Monday, April 30, 2018

High Flight



Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.
~Kevin Durant


High Flight

The last day of school is in sight. You can’t imagine how hard
it is to release my masterpieces, say goodbye to my best work.
Launching you, I imagine the sigh of wing-beats
as you fly away, soaring with your talent,
your sense of humor, your desire to set the world right. When
you alight again next fall, don’t you dare hide your talent,
head under wing, letting others lead. Genius doesn’t
need adult plumage to rise and spiral. All genius needs is work.
And remember, the work of flight is joyful, not hard.


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018






Sunday, April 29, 2018

Word Game Wednesday




Do not go where the path may lead. Go instead where there is not path and leave a trail.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson


Word Game Wednesday

What would you like to do?
Play Word Around? Rhyme Out? Bananagrams? Do not
dawdle; find a group and go
tinker with words! Play Scrabble; observe where
the
words intersect, criss-crossing a path
of letters that may
lead
to unexpected mergers. Perhaps go
online instead
and play Free Rice, where
you earn kernels of rice for nuggets of knowledge. There
is
no
guarantee, but Word Game Wednesday could have been the path
that led us to be homophone, homonym, and
homograph hunters. Words open the world. Using them, we leave
a
splendiferous trail.


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018



Saturday, April 28, 2018

Winter Memory



Life is not measured by the breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.  ~Unknown

Winter Memory*

When you consider the life
of another creature, it is is
often humbling. The temperature that day was not
much above zero. We measured
the cold by
the
frost on our scarves from our breaths.
We
were by the lake to take
winter pictures, but
we became fascinated by
the
geese in the water. After a few moments
of observation, we could see that
the cold didn’t seem to bother them. We had begun to take
our
photos when we saw it – goose breath
puffing in the cold air. Blew us completely away.


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018



*Mr. Wald, our classroom stool-repairer, provided the memory that became this poem.



Friday, April 27, 2018

Poetry Friday



Whatever you are, be a good one.  ~Abraham Lincoln


Poetry Friday

Pick a poem about whatever
captivates you
endangered animals, a hotdog car, dinosaurs, or ants – you are
in charge of choosing and practicing. Be
an attentive audience for others. Then, be a
positively excellent performer. Make us sigh, or laugh and say, “Good
one!”


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018




Poetry Friday is one of the most beloved routines in our classroom. My students start the year not knowing the names of any children's poets and end the year with favorite poets and favorite books. (I'm pretty sure someone has hidden I'm Just No Good At Rhyming so they won't have to share it!) One of my greatest hopes is that they will be able to hold onto this love of poetry!

Irene has the Poetry Friday Roundup this week at Live Your Poem.


Thursday, April 26, 2018

Endless WInter



You're never a loser until you quit trying.  ~Mike Ditka


Endless Winter

Indoor recess AGAIN? You’re
kidding me! Spring is never
going to get here! Oh, well. Grab a
board – mancala, chess, Clue – there’s no loser
in a never-ending game. We’ll play until
…what’s that you
say? The snow has quit?
The sun is shining…or at least trying?!?


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018




Wednesday, April 25, 2018

Go Ahead and Give It Your All


Life is short. Make it amazing.  ~Hugh MacLeod (gapingvoid.com)


Go Ahead and Give It Your All

Making a Valentine box is like making a life.
The amount of effort you put into it is
the amount of fun you get out of it. Don’t be short-
sighted. Use every bit of imagination to make
it
(your life or your Valentine box) amazing!


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018



Tuesday, April 24, 2018

Collaboration



We all have the same roots and we are all branches of the same tree.  ~Aang (in Avatar: The Last Airbender)


Collaboration

Testing means work silently (all by yourself) but we
are accustomed to collaboration. We know we are all
smarter when we work together, but we have
to take the
test alone. It is not the same
as (all those times) when we discovered how our (very different) roots
could lead us to common understanding. Testing is too quiet and
the air is filled with tension. We
struggle silently (on our own) until we are
all finished. At last we get our voices back and we are all
of us (once again) like branches
(grafted from many nations and cultures) of
the
(strong enough to support us all and tested by time) same
(collaboration makes us all smarter) tree.


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018



Monday, April 23, 2018

24th Line of the 2018 Progressive Poem



Welcome to the 24th line of the 2018 Kidlitosphere Progressive Poem! Thank you, Irene Latham, for this (now beloved) yearly tradition!

In Heidi's "pre-progressive poem pre-poetry month poetry friday round-up" post she assigned us the task of jotting some thoughts after the first line went live and then hiding them from ourselves until it was time for our line.

