Friday, October 29, 2010

Poem #39

Thank you for a really great Halloween party today!  The food was super tasty!  The notebooks and mazes were big hits!  And the costumes and decorations were a lot of fun!  Thanks again everybody!

Now for our poem...

Michael brought this one from home.


     Cranes


  Cranes   pour   sand
  And   when   the   sand
  Hits   the   pile
  Some   pieces   blast
          out
  Then   it   turns   back
  To   get   more
  Cranes   reach   sand
  For   the   sand pile


Thanks, Michael!


Have a great weekend and a happy Halloween!

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Poem #38

Here's Kaytlyn's poem...


     Kaytlyn


   Sometimes   shy
   She   sometimes   hides
   Poof!   Behind   the   teacher
   She   thought   everyone
   Would   laugh   at   her
   Self-portrait   picture
   She   came   out
   They   didn't   laugh
   She   made   new   friends


See you tomorrow!

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Poem #37

Dear Families,

A good number of the songs we sing in class are by the singer-songwriter Dan Zanes - a native of New Hampshire!  He has crazy hair and a talent for lyrics.  On November 20th he performs at the Portsmouth Music Hall, in case you're interested. I've taken my sons to see his band several times before and it's always an uplifting, rollicking show and I always go home afterward and pick up my guitar.

Now, on to our poem:

Raina has begun work on a poem and she gave me permission to publish it in draft form .  I thought it would be interesting to post it now and then see how she revises it later. Here's what the poet has done so far...


     Untitled


   Bandits   come   in
   To   the   castle
   At   night   they
   Steal   our
   Diamonds   the
   King   chases
   The   knights   to
   Fight   back
   The   knights
   Win   the
   Battle   and   the
   King   is   sad


Thanks, Raina! We're looking forward to what you do next!

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Poem #36

Here's Eva's poem...


     Eva's   Poem


  Loves   to   jumprope
  When   the   jumprope   comes
  She   hops   once
  She   can't   feel   the   ground
  She   feels   nothing
  The   sound   of   the   jumprope
  Whhh   Whhh   Whhh
  Hitting   the   ground
  Khhh   Khhh   Khhh
  When   she   stops
  Her   feet   vibrate


See you tomorrow!

Monday, October 25, 2010

Poem #35

Here are three from Marcos!


Frankenstein


Frankensteins
Are   green
And   crabby
Frankensteins
Hold   their  arms   straight
Frankensteins   Frankensteins




My   Family


My   Family   is   important
I   love   my   Family
You   should   love   your   Family
Families   care   about   you
You   care   about   your
Family




Bees


Bees   can   sting
Bees   love   honey
Bees   can   be   boys
and   girls   they
Are   black   and   yellow


Thanks, Marcos!

PS - Halloween parade this Friday at 1:15 PM!  Hope to see you there!  Class party to follow!

Friday, October 22, 2010

Poem #34

We decided to write a poem that took a different angle on fall than most of the other poems you read...


       Fall


   The   flowers   die
   The   leaves   fall   off   the   trees
   Can't   go   outside
   Because   the   leaves   are   muddy
   Birds   fly   south
   It   feels   cold
   Winter   is   starting
   The   snow   falls


Sort of a downer, but we had fun writing it!
Have a good weekend!

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Poem #33

Today we tried to create a poem using mostly sounds...


     Birthday


   Noise   makers -
   Bbddddddddddrup!


   Birthday   Song -
   Da  da  da  da  da  da
   Da  da  da  da  DA  da
   Da  da  daaaa  da  da  daaaa  da
   Da  da  da  da  da  da!


   Wishes -
   Whooooooooo!


   Presents   open -
   Rrrrrrriiiiiiiiip!


   Balloons -
   Pop!


Have a good night!

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Poem #32

The other day Carter brought in a book of poems he'd written all about school.  Here's one of them...


   Writing Time


   "Writing   Writing
   I   like   to   write
   Because   the   stories"
   Pencil
   "Paper   and   books"
   Illustrator
   "Author   and
   Have   fun"


Thanks, Carter!

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Poem #31

Here's a poem Patrick recently wrote...


         Motorcycle


  They   go   fast.
  When   they   go   dirt   flies   everywhere.
  Motorcycles   are   cool.
  Speeding!   Down   the   track.
  I   wish   I   had   a   motorcycle.

  The   End


Thanks, Patrick!

Monday, October 18, 2010

Poem #30

Today we went to Applecrest Farms! The weather was beautiful, the tour guide was engaging and the donuts were scrumptious. Unfortunately, a surprise frost killed 80% of the apples last spring so we had to pick ours out of crates. None were left on the trees! And, there was one last adventure that deserved to be remembered in verse...


          Field   Trip


   We   heard   an   alarm
   It   was   a   beeping   sound
   The   bus   driver   called   the   office
   We   got   off   the   bus
   We   walked   on   the   green   grass
   A   black   crow   flew   through   the   trees
   We   did   exercises   on   the   grass
   A   truck   gave   the   bus   a   jump   start


See you tomorrow!

Friday, October 15, 2010

Poem #29

We read Spencer's biography today and here's Spencer's poem...


    Spencer's   Froggie   Poem


            Spencer   used   to
            Carry   Froggie
            On   his   head
            Spencer's   Froggie
            Now   sleeps
            On   the   fridge
            Sometimes   Spencer   takes   him   down
            And   puts   him   on   his   head
            Tiny   beans   inside   Froggie
            Tiny   beans   falling   out
            Spencer   says,
            "Let's   play   leapfrog,   Froggie!"


