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Posts Tagged ‘zine’

Poetry Friday: Dot Day 2024

Posted in Gifted Education, Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged , , on September 20, 2024| 12 Comments »

Poetry Friday is hosted today by Linda Baie at Teacher Dance.

Monday, September 16th was International Dot Day. Dot Day was created by a teacher who wanted to celebrate the Peter Reynolds book The Dot. It’s a story about a young girl, Vashti, who doesn’t think she can draw. She is encouraged and inspired by a teacher’s confidence in her. “Make a mark and see where it takes you.”

This year I wrote Zeno poems with my students and encouraged them to create a Zeno Zine.

A zine is a foldable book that can be made with a single sheet of paper. See a YouTube video here.

A zeno poem is a form created by J. Patrick Lewis using the syllable pattern of 8, 4, 2, 1, 4, 2, 1, 4, 2, 1. The one syllables all rhyme. For me it works best if I decide on my rhyming word. I was thinking about the idea that you are never too old for Dot Day, so I chose old, gold, and bold.

When making your mark shine this bright,
you are never
too, too
old.
Remember who
creates
gold:
They are the ones
who live
BOLD!
@Margaret Simon

I also read aloud Laura Purdie Salas’s Dot Day poem.

A golden shovel poem using the line “a flashlight’s gleam. A full moon dream.”

Here are some sample zine pages from my students:

by James, 4th grade
by Avalyn, 5th grade
“Think creative. Be creative.
When you want to
make a
dot.
Maybe you could
use this
spot.
Or mix them up
in a
pot!”

Dot Day is fun, and for purposes of gifted standards, it also encourages creativity, critical thinking, and problem solving. Win! Win!

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NPM 23 Day 20: A Poem Can Be a Thank You Note

Posted in Gratitude, Poetry, Writing, tagged , , , , on April 20, 2023| 2 Comments »

My birthday is in August. August is the first month of school when everything is getting put into place, so when the birthday buddy list was circulated, my birthday had passed. I never gave it a thought.

Until Monday when a special gift was delivered to me from a third grade teacher. On the note, she wrote “Happy Birthday from your Birthday Buddy! Since your birthday had passed when I received your name, I got to choose today to celebrate you!”

Not only was the thought of a nonbirthday-birthday fun for me, the gift was just right, a bird seed wreath to hang near a window to watch the birds come to eat. Thoughtful, kind, and all about me!

On Monday, I shared Allan Wolf’s poem “Living the Poet’s Life.” Each line begins with “A poem can be…” Allan is sharing videos each day of this month on his Instagram as well as YouTube.

Allan Wolf reciting “Living the Poet’s Life”

My students and I borrowed the form to write our own poems repeating the line “A poem can be…” I made my poem into a zine thank you note for my birthday buddy.

The Kidlit Progressive Poem is with Cathy Hutter, Poeturescapes.

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Slice of Life: Fun with Dot Day!

Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, Teaching, Writing, tagged , , , , , on September 20, 2022| 10 Comments »

Thank you to Two Writing Teachers for creating an amazing community of writers and a safe, welcoming space to write and share.

The decorating theme at one of my schools this year is books, so I chose to depict one of my favorite books, The Dot. I celebrate Dot Day every year with my students, but this year I adopted the whole school, sort of. I sent out an invitation to teachers to sign up to send 4 kids to my room at recess time. (I only have 4 chairs around a single table.) I had wonderful participation and have had so much fun working with a variety of grade levels. With the older kids I opened up sets of watercolors and set out paper plate dots. For the younger ones, I gave them a coffee filter to decorate with markers. I then sprayed them with water so that the ink spread for a cool looking result.

