Courtesy of The Writer's Almanac, today is John Masefield's birthday. I love his poem, Sea Fever.
In other poetry news, I borrowed the idea for having my students write letter poems from Elaine at Wild Rose Reader. I shared LOVE LETTERS by Arnold Adoff and DEAR WORLD by Takayo Noda. Then I invited my 5th graders to choose some object around the room or some activity we did in the past two years as the subject for a poem that I would post next year in the fall. These poems would be their way to tell the new loopers, the new 4th graders that I will teach for 2 years, a little about life in room 222. Here are a few of my favorites.
Dear Mr. Quaker Oats,
Sorry we
ate
some of you
Sorry we got
mold
on you from the apples
The taste
is still
in our mouths
We are sorry But
you taste
So good.
Formerly Known as Pests,
The Mealworms
Dear Future Class,
You
will have
lots of fun
with read alouds
and stories.
You
also will
have fun with
Christmas surprises but
you have
to
guess what
the surprise is.
You should behave
and be
good
sometimes the
best teacher in
the world a.k.a.
known as
Ms. Hahn
might give
you candy or
heads up
7
up.
Well what
I'm saying is
good behavior leads
to good things.
From,
The Teacher's Pet
Thanks, Mary Lee!
ReplyDeleteIt does my heart good to see teachers connecting the reading and writing of poetry in the classroom. It also makes my heart skip a happy beat to see such an excellent teacher as you take an idea from one of my poetry posts and use it with your students.
Have a great end of the school year...and a wonderful summer vacation!
I almost picked one of John Masefield's poems to celebrate his birthday - but I did that last year, so I went for Walt instead. But I adore "Sea Fever" and can quote large chunks of it...
ReplyDeletePermission request--Can you contact me off-blog?
ReplyDeletePat
I will have to keep that quote "good behavior leads to good things" on hand for daily use. It is my new mantra!
ReplyDeleteI love your posted poetry. Great idea for changing classes and passing on student wisdom.
Pat:
ReplyDeleteOur email is in the sidebar. You will have to contact us since we have nothing to go on except "Pat" and "anonymous."
ML/Franki