Poetry Part 2

If you are a teacher, you know there is nothing better than seeing the excitement and hearing the cheers when you tell the students what they will be doing next.  When I rolled out the overhead, the children were down right giddy that I had some more poems to share with them.  I began all three of the lessons by sharing some favourite poems on the overhead projector.  I challenged them to be poetry detectives again and identify some things they noticed (short poems, long poems, repeated words, rhyming, different shapes etc).  The trick was to keep the discussions short and lively.  I didn't want to beat the poem to death or I would run the risk of actually beating the joy right out poetry.  Below I will describe the three activities we did this week:

Lesson One:  Sort the Poems

In the first term, one of the Science processes we worked on was sorting and classifying.  The children were given the opportunity to sort and classify different objects and events (ie. leaves, shells, rocks, plastic animals, things that float, things that sink, magnetic strengths).  I decided to see if they could transfer this skill to literature.   I had photocopied a carefully selected group of poems for children.  I had 15 in all.  I made sure there were different kinds of poems in the selection.  I then put the children in groups of three and gave them the task of making a sorting rule and then sorting the poems accordingly.  When the group had sorted their poems, they raised their hands and I would come over and try to guess their sorting rule.  I would then challenge them to sort the poems in a different way.  This activity reinforced what we had talked about last day (there are many different kinds of poems).  It also gave them an opportunity to read and talk about the poems.

Lesson Two:  Drip, Drip, Drop

I got this idea from a fabulous poetry resource by Lucy Culkins.  The goal for the lesson was for the children to see that poets carefully choose how a poem should look and how the form supports what they are trying to say.  Poets carefully select words and write them in a deliberate way.  They constantly read and reread their poems until they hear exactly what they want.   I began the lesson by providing the students with an opportunity to read poems focusing on the sounds and silences.  We talked about and practised how to honour the line breaks and pauses.  After reading some poems together,  the children got into groups of three.  Each group got an envelope with the word drip on eight cards, drop on eight cards and sunshine on three cards.  I then gave them different titles and had them try to create different poems using just the words in the envelopes.  (ie. Thunderstorm or Rain is Coming).

The title given was A Thunderstorm.  The group described how
they wanted to make the poem look like a bolt of lightening

The title given was Good-Bye Rain.  The students explained how the drips were going hard at the beginning and then  slowed down until the final drop and then sunshine.

The title was Good-Bye Rain.  First the rain was heavy then slowed down.  I loved how they used the bigger spaces to show the drops were further apart and then finally stopped.

Lesson Three:  Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

I wanted the children to have another opportunity to experiment with spacing and line breaks.  I gave each group of three children the words to Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star on cards.  The task was for them to create their own poems using the words from the poem.  We once again talked about how poets deliberately and carefully place words.

Make a Boat that Floats

Last week our thinking outside the box activity challenged the kids to make a boat that floats out of plasticine.

We made up a little challenge to go with the activity.  To get to level one you had to get your boat to float.  Once the students got their boat to float, then they were challenged to see how many marbles their boat could hold.  The students ran with this idea and decided level 2 was getting a boat to hold one marble and level 3 was two marbles and so on.

Before beginning to create the boats, we talked about the characteristics of a boat.  We discussed things that we noticed that were similar with boats and how could they apply this to the creation of their own boats.

Once a few students had boats that could float, we gathered on the carpet to talk about strategies they had used to make their boats float.  This was to help those students who were struggling to get their boats to float.

Once they had finished their boats, each student completed a sheet about their boats.  They were asked to draw a picture of their boat, if it floated and how many marbles it held.  Finally they were asked to give advice on how to make a boat that floats.  If a boat did not float, students were asked to talk about why they thought their boat did not float and how to fix it next time.

Resolution Activity

Michelle and I have made a resolution to write more regularly on this blog.  So I thought it would only be fitting to do a resolution activity with the kids.

I started by reading them the story Jeremiah Learns to Read by Jo Ellen Bogart.  I love this story and it is a great example of someone working towards a goal.  This led us to our discussion about resolutions.  I also shared this poem with them because it ties in nicely with our focus on poetry this term.

Unfortunately I am not sure of the author of this poem

The kids used scrapbook paper to make their party hat and I used the template found here for the space to write their goals.  The party horns were from Dollarama.  The kids enjoyed the activity and I enjoyed hearing them set goals, many of which I thought were appropriate.

Pass the Poem

I was excited to start poetry with the class.  Poetry gives students an opportunity to explore language, experiment with things like sounds, similes, spacing, repetition, and basically have fun with words.  I began with an activity I call Pass the Poems.  This activity gives the students an opportunity to explore and examine different poems and things that poets do while writing.  By the end of the activity, my goal was to have the students excited about poetry and see that poems are like people, no two are the same.   I began by having the class sit in a big circle and have enough books for each student to have one.  I gave them a few minutes to look through their anthology and see what they noticed.   After a few minutes, I challenged them to be poetic detectives and find different kinds of poems.  Once they found the certain kind of poem, they would hold it up for other students to see.  After every few challenges, we would rotate the books around the circle one spot.  This gave the children an opportunity to see many different anthologies.  


