Instrumental

Flickr Creative Commons photo by Jana Obscura

Startled, I silence my alarm
Get up and feed the cat
Turn off the porch lights
Turn up the heat
Fill the teakettle and light the burner
Check email
Decide on cereal for breakfast

And still
I cannot for the life of me
Decipher the phrase that was in my head
Just before the alarm went off:

This is the kind of test with mandolins in it.


© Mary Lee Hahn, 2012




Ed DeCaria has the Poetry Friday roundup this week at Think Kid, Think.

Dark Humor for Halloween

Last Laughs: Animal Epitaphs
by J. Patrick Lewis and Jane Yolen
illustrated by Jeffrey Stewart Timmins
Charlesbridge, 2012
review copy provided by the publisher

Laughing about death is not everybody's cup of tea, so when this book made its appearance in my 5th grade classroom, I made sure that readers were forewarned. The pictures are gruesome and the animals in the book meet untimely and horrible deaths...but at the same time, to the right reader (mostly boys, to be honest), this is a very funny book.

Here are a couple of examples that have been favorites in my classroom:

THE LAST OF THE STAGGERING STAG

Win some.
Lose some.
Venison.


BARRACUDA'S BITE-SIZE DEMISE

My teeth were vicious;
my bite was hateful.
A great white met me --
the date was fateful.
The shark was hungry,
and I was baitful.


CHICKEN CROSSES OVER

She never found the answer
to the age-old question,
Why did the chicken cross the ro---?

A STRANGE PLACE TO CALL HOME by Marilyn Singer

 I received a review copy of A Strange Place to Call Home: The World's Most Dangerous Habitats & the Animals That Call Them Home by Marilyn Singer and illustrated by Ed Young. I didn't know about this book before receiving a copy and I was so excited when I opened the envelope. I am always on the lookout for good nonfiction poetry.  This is a poetry book about the animals that live in the world's most dangerous habitats. Each poem focuses on one animal--most that I didn't know of--and gives just enough info to build interest. At the back of the book, there is a longer paragraph with more info about the animals.  I was most fascinated by Tube Worms, Mudskippers, and Petroleum Flies. Another added bonus is that Singer talks to readers a bit at the end about the poetry forms she used for each of the poems. A book with lots of invitations to delve deeper for readers--my favorite kind of book!  This book is due out on August 22 and I think it is one worth pre-ordering right now so you don't forget about it!

Poetry Friday -- Wordle Poetry Quick-Write

Yesterday's quick-write prompt at Kate Messner's Teachers Write! Summer Camp invited us to use Wordle to discover the theme of our writing and to learn more about our characters.

I made two versions of a Wordle out of six poems I recently submitted. (It's a little disturbing to see the extremely pedestrian word LIKE as the biggest word in the cloud, but when I looked back at the poems, I found that just one poem was the culprit, and those "likes" were quite necessary in the context of that poem. Whew!)

Then, because I do love to twist the writing prompts into my own braid of ideas, I used the Wordles as if (I almost said like...) they were Magnetic Poetry. I created a poem using just the words I could find in my Wordles. It was quite a fun exercise that I would recommend!


AWE

Hope spirals,
cloud-weary
at midday.

Girl turning.
Wish travels
through sunbeams.

Spin wonder:
soar, flutter...
keep dreaming.

© Mary Lee Hahn, 2012



Marjorie has the Poetry Friday roundup at PaperTigers. The schedule for July-December is filled, and I'll get the html code into files at the Kidlitosphere Yahoo Group and to Pam for the calendar at the Kidlitosphere Central website this weekend. If you don't belong to the Yahoo group but would like the code for your sidebar, just send me a request: mlhahn at earthlink dot net.

Happy Friday!

Your Character's Playlist

Flickr Creative Commons Photo by rifqi dahlgren

OUTA MY WAY

I'm an ant.

My eyes are big,

my joints are orange,

my bite means business.

I have work to do.

