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Celebrating Happy Endings

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Gifted Education, Gratitude, Teaching, tagged altered books, Amy Ludwig Vanderwater, magnolia, Margarita Engle, watercolor on May 17, 2014| 9 Comments »

This was my last week with my students for this school year. I always get reflective at this time of year, wondering if I’ve done enough for my students. So yesterday, our last day together, I asked them to write me a letter. I asked 1. What do you remember about our school year? 2. What was your favorite activity? and 3. What was your greatest lesson? For the most part, I was touched by their letters. I just want to share a few quotes and celebrate them.

This year we got to meet Caroline Starr Rose and Greg Pincus! We went to Mississippi! We saw a haunted house! But most of all, we bonded like a family. That was my favorite activity. My greatest lesson is that you don’t have to be famous, or super smart, or handsome, or even popular to be loved. Matthew

My greatest lesson I’ve learned from being here is to not be afraid to make mistakes as a writer and in life. Mistakes will help you to become a better person. No one is perfect and sometimes all of us forget that. Brooklyn

My students finished their poetry projects. They made altered books out of discarded books. They illustrated and glued in their own poems and some favorite poems by other authors. Vannisa put in a collection of some her favorites from the school year, a bookmark from Margarita Engle, A bookmark from Amy Ludwig Vanderwater, an Eleanor Roosevelt quote, and “Keep Calm and Write Poetry.”

Brooklyn’s poetry book cover. Gotta Love Poetry!

Today, I am also celebrating magnolias. They are in full bloom, our state flower, and I went to a watercolor workshop this morning and painted one. I am posting a picture of a real one from my neighbor’s yard and the one I painted. Wish I could also post the scent.

Watercolor magnolia by Margaret Simon.

Magnolia, the Louisiana state flower.

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Poetry in Math Class

Posted in Blogging, Poetry, Poetry Friday, Teaching, Writing, tagged Betsy Franco, Math Poetry on May 16, 2014| 9 Comments »

Poetry Friday Round-up is with Elizabeth Steinglass.

State testing is done, so I took the opportunity to shift focus in my small math group. In this group, I teach one 4th grader, two 3rd graders, and one 2nd grader. The resource I used was Betsy Franco’s Math Poetry. In this book, there are mentor texts from Betsy as well as student models. Each type of poetry is explained in simple instructions with a form for copying.

My students wrote a draft on the form and posted their poems on our kidblog site. For a final product, they made accordion books. I am not usually a fan of using fill in the blank forms for writing, but these leave space for creativity as well as the safety of a formula to follow. It was successful for my young students. They enjoyed writing and especially loved posting on the class blog. (If you click on the blog link, you will also see that a group of boys had a good time challenging each other with Riddle-ku poems after Laura Purdie Salas.)

If I were 10 Centimeters Tall

If I were only 10 centimeters tall,
I’d use a sponge as my bed and the softest cotton ball as my pillow,
A remote control car would be my ride
An Iphone would be a plasma screen T.V.
I’d watch out for rats which would be a horrible beast.
But it would be seriously fun if I could be 10 centimeters tall,
I’d be the world champion in swimming in your kitchen sink.
by Emily, 3rd grade

Emily’s accordion book

160 Beautiful Bows (an addition poem)

160 beautiful bows
On a cheerleaders head.
80 of them shimmer in the light,
The other 80 speak to you.

‘You can do it’
Together,
They make a perfect couple
Which is a cheerleaders dream.

They can have shimmering
Speaking baby bows.
Oh how I, Kielan,
Would love
To have some bows like that!

–Kielan, 4th grade

Fractions of Me

1/6 of me is a poet like Shakespeare
I come up with lovely, sweet, and cute poems.

1/6 of me is a artist.
I can get inspired by any little thing.

1/6 of me is a nature lover.
I hate when they cut down trees.

1/6 of me is a singer.
I will sing about anything.

1/6 of me is a dancer.
I can dance as grateful as a swan.

