Join Jama for Poetry Friday at Jama’s Alphabet Soup.
This week my students and I were wondering about Aerodynamics. I love framing my weeks with so many wonders at Wonderopolis. We learned about jet streams and lift. We watched some cool time-lapsed videos.
Since we were wondering and wandering around in the clouds, I found some cloud poems to share. From The Poetry Friday Anthology for Middle School, I read Racing the Clouds by Jacqueline Jules (p. 45) and Biking Along White Rim Road by Irene Latham (p. 109). From The Poetry Friday Anthology For Science, I read Clouds by Kate Coombs (p. 85) and Tropical Rain Forest Sky Ponds by Margarita Engle. (On a side note, I am thrilled that my students are learning the names of wonderful Poetry Friday poets.)
My students noticed metaphors, personification, onomatopoeia, rhyming, and more. The Poetry Friday anthologies suggested the website Clouds Appreciation Society. (Is there a website for everything?) I pulled up a cloud picture on the board to inspire writing. Even though some of my young students go back to the acrostic form, their writing was richer, emoting more sense of tone, and embedded with metaphor. Models, models, models, teachers. They work!
Coming together
Like a school
Of fish
Under the big blue sky
Disaster, waiting to strikeCouldn’t be better
Laying under the sun
Once it was peaceful, no clouds
Underneath, we are the unsuspecting victims, of the next
Deadly hurricane
–Tobie
(To leave comments for this poet, go to his post.)
In Vannisa’s poem, you will see words and phrases borrowed from the poems we read, mixed together with her words to create a new poem.
Over Afganistan
sunlight is hidden,
for it is somewhat forbidden.
Because this is the clouds,
the round, puffy, white clouds.
The cloud of wish,
the cloud that is as flat as a dish.
They are all lakes in the sky.
Whether it is a flat, small pond,
or a fat navy ocean,
there are no
empty spaces.
–Vannisa (To leave comments for this poet, go to this post.)
Dear Emily was moved to make her poem into an Animoto video. Prepare for tears. Her poem is dedicated to Amy Ludwig VanDerwater. Amy knows why.
Reflections on the Teche 
Digital Encouragement
September 21, 2014 by margaretsmn
Please use this button on your site for DigiLit Sunday posts
Comments encourage. They lift me up and propel me forward, like wind beneath my wings. I strive to be a good commenter, but it takes time. Time to read the blog post thoroughly. Time to reflect. Time to connect.
Selfishly, I love comments. In the classroom, I encourage them. My students are required to comment on at least 3 blog posts a week. They read each other’s posts, but I wish they would comment more. On Friday, Matthew read Tobie’s post about Harry Potter. Matthew loves Harry Potter. He sat at the computer and laughed and said, ” I love this post, especially the end where he says…”
I replied, “Don’t forget to comment.”
Matthew said, “Oh, I don’t have time for that. I have to write my own post.”
That is exactly how I feel! I usually post on Slice of Life Tuesdays, Spiritual Thursday, and Poetry Friday. Less frequently, I review books for It’s Monday: What are you Reading and Nonfiction Wednesday. I am also posting on Celebration Saturday and here today with DigiLit Sunday. That’s a lot of writing in a week. If I want and expect others to read my posts and leave comments, then I need to do the same.
The last few days, comments have supported me in the grief for a child’s mother, in the celebration of the NCTE award, and with the reading of my poem from Summer Serenity. Thank you, blogging friends, committed commenters. You sustain my writing. You comfort my soul. You are my friends. I hereby promise to be a better commenter.
Link up your DigiLit posts.
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