You're in my way. 

I'm warning you --

my bite means business.

You better move.
I'm just one.
A hundred-hundred more
are following.

And we mean business.

Music this ant hums as he marches along (with his hundred-hundred comrades): March of the Defenders of Moscow, sung by the Red Army Choir.

And yet, after a day of marching, there's nothing this ant likes better than to kick back, relax, and tap into his creative side. He invites his friends to pose for portraits in his photo studio. Then he composes his own music and he posts his photo/music montages on YouTube, in the hopes that he will increase appreciation for the Formicidae family.

All business by day, all arts by night, this is one multi-faceted ant (and we're not just talking about his eyes, folks!!).

* * * * * * *

What on earth is this crazy post doing here? It's my response to the Tuesday Quick-Write for Teachers Write! Summer Writing Camp. I didn't really follow the rules very well. (What did you expect?!?) But I had fun getting into the head of this ant.

Poetry Friday -- Mentor Texts

I'm at the All Write conference in Warsaw, Indiana.
I sort of lost track of time and forgot it was Friday.
Oops.
But Ralph Fletcher saved me.
At Ralph's session on mentor texts, he invited us to use the first two lines and the last two lines of his poem, "The Good Old Days" to write our own poem.

Here's my quick-write:

THE GOOD OLD DAYS

Sometimes I remember
The good old days

Getting my bike out of the little building
In the cool of the early morning

Snatching the ripest cherry tomateos from the vines
Before I headed to swim practice

Biking on the gravelly streets
Squinting into the sun

Throwing my towel on the still-wet grass by the pool
And diving into the shockingly cold water

Windmilling my arms to the end of the pool and back
Again and again until I was exhausted

I can't imagine
Anything better than that.


Amy at The Poem Farm has the Poetry Friday roundup this week, but I can't seem to link to her yet. Use the schedule in the sidebar to find her.

Oh, and speaking of the schedule, there are three spots open on the July-December PF Roundup schedule. If you want one of those three spots, leave a comment here.

Poetry Friday -- Rain

Flickr Creative Commons photo by kicksave2930

RAIN

It is finally raining.
After a long period
of unseasonable heat
and
unending dryness,
it is finally raining.

The relief
of the grass, the trees,
the native plants who are expected to survive
without extra watering
is nearly palpable.



Jack Black is helping Carol host the Poetry Friday roundup at Carol's Corner (and dug up back yard).

Poetry Friday: Distractions

DISTRACTIONS

Well.
Here I am.
Left behind
yet again.

I turned to watch the shadow of a cloud
pass over the riverbank
and when I turned back
the breadcrumbs had already been tossed.

Yesterday, I was noticing
the way a seed
swirled in the current
and suddenly my siblings were nowhere to be seen.

Look,
There's an ant
climbing the crest
of that bending blade of grass.


© Mary Lee Hahn, 2012


Katya has today's Poetry Friday roundup at Write. Sketch. Repeat.

What's On My Kindle?

About a month ago, Franki wrote about her Kindle reading. Recently, I've gotten a little download happy, so I thought it might behoove me to look through what I've got on my Kindle so I can make a plan to get it all read. Heaven forbid that I become a Kindle hoarder!!

KINDLE DAILY DEAL
If you have a Kindle/Kindle app, I suggest that you sign up for the Kindle Daily Deal email from Amazon. I rarely buy the deal, but when it's a good deal, it's a REALLY good deal. Because of Winn Dixie was the Kindle Daily Deal a couple of weeks back, and so for 99 cents, I got a copy with my school account and loaded it on the 6 school iPads, and for another 99 cents, I got it for all of my own devices. I LOVE reading Because of Winn Dixie as a read aloud, and the movie is one of the few children's book-to-movie adaptations that I really love. Whole sections of text are in the movie verbatim. So I'm reading it aloud, and while most of the children are reading along in the book, eight each day are getting the experience of Kindle reading on the school's and my iPads and on our classroom Kindle. Very fun!