Have a good weekend!

PS - Field trip at 9AM on Monday!

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Poem #28

Today we talked about how writers sometimes give themselves little challenges by making up games for themselves as they write. A game works best when the rules aren't too hard or too easy. Cole wrote a poem about names. He said, "I'm rhyming each name with another word." Then, he decided to give himself an even bigger challenge - to rhyme each name with a kind of animal. He was playing a little game... "Can I do it? Can I come up with an animal rhyme for each name?"

Let's see how he did...


     A   Name   Poem


               Cole
               Mole
               Sam
               Clam
               Neil
               Seal
               Patrick
               The End


Have a good night!

PS - Our field trip is rescheduled for Monday morning, 9AM!

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Poem #27

 Dear Families,

Two quick things:

First, we have a new student! We are happy to welcome Eva to our class!

Also, on a less exciting note, our field trip has been canceled due to bad weather. We're looking for a make-up date and I'll let you know as soon as I have more information about that. Sorry for the inconvenience!

Now, on to our poem...

Writers in our class are preparing to start a new study (personal narratives).  They are reflecting on what they've learned so far this year, and they are cleaning out their folders and figuring out appropriate places to send certain pieces of writing.  Also, in the meantime, they are making different kinds of writing (letters, lists, poems, stories... etc.) But today, for the first time, everyone wrote a poem. Here is one of them:

       Bees
                              -by James Becksted
  Bees   fly
  Bees   collect   pollen
  Bees   hum   bees   strum
  Bees   bunch   together   in   the   winter
  Bees   live   in   beehives
  Bees   touch   flowers
  To   collect   pollen
  Bees   are   busy
  BzzzzzzzzzzBzzzzzzzzz
  Awesome   Bees


Thanks James!

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Poem #26

We have a few more student poems to complete but today we took a little break and put the topic up for suggestions. It was clear very quickly where most of the class' thoughts had begun to roam...


             Leaves


Vampires   walk   through   red   leaves
Falling   from   the   trees
The   orange   leaves   fall   on   the   jack-o'-lantern
Ghosts   float   through   the   dark   cool   night
Kids   go   trick   or   treating
On   Halloween   night


See you tomorrow!

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Poem #25

                     First grade quote of the day...
"I'm half Irish!   Actually, I'm not Irish.   My cat is!"


Here's Lylith's poem...



        Lylith


I   tried   to   ride   my   bike
But   I   can't
It   won't   let   me
My   handlebars   fell   down
Dad   promised
He'll   go   into   the   basement
And   fix   it



See you next week!


Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Poem #24

Here's Kyra's poem...


           Kyra


The   woods
Dark   with   little   corners   of   sun
Trees   green   and   brown
Kyra   has   woods   near   her   house
Birds   sit   on   the   branches   and   sing
Squirrels   run   over   the   crinkling   leaves
Kyra   smiles
Leaves   fall   on   her   head


Writing is like everything else. Some days words flow with ease from the pen, other days it's like mining through granite to find one lousy word to put down.  Anyway, today was one of those good days. Kyra has a love of the woods, as it turns out, and beautiful little images just kept falling from her mouth as she talked about it. We wrote them all down and there was a poem. Voila!

Have a good night!

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Poem #23

Here is Grace's poem...

         Grace


   Little   wild   dancer
   Made   her   mom   and   dad   laugh
   Mom   sings
   Every   night
   Daddy    reads   stories
   Every   night
   Grace   galloping   on   a   horse


Today Grace gave us a real challenge! She said, "Let's make every line a little story." Eventually we had to settle on another structure but not before working super hard! We all discovered it's a lot harder to write a story short than to write it long... So we'll keep Grace's challenge and try again another time. Meanwhile, this poem benefitted from all that hard work and each line definitely has its own glow, if not its own story.

Monday, October 4, 2010

Poem #22

Here's Cole's poem...


          Cole


Cole   likes   loud   wolf   howls
Cole   likes   Iron   Man   music
And   wishes   his   dad   was   Iron   Man
When   Cole   was   a   baby
He   didn't   like   spiky   grass   on   his   toes
Cole   likes   to   go   in   deep   water


At the end of the day today we looked back at Cole's poem and made a few changes. Poets mainly try to use as few words as possible to say what they mean, so we got rid of some. And, because poets pay a lot of attention to the sound of their words, we made more changes. "Wolf howling" became  "Wolf howls" - it sounded better.  "Cole likes to listen to Iron Man music" became "Cole likes Iron Man music" - it was more economical without losing meaning.  We talked about how writers return again and again to their work to make changes, move things around, make it better than it was.

Have a good night!

Friday, October 1, 2010

Poem #21

Here's Sophie's poem...


               Sophie


  Sophie   went   in   the   attic   and   hid,
  The   clothes   bag   was   dark   like   outer space.
  Her   mom   called, "Sophie, come   get   fudge!"
  Sophie   smacked   her   lips   and   ran   downstairs
  Sophie   loves   to   lick   the   fudge   off   the   spoon!




We continue to write poems that tell a story. We worked hard on Sophie's to make sure it sounded more like a poem and less like a story. One way we did this was to make every line into an image. We talked about how to make an image by using our senses to describe action. So, instead of "Sophie loves fudge" we asked, "What does it look like to love fudge? What does it sound like? Smell, taste, feel like?"  And the poem grew from there.


Have a great weekend!