1/6 of me has a wild imagination.
I see dogs dancing and unicorns kissing.
–Erin, 2nd grade

Erin’s Fractions of Me accordion book

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Bridge Opening Ceremony

Posted in Gifted Education, Teaching, Writing, tagged Joe Daigre Bridge, Mayor Hilda Curry, New Iberia, project based learning on May 13, 2014| 6 Comments »

Join the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Challenge.

This past Saturday was the culmination of a year long student project. We began working with the group of 6th grade gifted students in August. Each month we met together as a group, 6 teachers and 23 students. In the beginning we immersed the students in the theme we had selected for this year, bridges. We brought in speakers including the chief engineer for a bridge being rebuilt in New Iberia. The bridge had been out for more than two years, and some of our students were well aware of the inconvenience this caused. Barbara Ostuno, chief engineer, piqued their interest in the construction of a real bridge. As discussions over a service project were held, the students brought up the bridge and how we could celebrate its completion. Thus we began to plan a bridge opening ceremony.

In January, Mayor Hilda Curry came to visit our group. She spoke to them about the ins and outs of planning a community event. She explained how the original bridge was built by her grandfather when he was mayor. The new bridge will also be named for him, Joe Daigre. She then invited them to meet with the department heads to talk about their ideas. We planned a field trip for February.

On this trip, we started the day bridging the generation gap by meeting elderly in an assisted living facility. The students played games with them and interviewed them for a later writing project. They wrote essays about their grandfriend and submitted them to the Legacy Project contest.

In the afternoon, we met with the Chamber of Commerce about a ribbon cutting for the bridge opening and with the city department heads. This was incredibly empowering to our students. They gained confidence in knowing their voices were being heard and were important to others. They were having real world experience being community organizers.

Raising Cane’s manager and employees joined the celebration.

As a group, the students decided to raise funds for playground equipment for a local park. They went out looking for sponsors for the t-shirts. They gathered 30 donations of $50-$250 each.

The students presented their plan to the City Council at a regular meeting in March. We even brought some council members to tears as they were touched by the students’ poise and enthusiasm. A few students and teachers represented our project to the school board and received a donation from the superintendent.

All of this work culminated in our event on Saturday. Wearing our student-designed t-shirts, we met at City Hall to walk down Main Street to the new bridge. The bridge is named for our mayor’s grandfather, so it was fitting that she cut the ribbon.

Students spoke and led the ceremony. At last count, the donations and t-shirt profits were close to exceeding $3000. I feel pretty confident that this real world experience will stay with these students for a long time. They will drive over the Joe Daigre Bridge as parents and tell their children about the grand opening celebration that they helped to organize.

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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!

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Poems of ApoloGy

Posted in Poetry Friday, Teaching, tagged apology poems, Joyce Sidman, William Carlos Williams on May 9, 2014| 12 Comments »

Poetry Friday Round-up is with Jama at Jama’s Alphabet Soup

Amidst the season of post tests and field trips, I am still trying to squeeze poetry in to the school day. For the letter G, I decided to teach poems of apology using This is Just to Say: Poems of Apology and Forgiveness by Joyce Sidman. This is a delightful book of poems written by Mrs. Merz’s sixth grade class. Joyce begins this book with the classic apology poem by William Carlos Williams. Can you recite it?

This is Just to Say
I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

Find the full poem here.

The first character, Thomas, uses this form to write the poem “This is Just to Say/ I have stolen/ the jelly doughnuts/ that were in/ the teacher’s lounge…” to Mrs. Garcia in the office. Mrs. Garcia responds with her own poem ending with “Of course I forgive you./ But I still have to call your mother.”

When my students and I were writing poems of apology, some used the WCW title as first line. I love how this small poem from Kendall expresses a common problem among 6th graders, hurt feelings.

This is just to say
I am sorry for this day
that I have treated you this way
you don’t have to accept my apology but hey
I didn’t mean to offend,
it sort of just slipped out along with shame
I hope you did not take it the wrong way
–Kendall

I gave my poem to my principal to apologize for being late. She said I set the bar for apology notes. The funny thing is many of these things listed actually do happen and do make me late.

Mrs. Heumann , Mrs. Heumann,
I just want to say
I’m sorry for being late today.