With my gifted students, I made Dot Zeno Zines. In the spirit of “making a mark and seeing where it takes you”, we drew a design on plain paper. Then we wrote Zeno poems. Zeno is a form created by J. Patrick Lewis that uses the sequence 8, 4, 2, 1, 4, 2, 1, 4, 2, 1 with each one syllable rhyming. I’m not sure which should come first, the first 8-4-2-1 sequence or the rhyming words. We’ve tried both ways. I let the kids struggle somewhat to just figure it out. Sometimes it’s hard to say what you want to say with so many constraints. It’s a process. Process can be messy and imperfect, but when you’ve puzzled it out, it’s rewarding.

Dot Day Zeno

Polka-dotted wings emerging
color-filled spots
red, green,
blue
orange, purple
polka-
dew
flying homeward
toward
you!

Mrs. Simon with help from Avalyn, 3rd grade

To see more student Dot Zeno poems, check out these Fanschool links:

Brayden
Adelyn

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Poetry Friday: Summer Poem Swap

Posted in Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged , , on July 16, 2021| 14 Comments »

Poetry Friday round-up is with my friend and writing group partner, Molly Hogan at Nix the Comfort Zone

One of the best things about summer is having time to be creative. I’ve enjoyed designing collages on marbleized notebooks as well as writing poems for the Summer Poem Swap, coordinated by Tabatha Yeatts. The third exchange I sent off a notebook to Tabatha herself. And she gifted me with a poetic zine, Today’s Poem (after me, after Cheryl Dumesnil’s Today’s Sermon.)

More about making a zine from Tabatha here.

I love this personal-to-me poem, especially the line about toy phones. I’ve been answering a lot of toy phones lately with my little grands, and I love how this one line captures the Joy of being with them in just a few words. The magic of poetry! Thanks, Tabatha, for organizing this fun and meaningful exchange and for being my partner for this round.

Today’s Poem, zine by Tabatha Yeatts

Today’s poem
riffles through a pile of
to-do lists,
looking for blank paper

Today’s poem
answers calls
from toy phones

Today’s poem
hears sunflowers’
reminders to feed the birds

Today’s poem
clicks like a typewriter
while it’s napping

 Today’s poem
refracts a rainbow
into your bathwater

Today’s poem
runs back and forth
through an imaginary sprinkler

Today’s poem
fills your tank
and walks you to your car

Tabatha Yeatts, (for Margaret Simon, Summer Poem Swap 2021)

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Slice of Life: Dot Zeno Zines

Posted in Slice of Life, Teaching, Writing, tagged , , on September 18, 2018| 5 Comments »

See more posts at Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life .

 

International Dot Day is one of my favorite days of the year.  For years, I’ve celebrated with my students.  This year I tried out a new activity for Dot Day, a Zeno Zine.  We started by reading The Dot and playing the Emily Arrow Dot Day Song.  Then each student decorated a dot on white art paper using markers. Rainbow dots seemed to be the choice of the day.

After drawing a dot, I asked my students to collect words and phrases about their artwork to use in a zeno poem.  We wrote a zeno together using ideas from the book.  Then they wrote their own zeno about their own dot.  We folded their art work into a zine and copied their poems into their zine.

Zeno form: syllable count 8, 4, 2, 1, 4, 2, 1, 4, 2, 1 (Each one syllable line rhymes. )

Our Group Dot Zeno

I can’t draw a straight line, can you?
May I please see
you draw
dot?
I don’t think so
maybe
not
I bet you can
draw a
lot!

Dot Day Zeno Zine by Chloe

 

 

After the rainstorm has happened
Colors appear
rainbow
light
a beautiful
hopeful
sight
flower petals
amazing
bright 

by Breighlynn

Zine by Breighlynn

 

I draw and write alongside my students, so I made three zeno zines throughout the day.  My student Madison suggested that I post this one because, as she said, “The solar system is full of dots!”

Solar System Dot Zeno Zine

Gravitational central sun
spiral orbit
spinning
round
Solar system
planets
bound
Constant spinning
without
sound.

Margaret Simon, (c) 2018

 

 

Bayou Song Interview on KRVS:

If you are interested in hearing an interview with me on our local public radio station, click this link and go to “Interview.”

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