National Poetry Month, River of Words Teacher's Guide on April 5, 2016| 8 Comments »

Join the Two Writing Teachers blog for March Slice of Life Challenge.

Day 5 is at Penny and Her Jots

Writing poems can be serious business. The first day back after spring break I asked my students to think hard about poetry. We read together a poem from the Teaching Guide for the River of Words Young Poets and Artists on the Nature of Things. (Handout 4:Writing from film) I highly recommend this guide for great poetry lessons written by my friends Harriet Maher and Connie McDonald.

The poem spoke in an ominous tone about the destruction of our earth. Students picked out these word, demented, shattered, purged, and monsters, as negative tone words. They noticed that the poem was a sad commentary on what we humans do to our earth home.

Then I played the first 8 minutes of the documentary of Ansel Adams.

While we watched the video, we collected words and phrases. We all wrote poems. Many of the students’ poems reflected the negative tone of the poem we read together. My favorite student poem is from Erin. She wrote how the silence was too loud. You can read her poem here.

Free image from Wikipedia.

Ansel Adams, 1902-1984

The artist transformed
moments into wild majesty
expressing in
exalted language of photography
how small we really are.

Among the tall trees
or the great mountains,
our humanness is separate–
a communion in the presence
of mystery.

Even in the absence of color,
in shades of black and white,
fragments are shattered
into a mosaic of truth.

We understand the fragile nature of things.

–Margaret Simon

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NPM16 #4 A Day in a Poem

Posted in Photography, Poetry, tagged #imagepoems, NaPoWriMo, National Poetry Month, Poem a Day on April 4, 2016| 6 Comments »

Day 4 is at Random Noodling with Diane

I first “wrote” this poem by speaking to my phone in the notes app. I didn’t start with a photographed image. If I could have, I would have taken a picture of the heron, but as we watched the scene, my cat snuck out and scared it off.

Instead I took a picture looking up at our church.

Sunday

On this day
I have plans,
compartments in my mind
like squares on the calendar.

But first, I look out
at the heron on the bayou.
He stretches his neck
into the bright morning sun.

I sip my warm coffee,
listen to the news,
the call of the mourning dove.

I will worship today
stick my neck out long
to catch the rays of the sun,
listen to an orchestra on the lawn.

–Margaret Simon

Here is a link to a padlet from JoEllen McCarthy from The Educator Collaborative with links to great #PoetryLove sites.

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DigiLit Sunday: TheEdCollabGathering & Poem #3

Posted in Digital Learning, Poetry, Teaching, Writing, tagged #imagepoems, #TheEdCollabGathering, Amy Ludwig Vanderwater, Kate Roberts, Linda Hoyt, Maggie B Roberts, Mary Howard, Wonderopolis on April 3, 2016| 11 Comments »

Poem-a-day #3, lune by Margaret Simon, image poems

Please use this button on your site for DigiLit Sunday posts

Yesterday was a glorious day to spend outside. But inside there was a valuable video conference, free PD in PJs at The Educator Collaborative. So many rock stars in the education field all in one place. I couldn’t pass it up, so after a walk with my dog, I came inside to watch and learn.

Some of my online friends were there, too. I saw their Tweets. I’ve invited them to reflect on this conference as well, so I am hoping we will have other DigiLit link-ups today.

The first hang-out presentation that I watched was #PoetryLove with JoEllen McCarthy, Amy Ludwig VanDerwater, Janet Wong, Alan Katz, Kim Doele & Members of the Poetry Club. I enjoyed hearing some poems read aloud and the talk around how poetry has a place in the curriculum all year long. Amy is writing a poem a day to Wonders from Wonderopolis. My students love Wonderopolis, and I will show them Amy’s work this week as we begin our own poem a day writing projects.

Kim Doele shared how she leads a Poetry Club at her school and writes grants to get visiting poets to her school. Here is her post on hosting a poet at your school.

Catherine Flynn captured Mary Howard’s three power conditions that lead to deep reading.

Mary Howard repeated often that passion is important to reading. If we don’t have a passion for what we are reading, we will not be able to do deep thinking.

“Passion drives the deep thinking bus.” –Dr. Mary Howard

Joining Dr. Mary Howard was Linda Hoyt who discussed the importance of read aloud in every grade level. I loved how some Tweeters were capturing quotes in fancy backgrounds. The above Tweet was created by Leah O’Donnell.

Leah also captured her reflection about Kate Roberts and Maggie B Roberts’ closing session.

Notes from Leah O’Donnell

I used the notepad on my computer to capture thoughts.

After the closing session, I went to Walmart to buy a sketchbook to make a demonstration notebook. What a practical idea! Kate and Maggie have a video about this teaching tool on their website here.

This rich conference went on in my kitchen, my living room, and in my bedroom. It went wherever my laptop would go. I ate lunch, folded clothes, and took notes and notes. I will go back to the archived sessions that I didn’t see. Thanks to Chris Lehman and his fabulous team for this free and amazing video series.