The alarm didn’t shout;
the dog got out;

My coffee over-flowed,
while I watched oatmeal explode.

There was a 50 car-train,
a truck hauling sugarcane.

The bridge was open, cars were slowed.
A trash can blew into the road.

The sun in my eyes, oh the glare.
Then a cow, would he dare?

Enough, you say. OK?
Just sorry,
I was late today.
–Margaret Simon, all rights reserved

And Kaylie stopped by the kidblog and saw all the Apolo-G poetry and added her own to her pencil.

I’m sorry, pencil, for dulling your head
Your sharp-tipped graphite point
I’m sorry for gnawing on your side,
My teeth-prints etched in your cedar

I’m sorry, pencil, for tapping your eraser on the desk,
For rubbing on the soft pink curls of your hair
And sweeping them away

I’m sorry for losing you and dropping you and trading you.
I’m sorry for putting your end in the pencil sharpener,
For tossing you away when you got too small.

Pencil, I’m sorry for hurting you all these years.
Will you ever be able to forgive me?

In writing this post, I found Joyce Sidman’s website and a great resource guide for using This is Just to Say in the classroom.

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It’s Monday; I’m reading poetry

Posted in Books, Teaching, Writing, tagged Carole Gerber, poems for two voices, spring poems on May 5, 2014| 10 Comments »

Visit Teach Mentor Texts for more of the Monday reading roundup.

Springtime means reading poetry in my classroom. I put out all of my poetry books. I haven’t counted, but they fill an 8 foot table quite nicely. For today’s It’s Monday: What are you Reading roundup, I wanted to share a new favorite poetry book.

My students, especially the younger ones in grades 2-4, enjoy poetry for two voices. Seeds, Bees, Butterflies, and More! includes poems to be read by two people. I love cuddling up with a student and reading poetry together. Each poem is illustrated beautifully and the text is written in two colors for the two readers. Erin and I read “New Shoot” together and were surprised by the ending when the bunny will eat the new leaf. Matthew and Vannisa loved “Helianthus” and wrote their own poems featured on my blog yesterday.

I love when poetry comes together with reading aloud and learning science. This book combines the joy of choral reading with the learning of new facts about seeds, bees, butterflies, and more! We even learn that seeds are dropped in bird “doo.”

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DigiLit Sunday: Haiku Deck

Posted in Digital Learning, Gifted Education, Poetry, Teaching, tagged Bees, Butterflies, Carole Gerber, choka, Haiku Deck on May 4, 2014| 6 Comments »

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Tweet with #k6diglit.

I have had some struggles with using Haiku Deck in my classroom due to the network blocks on our server. I’m sure this is an issue for others as we use new apps in our classrooms. I found a way this week to make it work. The server blocks the images, but not the app. I taught my students about fair use of photos from the Internet. We search images on Google, click on Search Tools, and click on Labeled for reuse. This limits greatly the number of images we can choose from. However, when using a web-based app, I feel it is important to use the images rightly.

The poetry writing exercise included a discussion of imagery and how scientific poems can use imagery to help your reader understand a concept. We looked through poetry books and found model poems that used imagery. We read together the poem Helianthus from Seeds, Bees, Butterflies, and More! by Carole Gerber.
“If saying ‘helianthus’ makes you cower…
use our common name–
Sunflower!”
Vannisa chose to write a haiku about sunflowers. She actually wrote three haikus, so I told her that a long poem using the haiku syllable count is called a Choka.

To see the full poem on Haiku Deck, click here.

Inspired by Carole Gerber’s big name poem, Matthew wrote about Charcharodon Carcharias or Great White Sharks. Matthew managed to work in a line he lifted from the book he is reading.

Matthew’s full poem is here:

An InLinkz Link-up

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Celebrating Publishing

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Teaching, Writing, tagged Anne L. Simon, Belmont Plantation, Blood in the Cane Field, Diane Moore, Janet Faulk-Gonzales, Laura Purdie Salas, publishing, Writes of Spring on May 3, 2014| 8 Comments »

Today, I celebrate publishing. I love author and love hanging out with authors, feeling like an author, and making my students feel like authors.