I challenged them to find:  a long poem
                                               a short poem
                                               a skinny poem
                                               a wide poem
                                               a poem that rhymes
                                               a poem that doesn't rhyme
                                               a poem that repeats a word or phrase
                                               a poem that has a different shape
                                               a poem that uses different fonts or sizes of fonts
                                               a poem that leaves big spaces 
                                               a poem that has lines that are written diagonally or vertically

                                               

After we were finished, I shared a few of my favourite poems.  I deliberately chose different kinds of poems.  We ended the class with the children having a few minutes to read and look at different poems with a partner.  They were so excited and eager for me to see and read the poems they had found.  Some were disappointed that I didn't have a chance for them to show me what they had found.  I reassured them that the really great thing was that these anthologies were staying and in fact, we would have weeks to share all these amazing poems.  What more could I have asked for, they were upset it was lunch and that we had to put the books away!!!! 

Thinking Outside the Box

Last summer, Michelle came across a couple of blogs that excited her.  These two blogs, Think! and Journey into Unschooling create think challenges for their kids that require them to think outside the box, to solve problems and to be creative.  There is so much learning going on when kids are given an open ended task that invites them to explore, imagine and experiment.

With days longer in the summer and more free time, Michelle and I would go for long walks in the evening.  We started to talk through this idea of think challenges and how we could make it something that would work for us and our kids.  These kinds of challenges fit in really nicely with what believe about kids, how they learn best and what they need as they move forward in their educational career.

So far this school year, we have done several think challenges.  For the most part, we take turns so that the kids get a different think challenge each week from one of us.  Sometimes the students are asked write about the challenge and sometimes they don't.  We almost always take photos of the process and the creations.

Most of the think challenges we have done so far are taken from blogs mentioned above.  Sometimes we tinker with them or adapt them to better meet our needs, but if you are interested in doing some "Thinking Outside the Box" activities in your classroom or at home, those two blogs are great places to start.

Here are some photos of a "Thinking Outside the Box" challenge we did in December.

The students were asked to create the tallest structure possible using straws, playing cards and paper clips.

I snapped photos of the finished product and printed them out.  They glued their photograph onto a sheet that I made.  Each child wrote about what they created and measured the length and width of their structure.  They were so into this project, that we ended spending a good chunk of the morning on this task.  The kids were completely engaged and as well as working on problem solving and creativity, they were writing and doing some math.

More on Magnets

This week, we have continued to explore toys and games that use magnets in preparation for our final project.  On Monday, the students brought in toys and games from home that used magnets.

The kids rotated through four stations each with different toys and games. After about ten minutes and before switching to a new station, we would have a quick debrief about what they were playing with and how magnets were used.  This enabled me to further build their background knowledge and give them an opportunity to think about what game they would like to create.

At the end of the exploring and playing time, each student filled out a planning sheet.  The sheet included what they were making and what materials they would need for their game or toy.

Today was toy creation day.  Before we got down to work, we created two games as a class.  This allowed me to model how to use different materials and support those who were not sure how to make their game.

Snake Charmer:

Cut a snake out of paper in a circular pattern.  Add eyes and a mouth.  Attach a paper clip to the underside of the head.  Use a magnet to charm the snake and make it stand up.

Boat Races:

This game required a wine cork, but I could not get my hands on one, so we improvised.  We used a plastic disc and glue gunned a paper clip to the bottom.  The idea is to create two boats and use magnets to have them race each other.

The kids got right down to work and it was so interesting to watch them complete their project and the different ideas they had, even when creating the same game.  Most kids created some kind of a fishing game.

An erupting volcano game:

Mazes:

Fishing Games:

Airplanes that find things that are magnetic:

There were two, but the other photo had some students' faces in it.

A magnetic truck that would stick to the chalkboard:

This truck was modeled after magnetic toy trucks that were brought in on Monday.  The trucks were able to drive up the chalkboard on their own.  A great connection.

We spent our writer's workshop writing about our creations.  I spent recess quickly printing up the photos of their creations so they could attach it to their writing. In all of our science, we have been really focussing on the students making connections from what we are doing to other science activities or things in their own lives.  So we talked a lot about what their toy reminded them of and what inspired them to make their toy (a student came up with the word inspired).  So I was hoping it would come out in their writing and in some cases it did.  Many students who created fishing games, talked about a fishing game they played at a year end carnival they had in kindergarten.  A great connection.