If you have written a post reflecting on the Ed Collaborative Gathering or on any aspect of digital literacy, link up below. Please read and comment on other posts.

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NPM16: #2 Celebrate Poetry

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Poetry, Writing, tagged columbarium, NaPoWriMo, National Poetry Month, Spanish moss, spiritual journey on April 2, 2016| 12 Comments »

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

In the month of April, the whole Kidlitosphere lights up for National Poetry Month. There are so many exciting projects going on.

The gatherer of all Kidlit poetry postings is Jama at Jama’s Alphabet Soup.

Today the Progressive poem is here with Joy.

Click the NaPoWriMo button for more about daily writing prompts and poem sharing.

I am writing a poem-a-day to images. You can join me by leaving a poem in the comments or a link to your blog. Use #imagepoems on Twitter. Today’s image is Spanish moss. It hangs all over the trees in my neighborhood.

Spanish Moss

Columbarium

Moss crawls like skeletons in the trees,
a lacy tent for playful squirrels.
Even my cat, usually lolling and lazy,
joins in the chase, paws at the waving ghosts.

The moss speaks to the heavens,
the heavens that opened up with wind
and a storm yesterday when we placed
your ashes in the dovecote

outside the church
where you can live forever
in the eyes of God, or, at least, I’ll
say hello when I pass by on Sunday.

We do not know what time
has prepared for us
to walk in or to walk out
with ashes on our foreheads,
and now you are ashes in the tomb.

What does this say about the squirrels?
Do they know something?
Who are they chasing?

–Margaret Simon

Process: When I wrote the poem to this image of moss, I had returned from a funeral for a church member. I did not know him well, but every funeral is a deeply spiritual experience. And I was moved by the sudden wind and heavy rain that fell immediately following the placement of his urn into the columbarium. I looked up columbarium on Wikipedia and found the word origin of “columba” refers to the compartments used for doves, dovecote. I somehow think Charles will like playing in the trees with cats and squirrels. And now that I have written it, I will say hello to him when I pass each Sunday.

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National Poetry Month Day 1

Posted in Poetry, Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged #imagepoems, NaPoWriMo, National Poetry Month, Poem a Day on April 1, 2016| 17 Comments »

#imagepoems Day 1 image

Today is April 1st and April Fool’s Day. I have fooled myself into thinking I can write a poem every day in April to an image. This first image was a joke played on me when I entered the bathroom at Ann Taylor Loft. “Watch out for the mannequins.” I was warned. I imagined they had wisdom to share. I also tried to play with the “in” sound. (Note: If you are playing along with me, put your poem or a link to it in the comments.)

Wisdom of the Mannequins

Appreciate the bare skin of things.

Sometimes it pays to be a skinflint.

Stand up straight and let your hips glide.

Don’t underestimate the power of a soft brush of blush.

Listen with a tinted ear.

You want to fit in the skin you’re in.

Bend, blend, and be happy.

–Margaret Simon

Poetry Friday round-up with Amy at The Poem Farm.

The Progressive poem begins at Laura’s site: Writing the World for Kids.

Jessica Bigi is joining in the poem-a-day image poems with this taste of spring today:

Moonbeam crowns
Embroidered bumblebee gowns
Brassy trumpet jazz
Teacup gardens steeping
Sweet is spring’s song
Spades Queens Kings

–Jessica Bigi

Art by Jessica Bigi

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SOL16: #31 Bold

Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged April, image poems, NaPoWriMo, National Poetry Month on March 31, 2016| 14 Comments »

Join the Two Writing Teachers blog for March Slice of Life Challenge.

Join the Spiritual Thursday round up at Reading, Teaching, Learning.

Today is the last day of March. I find it hard to believe that I have actually written a blog post every day in March. The Slice of Life Challenge is just that, a challenge. Thank you for reading and responding.

Appropriately for this day, Spiritual Thursday’s one little word is Donna Smith’s word BOLD. Being bold is what it takes to put yourself and your life out there for the world to see.

So here I am thinking about continuing a bold move toward the month of April. April is National Poetry Month. What should I do but write a poem a day? I’ve posted my blog here at NaPoWriMo and committed to the challenge. I will be writing poems to images. #imagepoems

Would you consider joining me? No pressure. No rules. Just drafting and playing with words inspired by images. You can use your own images or write about mine. If I get my act together, I may post the next day’s image in the post.

I draw inspiration from other brave writers like Elisabeth Ellington. She wrote a two word poem about her son yesterday. Read the post here.

This is my bold statement about the Slice of Life Challenge in a two word list poem.

I’m here
this page
torn out
left open
for you
a slice
of life
nothing special
ordinary days
my story
your story
we connect
ideas flow
ideas stop
one moment
in time
leads to
friends talking
laughing with
crying with
loving with
each other
Slices done
bold words
left here
for you
and me.