It's getting to be that time in my career when people are starting to ask, "So...how many years do YOU have left before you retire?" The freedom of retirement is starting to sound REALLY appealing to me, but the financial piece scares me witless. When 7 Money Rules for Life by Molly Hunt came up on the Kindle Daily Deal recently...click...purchased.

I can't remember which was the Daily Deal, but both How We Decide and Imagine--How Creativity Works by Jonah Lehrer are both on my Kindle shelf. I've started Imagine. It's fascinating.

The Best American Short Stories, edited by Geraldine Brooks was an easy sell -- I love Geraldine Brooks, and reading a collection of short stories edited by her seems like a way to read over the shoulder of an author I love. The Best American Sampler will be a fun way to graze the Best American series.

POETRY
Janet Wong and Sylvia Vardell opened my eyes to poetry e-books with Poetry Tag Time, Gift Tag and P*Tag. Through Poetry Friday recommendations, I now also carry David L. Harrison's Goose Lake, Diane Lockward's Twelve for the Record, Irene Latham's The Color of Lost Rooms, and Greg Pincus' The Late Bird with me wherever my iPad goes. That lifts Keep A Poem in Your Pocket to a whole new level, I think! Who knows whose poetry might show up self-published in an e-book someday!! (...heh, heh...)

PROFESSIONAL BOOKS
I can't bear to get rid of any of the professional books that fill an entire bookcase at home and a shelf at school. At the same time, I have exactly ZERO room to fit another professional book anywhere... except my Kindle! Here are the professional e-books I have so far. I love having them at my fingertips so that when I am planning a lesson or a unit, I can turn to them for ideas no matter where I am, rather than waiting until I can get to one of my physical shelves.

Opening Minds by Peter H. Johnston
Living the Questions by Ruth Shagoury and Brenda Power
Inside Words by Janet Allen
Everyday Editing by Jeff Anderson
Small Steps, Big Changes by Chris Confer and Marco Ramirez

Happy Birthday TEACH MENTOR TEXTS!

 

I am thrilled to be part of the 2 year blogiversary celebration of one of my favorite blogs--TEACH MENTOR TEXTS.  I have learned so much from Jen and Kellee over the last two years (and have spent lots of money on great new books!)  As part of the celebration, they are asking bloggers to share their favorite mentor texts.

I decided to write about an older book--one that I love when it comes to helping kids see what is possible when it comes to writing, HEY WORLD, HERE I AM by Jean Little. I think I learned about this book in 1991 when I attended the Teachers' College Summer Writing Project at Columbia. (I know that this was long ago because I remember recording every keynote on a very high-tech portable cassette recorder!) And when Jen and Kellee asked me to share a favorite mentor text, this one came to mind. It came to mind because it is one that impacts kids' writing every single year.

HEY WORLD, HERE I AM is a poetry book, a journal and more.  It was published in 1989 and had many great reviews and awards that year.  And even though it is a 1989 publication, so much of it still rings true for children today.  This book is a collection of entries by Kate Bloomfield. She writes about siblings, friends, loss and school.  She writes with passion and joy and with the insights of of a tween girl.

Each and every entry in this "notebook" is one that children can learn from. I have used this book when launching writers' notebooks as students begin to see all the ways they can make sense of their lives on paper. I've use pieces separately for specific minilessons.  "Not Enough Emilys" is one of my favorite pieces in this book.  In this piece, the author talks about her friend Emily--but instead of telling us about her by describing her, we learn about her through her actions. It is a powerful piece for both readers and writers learning about character.

I've used this book as a mentor for readers learning to think deeply around text. A poem in the book called "Five Dollars" is about a time when Kate stole $5 from her mother's wallet. The poem is about guilt and is an honest reflection that gets readers thinking in a way that helps them understand the character more deeply.

Another poem I like is poems in this collection is Louisa, Louisa. This  is a great poem about a new baby.  Welcoming her into the world and celebrating her new life.

