Poetry Friday round up is hosted by Jama.
In this wacky wonderful world of the Kidlitosphere, I have met so many awesome writers and teachers and teacher/writers. It becomes an even richer experience when we work together to teach and inspire students. When Leigh Anne Eck tweeted me about Skyping with her summer writing camp, I agreed, of course. I was actually flattered. As the day got closer, I worried that I didn’t have what I needed to adequately teach this workshop. We had a quick email exchange and decided to do haiku. All my books are packed away at school, so I turned to another online friend, Linda Baie. She had written a haiku every day in April and made a catalog of them all on her site. How perfect and convenient! Thanks, Linda!
These were the poems I selected and a few things we talked about.
snow shadows again
blossoms tighten their hold
no open window
(Note the use of the word shadows. Why do blossoms tighten? What does the last line tell you?)
That little boy
digs into warm earth –
wiggle in his hand
(What is in his hand? How do you know? Poets can tell you that it’s a worm without using the word.)
from snow to puddles
mother nature’s pasttime –
trees drink deeply
(What is happening? How do you know? Note the personification of trees. What is a pasttime?)
Following our discussion, we looked at this image from National Geographic. First we collected words and phrases that the students shared. Together we wrote this haiku.
Three pairs of flip-flops.
Shadows of three kids playing.
Puddle reflection.
We pulled up a Google image search of “summer days.” Each student chose their own image to write from. Sacred writing time for about 7 minutes. Then some wonderful sharing time. I had such a good time teaching from my living room, even if it was early in the morning. (two time zones)
I wrote a haiku to an image of daisies. Teachers write, too, during workshop. I borrowed a line from Linda, “no open window,” and made it “open your window.” I talked about how poets get ideas from other poets.
Open your window
Summer daisies are here.
Golden sunshine smiles.
–Margaret Simon
Reflections on the Teche 