Great Day

Wow today was such a good day.  Both classes were working hard, and I had so much fun.

We are continuing to read the book Poetry Matters by Ralph Fletcher.

I absolutely love this book (I realize I have said that before).  The reason I think it is so amazing is because it makes some very complicated things seem so simple.  Also I think the students can relate so well to the book because Fletcher uses examples from his poetry but also includes examples from fourth, fifth and sixth graders.  The students see these examples and realize that they can do these things that authors like Fletcher and Heard use in their writing.  

We have already talked about the first two pillars of poetry (emotion and image).  This week we have started to discuss the third pillar of poetry which according to Fletcher is music.  In the music chapter the class has been introduced to the ideas of using alliteration and repetition for emphasis.  To show the students some other examples of poems that use alliteration and repetition we read the two following poems as a class.

I Am Running in a Circle

I am running in a circle
and my feet are getting sore,
and my head is
spinning
spinning
as it's never spun before,
I am
dizzy
dizzy
dizzy.
Oh! I cannot bear much more,
I am trapped in a
revolving
...volving
...volving
...volving door!

~Jack Prelutsky

The WolfGeorgia R. Durston

When the pale moon hides and the wild wind wails,
And over the treetops the nighthawk sails,
The gray wolf sits on the world's far rim
And howls: and it seems to comfort him.

The wolf is a lonely soul, you see,
No beast in the wood, nor bird in the tree,
But shuns his path; in the windy gloom
They give him plenty, and plenty of room.

So he sits with his long, lean face to the sky
Watching the ragged clouds go by.
There in the night, alone, apart,
Singing the song of his lone, wild heart.

Far away, on the world's dark rim
He howls, and it seems to comfort him.

Today after we shared the Jack Prelutsky poem I was amazed by the writing that I saw and heard during share time.  What I loved about what I saw during writing time was students using the example poem that we shared in class to create their own poem.  I had a student write a poem about being in a snowball fight, another write about babysitting their annoying little brother, another write about indoor soccer, another write about Kentucky basketball, and yet another write about gymnastics.  What all the poems had in common was they all had used Jack Prelutsky as a writing teacher.  

These poems looked like, sounded like, and felt like the poem I Am Running in a Circle, but all the poems were created by our fourth graders.  I heard another teacher this summer say she loves it, "when her students stand on the shoulders of other writers."  Today our class was definitely standing on the shoulders of other writers and their writing was amazing.  I will try and grab some of the notebooks this weekend so I can share some of the examples with you.

I hope you are all having a great week.