1. My student, Vannisa, placed 2nd in the Writes of Spring contest sponsored by the Lafayette Public Library. Her poem is published in an anthology of winners.

2. My poem, In Blue Veils, was published in the Birmingham Arts Journal. Thanks to Irene Latham for submitting it.

A draping oak at Belmont Plantation. Photo by Vickie Sullivan.

3. My friends and fellow authors, Diane Moore and Janet Faulk-Gonzales, have published a book together with the theme of porches. Each vignette features a porch of some kind. They held a book signing/reading on one of the most beautiful porches in New Iberia at Belmont Plantation.

A book to delight porch sitters, people who enjoy relaxing and meditating on a small porch or sitting with families and friends on Victorian style verandahs, telling stories and “taking the air.” The vignettes are quaint—some humorous, some tragic—but all incite memories of good times and relaxed hours “just porch sitting.” The cover is a photograph of glasswork rendered by Karen Bourque of Churchpoint, Louisiana, and the text includes eight whimsical illustrations by Paul Schexnayder of New Iberia, Louisiana.

4. My mother-in-law, Anne L. Simon, received her first shipment of her first novel, Blood in the Cane Field. I am so proud of her and will write more about her book. Her book is available on Amazon, a thrilling crime novel set in South Louisiana.

5. Poet Laura Purdie Salas left a comment for one of my students this week on our kidblog site. I am using the book Math Poetry by Betsy Franco with my youngest students. They are loving the writing and blogging. Erin wrote about Pegasus in her addition poem. She was thrilled that a “real author” left her a comment. She said out loud, “I am famous!” You can read their wonderful poems on our kidblog site.

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Chalkabration Haiku

Posted in Chalk-a-bration, Gifted Education, Poetry, Teaching, Writing, tagged chalkabration, chalku, haiku, teaching gifted on April 30, 2014| 3 Comments »

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

Believe it or not, it’s the last day of April and the last day I will be posting Chalk-a-bration with this year’s bunch. I hope they will participate from home over the summer, though. My principal enjoys our chalking-up-the-sidewalks-with-poetry so much that she has asked us to decorate the walkways for the mother’s breakfast, “Muffins with Mom,” next week.

As we continue to work our way through the ABC’s of poetry, we have landed on H, and what better form to use for chalketry than haiku. We should coin the term, “Chalku.” Lots of different thoughts going on today. I was thinking about the humidity that has moved in thick and warm; the cold weather has definitely moved on. Vannisa is thinking about the end of school and summer coming. Kendall responded to music I played. I love the variety of ideas as much as the consistency of form.

This humidity
makes my hair curl like wild weeds,
all helter-skelter.
by Margaret Simon

Playing soft and smooth
having a fast-paced tempo.
Music comes from you.
by Kendall

School is almost out.
Summer means no more homework.
Summer’s almost here.
by Vannisa

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A Portrait Mask Poem

Posted in Slice of Life, Teaching, Writing, tagged elementary art, elementary poetry, forms, gifted education, mask poem on April 29, 2014| 6 Comments »

Join the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Challenge.

Recently, we took our youngest gifted students (grades 1-3) on a field trip to the Acadiana Center for the Arts. There they viewed an exhibit of portraits called FaceTime. We planned an art and poetry activity to enrich the experience. The gallery allowed us to use a workshop room for this activity. We had gathered magazine cut outs of facial features, different colors and textures of paper, and fabric samples. We used cardboard circles for their portraits and encouraged the students to fill the space.

For young students to write a successful poem, a fill-in-the-blank form works well. I adapted a mask poem form. You can download and use the form here. A Portrait Mask Poem

This was a fun learning experience for all of us. Unfortunately, art and creativity are taking a backseat these days in most classrooms. I am happy we were able to provide this experience for our students.

I am a girl.
I am as yellow as a daffodil.
I am curved like a cheerleader.
I dance.
I am feeling cheery.
I wonder if I could join cheerleading.
I can sing.
I am a girl. by Emily

I am big foot.
I am as brown as mud.
I am round like an apple.
I scare people.
I am happy.
I wonder if I will be found.
I scare people.
I am big foot.
By Tobie

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