I don't think there is a piece in this book I haven't used with students.  It is a book I really couldn't live without in my teaching of reading and writing. Kate is a character I love and I love coming to know her through her writing.

You can take a peek into this book at the Harper Collins site. And it is in paperback so it is doable to buy several copies of this one for your classroom.

POETRY MADNESS

April was a month of POETRY MADNESS in the Riverside Library.  We started out by looking at 64 poetry books from the library.  Rotating from one table to the next, students chose a poetry book they loved. The top 16 books made it to our Poetry Bracket.  

Then, each week, we looked at the challenges on the board--reading poems, sharing thoughts and voting on which book we liked best in each challenge. Each week, a few books moved to the next level of the bracket while others were knocked out.  Until we were down to just two books. The two books in our final challenge were LOOSE LEASHES by Ron Schmidt and Amy Schmidt and SCARUM FAIR.  LOOSE LEASHES came out the winner and the kids were thrilled. This has definitely become the new favorite poetry book in the library this year.

I definitely learned (again) that kids LOVE funny poems.  They like the others if we introduce them but left on their own, they are drawn to poems that are mostly fun.  I was amazed though by how many kids stuck by their less popular choices.  It as fun to see individual students find poetry books and poems that struck them for some reason--not understanding why everyone didn't see what they saw in the poem.

The process was a good one and the talk around poetry was different because of Poetry Madness. Every week, kids would come into the library, eager to see which books had won, which were left. There was informal talk about the books--they knew titles and poems.  

My favorite moment of the whole month of Poetry Madness happened on Friday when the last group of 2nd graders was examining the chart.  Many were cheering about Loose Leashes. Others were looking back at the books that didn't make it, talking about the ones they wished had gone farther in the bracket. One second grade boy said, "I don't know why, but I really wanted STEP GENTLY OUT to win." I said,"Oh, I loved that one too. Why did you like it?" He said, "I don't know. I guess when I read it, I felt peace."  Everyone nodded and agreed.  What an insightful comment. It was then that I realized that the small conversations around Poetry Madness had made a difference to lots of kids. 

In the midst of Poetry Madness, we also celebrated POEM IN YOUR POCKET DAY. Since we had spent so much time looking at 64 great poetry books, it was fun to see the variety of poems that kids chose to carry around that day.  It has been nice to see them talking about poems and poetry books so naturally and happily.

April Mosaics

APRIL MOSAIC

The sky above

a yellow glove

Two observe

mushrooms curve

Long spikey

slow slippery

25 spot

3 cake pops

Bee in the window is dead

Cat in the window turns head

Tree in bloom

Vast amounts of room

River has meanders

Table has treasures

Cake plate view

(coins from 1892)

Sugar bowl twinkles

Cut glass crinkles

Flow Blue plate

Butter dish weight

Carnival glass shimmers

Tools made many dinners

Shot glass -- small

Pitcher -- tall

Pike's Peaking

Hawk's eating

Stack of three

Plate of cheese

Powell winery

Spring's green finery

Birdhouse gourds hang 

April's gone...dang!

© Mary Lee Hahn, 2012

Poem #30, National Poetry Month, 2012

All 30 poems for this month make a mosaic of their own, a different sort of glimpse into my world -- the poetic version of what I was seeing and doing and thinking about. Here is a link to my 2012 NPM Poems. (My April photo mosaic is on Flickr here.)

In March, the Poetry Tournament at Think Kid, Think! was a watershed moment for me as a writer. I changed my identity from "person who sometimes writes poetry" to Poet. I'm excited to see where this new direction in my writing will lead. I have a brand new PINK writer's notebook to start filling...beginning tomorrow!

Cathy, at Merely Day By Day, is joining me in a poem a day this month. Other daily poem writers include Amy at The Poem Farm, Linda at TeacherDance, Donna at Mainely Write, Laura at Writing the World for Kids (daily haiku), Liz at Liz in Ink (daily haiku), Sara at Read Write Believe (daily haiku), Jone at Deo Writer (daily haiku)...and YOU?