Here's what I wrote:

Nestled in her cozy bed, a seed stretched.
Nature
spring
hope
gardening
POV the plant/seed?
internal rhyme/assonance

How very...thoughtful and...detailed of me! (NOT.)

Here's what I know now. We've got a seed named Jasmine (Jas for short) who has awakened on a moonlit night. She's playful, inviting Moon to a game with her and Owl. Jasmine first twines herself around Owl's toes, then around a trellis provided thoughtfully by Sky. In line 13, Jasmine and Owl headed for Lee Bennett Hopkins' birthday party. As Jasmine twines, she is writing a poem (or singing a song?). As for poetic moves, we have
As I write on 4/22, awaiting Amy's line on 4/23, I wonder if she'll move the poem ahead by adding to/explaining more about the game, the birthday party, or Jasmine's poem. Or will she surprise me?!?! (She surprised me.)

Cue several hours of brainstorming and doodling, hair-pulling and thesaurus-consulting.

And now, without further ado, here is the poem, with my version of stanzas and my line added. (Kiesha, feel free to add punctuation to the end of my line if you need it to make yours work):


Nestled in her cozy bed, a seed stretched.
Oh, what wonderful dreams she had!

Blooming in midnight moonlight, dancing with
the pulse of a thousand stars, sweet Jasmine
invented a game.
"Moon?" she called across warm honeyed air.
"I'm sad you're alone; come join Owl and me.
We're feasting on stardrops, we'll share them with you."

"Come find me," Moon called, hiding behind a cloud.

Secure in gentle talons' embrace, Jasmine rose
and set. She split, twining up Owl's toes, pale
moonbeams sliding in between, Whoosh, Jasmine goes.
Owl flew Jasmine between clouds and moon to Lee's party!
Moon, that wily bright balloon, was NOT alone.

                                               Jas grinned,

                                                        stretched,

                                                               reached,

                                                                 wrapped

                                                             a new,

                                   around          tender

                                             rootlet
a trellis Sky held out to her, made of braided wind and song.
Her green melody line twisted and clung. 

Because she was twining poet's jasmine, she
wiggled a wink back at Moon, and began her poem.
Her whispered words floated on a puff of wind,
filled with light and starsong. "Revelers, lean in –
let's add to this merriment a game that grows
wordgifts for Lee. He's a man who knows
selection, collection, and wisely advising





These blogs are where the poem's been, and where it's going:

1 Liz at Elizabeth Steinglass
2 Jane at Raincity Librarian
3 Laura at Writing the World for Kids
4 Michelle at Today's Little Ditty
5 Jan at bookseedstudio
6 Irene at Live Your Poem
7 Linda at TeacherDance
8 Janet F. at Live Your Poem
9 Ramona at Pleasures from the Page
10 Matt at Radio, Rhythm and Rhyme
11 Brenda at Friendly Fairy Tales
12 Carol at Beyond LiteracyLink
13 Linda at A Word Edgewise
14 Heidi at my juicy little universe
15 Donna at Mainely Write
16 Sarah at Sarah Grace Tuttle
17 Ruth at There is no such thing as a Godforsaken town
18 Christie at Wondering and Wandering
19 Michelle at Michelle Kogan
20 Linda at Write Time
21 Robyn at Life on the Deckle Edge
22 Tabatha at The Opposite of Indifference
23 Amy at The Poem Farm
24 Mary Lee at A Year of Reading
25 Kiesha at Whispers from the Ridge
26 Renee at No Water River
27 Buffy at Buffy's Blog
28 Kat at Kat's Whiskers
29 April at Teaching Authors
30 Doraine at Dori Reads



Easier Said Than Done



Treat people the way you want to be treated.  ~The Golden Rule


Easier Said Than Done

Learn to treat
yourself with kindness, because other people
might not. Believe the
truth contained in your heart. Get out of your own way
and become the person you
were meant to be. If you want
to, you can fix what’s broken. You can be the one to
make sure every injury will be
treated.


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018


Sunday, April 22, 2018

Persona


Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted.  ~Einstein


Persona 

I’m interested in everything.
The world is full of ideas and wonders that
blow my mind. I can
make amazing connections, be
the one who sees what others cannot, be counted
on to be the one who does
not take a statement for granted – the one who is not
afraid to question (but also who does not necessarily
think before I put my opinion out there). However, you can count
on me to understand that everything
I do or say matters, and that
admitting my mistake counts.
I have a keen sense of humor, and although I cannot
necessarily
time my jokes accurately, I keep trying. My best might be
the Poetry Friday ant rap. That definitely counted.


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018