Poetry Alive

Today Poetry Alive came and visited our campus. They were amazing. Check out their website here.

Mrs. Harris was a great actress.


He called our very own Olivia to be the sun.

Poetry

We are finishing up with writing poetry. Each kiddo chose one of their favorite poems to publish, and then to read aloud to put on the blog.

Here are the poems! 

Poetry

There is so much to teach in poetry.
We are making a list of all the things we are noticing in our poetry as we read it.

Here are the terms I've taught them:
Alliteration
Acrostic
Haiku
Rhyme
Rhythm
Poet
Poetry
Simile
Synonym
Nonsense poem
Onomatopoeia
Personification

My best friend came to read the Dr. Suess book, My Many Colored Days. It describes colors as feelings. It's a very short, easy-to-read book.

Then I had my kiddos get into groups and make posters to go along with the colors/feelings. Their posters had pictures, poems, and words. I thought they did an excellent job being creative!

We also made some poems for our principal the other day.....

She is very nice.

She is the boss of teachers.

Pretty and helpful.

-Whole class

Tap tap. Clickity clickity clack. Go Ms. Kim’s shoes.

Ms. Kim is the principal.

Best principal ever.

She talks to us and tries to remember our names.

Beautiful face and so young.

Her hair is nice and straight and long.

She looks like a butterfly.

Yellowish white.

-Aakash, Nehan, Sofia

Very pretty from head to toe.Nice to teachers.Takes care of our school.Keeps Spicewood SPICEY.She is cute as a kitten and a puppy.Ms. Kim is a helpful as a brain.-Lucy, Emilee, Leon

Counselor Lesson

Our wonderful school counselor did a lesson about self esteem.
She read the book, Cupcake, by Charise Mericle Harper.

He is a vanilla cupcake that feels inferior compared to his brother and sister cupcakes.

She talked to the kiddos about choosing their own weather channel.
Cloudy channel, I grouchy and feel like everything is just awful. I'm going to have a bad day and it will not get any better.
Sunny channel, happy and positive. I like myself, I love myself. I'm going to have a great day!
Rainbow channel, I feel ready to help myself have a better day.

She told them that you can change your channel!

Positive Self Talk! Mrs. Hougham looked into a mirror, smiled at herself, and said, "I am a great kid. I work hard and I do my best every day."

Then she called up a few students to model positive self talk.
During the lesson she complimented the kids and told them, "Tell yourself, 'I am a great listener!'" They were all so engaged during the lesson.

Then the kiddos filled out a little worksheet about reasons why they're special.

We used this to make our first poems..

They all started with "the best thing about me is______________" and then listed a whole bunch of special things about them, and ended with, "But the best thing about me is _____________(same as the first thing). 

Mine was:

The best thing about me is I am kind.

I am a good dog mom. 

I am brave.

I am a teacher. 

I am a loving little sister.

I graduated with high honors.

I can do yoga.

But the best thing about me is I am kind. 

Raghav's poem

Sofia's poem.

Caelyn's poem.

New PYP Unit!

We are finished with our unit- Sharing the Planet.

Now it's time for the next unit- Expressing Ourselves

An inquiry into the ways in which we discover and express ideas, feelings, nature, culture, beliefs and values; the ways in which we reflect on, extend and enjoy our creativity; our appreciation of the aesthetic.

The central idea, "People express themselves through poetry."
I love poetry. I love writing it, reading it, learning it, and teaching it!

Check out my poetry pack here.

Here are some online resources for poetry

http://pbskids.org/arthur/games/poetry/index.html

http://www.kathimitchell.com/poemtypes.html

http://www.readingrockets.org/calendar/poetry/,

 http://www.theteachersguide.com/poetrymonth.htm,  

http://teacher.scholastic.com/poetry/index.htm,

www.shelsilverstein.com

www.poetry4kids.com

http://www.gigglepoetry.com/

We started off by making a wordle about the things we know about poetry already.