Chalk-ku

Betsy, at Teaching Young Writers, is having a chalk poetry celebration tomorrow to cap off National Poetry Month. Write a poem, chalk it up, take a picture, and send it to Betsy!

Poem #29, National Poetry Month, 2012

Cathy, at Merely Day By Day, is joining me in a poem a day this month. Other daily poem writers include Amy at The Poem Farm, Linda at TeacherDance, Donna at Mainely Write, Laura at Writing the World for Kids (daily haiku), Liz at Liz in Ink (daily haiku), Sara at Read Write Believe (daily haiku), Jone at Deo Writer (daily haiku)...and YOU?

Attitude Adjustment

Le's Flaming Poo Poo Platter

ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT

Turns out
I didn't need the Venti Awake Tea
from Starbucks after all.
All I needed
was for Lynne Rossetto Kasper to say

Flaming Poo Poo Platter.

I laughed until I cried.
When I
caught my breath and
mopped my eyes
I no longer had a headache.

© Mary Lee Hahn, 2012

Poem #28, National Poetry Month, 2012

On Saturday afternoons, as we drive here and there running errands and buying groceries, we listen to Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me and The Splendid Table (with Lynne Rossetto Kasper) and Toss the Feathers (a local Celtic music program on our NPR station).

I was in a headache-y funk this afternoon. It's been a hard couple of weeks, topped by running the Keep-A-Balloon-In-The-Air-For-A-Minute game at our school carnival last night from 6:00-8:30 (with one 15 minute break).

I'll be forever grateful to Lynne Rossetto Kasper for saying

Flaming Poo Poo Platter

in the course of her show. The extended belly laugh that resulted turned my mood right around. Now all I have to do is say to myself

Flaming Poo Poo Platter

and I grin.

Cathy, at Merely Day By Day, is joining me in a poem a day this month. Other daily poem writers include Amy at The Poem Farm, Linda at TeacherDance, Donna at Mainely Write, Laura at Writing the World for Kids (daily haiku), Liz at Liz in Ink (daily haiku), Sara at Read Write Believe (daily haiku), Jone at Deo Writer (daily haiku)...and YOU?

Flaming Poo Poo Platter

WISE INVESTMENT

I have never said this to you, but you were one of my inspirations in my life. You invested in me so much in fourth and fifth grade. I used to never talk outside of my house, but today, I want to be a confident person, confident in what I am saying and teaching. So, thank you for your investment.

Investment.

That’s what teaching is.

We invest in the future

and then lose the receipt

when we send students on

to the next grade

or the next level.

We rarely know what our shaping

of each of these lives

will result in.

But we are certain,

absolutely certain,

that each and every one of them

is worth the investment.

© Mary Lee Hahn, 2012

Poem #27, National Poetry Month, 2012




Cathy, at Merely Day By Day, is joining me in a poem a day this month. Other daily poem writers include Amy at The Poem Farm, Linda at TeacherDance, Donna at Mainely Write, Laura at Writing the World for Kids (daily haiku), Liz at Liz in Ink (daily haiku), Sara at Read Write Believe (daily haiku), Jone at Deo Writer (daily haiku)...and YOU?

POETRY READING

POETRY READING

I am listening
to the poet George Bilgere
and imagining my first poetry reading,
someday in the unknown future.

I, too, will walk right up to people
at the wine and cookies reception.
I will introduce myself
as the guest of honor and ask them
about their interest in poetry.

The first poem I read
will be the one about the lucky day
when I started a new roll of toilet paper
in two different public restrooms.

That was a day that started with
strong tea
and ended with
salty French onion soup and
a perfect
strawberry
tart.

Just before the onion soup on that lucky day,
I listened
to the poet George Bilgere
and imagined my first poetry reading,
someday in the unknown future.

