Poetry and Artists

Today was Poetry Day at the library! We started with one of the librarians reciting a poem to the kids, which I thought was really cool, as memorizing poetry is sort of a lost art.

I read 6 poems to the kids, including a couple of my favorites by Shel Silverstein.  I read a variety of poems, and we had a discussion about how there can be all kinds of poems, including silly or serious, sweet or scary. 

Then we used our journals to write a poem of our own. Some of the kids wrote their own, and others used a formula I provided. As the kids wrote, the students walked around, helping them to spell words, think of rhyming words, and come up with ideas about what to write. After all the kids finished their poems in their journal, they rewrote their poems on construction papermand drew illustrations on them. Students helped the kids to build a stand, so that their poems could be displayed. 

Each student shared their poem with the group, and we were all impressed with the poems. One girl wrote about her new friends at camp, and another girl wrote about all the things her mother does for her.

Of all of the things we have done so far, poetry was something I was the most nervous about. Without any formal language arts training with kids, I really did not know what expect from asking the kids to write poems. Poetry was always difficult for me a student, as I was always too hung up on symmetry and rhyming. To try to ease these fears with these kids, I repeatly told them that their poems could look or sound any way that they wanted-- that is the beauty of poetry. I am so glad that I conquered my fear of poetry, and shared this experience with the children of Belize.