© Mary Lee Hahn, 2012




Poem #26, National Poetry Month, 2012


Art imitates life.







Tabatha has the Poetry Friday roundup this week at The Opposite of Indifference.

Cathy, at Merely Day By Day, is joining me in a poem a day this month. Other daily poem writers include Amy at The Poem Farm, Linda at TeacherDance, Donna at Mainely Write, Laura at Writing the World for Kids (daily haiku), Liz at Liz in Ink (daily haiku), Sara at Read Write Believe (daily haiku), Jone at Deo Writer (daily haiku)...and YOU?

Area, Perimeter, Volume -- a math poem

AREA, PERIMETER, VOLUME

Gardens and fences
and new tile floors,
towers of blocks
and a bulletin board border.

Perimeter says "RIM"
and area is flat,
volume takes space...
I know all of that,

but keeping them straight
in my head is a problem:
square? cubic? units?
perimeter? area? volume?

Some day I'll grow up
and need carpet and tile,
frame art and fill boxes...
THEN this will be worthwhile!

© Mary Lee Hahn, 2012




Poem #25, National Poetry Month, 2012


Area and perimeter are SO hard for fourth graders to keep straight!




Cathy, at Merely Day By Day, is joining me in a poem a day this month. Other daily poem writers include Amy at The Poem Farm, Linda at TeacherDance, Donna at Mainely Write, Laura at Writing the World for Kids (daily haiku), Liz at Liz in Ink (daily haiku), Sara at Read Write Believe (daily haiku), Jone at Deo Writer (daily haiku)...and YOU?

unBEElievables

unBEElievables: honeybee poems and paintings
by Douglas Florian
Beach Lane Books, 2012

Douglas Florian does it again! A perfect trifecta of illustrations and poems and just enough information on every page.

I wish I would have had this book to show my student as a mentor text when they were writing their weather poems and including science information on the page with each poem.

Here's a favorite:

BEE ANATOMY

Lovely legs,
Lovely hue.
Lovely long
Antennae, too.
Lovely eyes,
Lovely wings.
But ouch!
How in the end
It stings!

Cause and Effect -- a poem

CAUSE AND EFFECT

Someone stole

my teacher.

They took my

favorite one.

She helped me 

patiently,

she was cheerful

and great fun.

She's replaced 

by a big

meany who is

giving me more work.

Do you think

this could have happened

'cause the class just went

berserk?

© Mary Lee Hahn, 2012

Poem #24, National Poetry Month, 2012

It was one of those days...

Cathy, at Merely Day By Day, is joining me in a poem a day this month. Other daily poem writers include Amy at The Poem Farm, Linda at TeacherDance, Donna at Mainely Write, Laura at Writing the World for Kids (daily haiku), Liz at Liz in Ink (daily haiku), Sara at Read Write Believe (daily haiku), Jone at Deo Writer (daily haiku)...and YOU?

Wacko - a haiku

Iris in April?

Should be Memorial Day --

Seasons are wacko.

© Mary Lee Hahn, 2012

Poem #23, National Poetry Month 2012

Truth in advertising -- this is neither an iris from my garden, nor is it an iris that's blooming right now (it's name is Fire and Ice, and it's from Mom's garden last June). 

But I  really did do a complete double-take last week when I saw whole beds of iris blooming in Denver. Some are blooming here, too. What's up with THAT?!?! Iris bloom at the end of May so that you can cut them and take them to the cemetery to lay on the graves on Memorial Day. Used to be, at least. Can't tell me nothing's wacko about the weather and/or the seasons...

Cathy, at Merely Day By Day, is joining me in a poem a day this month. Other daily poem writers include Amy at The Poem Farm, Linda at TeacherDance, Donna at Mainely Write, Laura at Writing the World for Kids (daily haiku), Liz at Liz in Ink (daily haiku), Sara at Read Write Believe (daily haiku), Jone at Deo Writer (daily haiku)...and YOU?