Friday, October 28, 2022

Thank you, Amy LV! {Poetry Friday}

I know last week I restarted a poetry plan and I decided to pause that plan for an impromptu moment from my classroom. I saw a tweet this morning from @amylvpoemfarm where she was sharing her Friday post on her fabulous resource, The Poem Farm. I was intrigued with the idea of making an if list for poetry. My class has been reading poetry to start our Fridays. Just last week we started picking one to share with others and I felt an itch to help them write poetry. 

We started our day by reading poetry and a quick morning meeting. We paused our time together for music and shared poems we wanted others to hear when we got back. Then I shared with them one of our favorite authors Amy Ludwig Vanderwater had a blog and I saw an idea I thought we could try. We read Amy's post and listened to her recording. I wondered if we could write an If...poem together and then they could try one in their writer's notebooks. 

We collaborated using a shared writing format. A pattern emerged as students took turns. We had the ending before the third and fourth stanzas. We talked about short lines and slowing down as we reread our developing draft. This represents our community. It represents our us as learners and it represents our physical space.

We had to publish our writing and each child did an illustration. It was joyful to listen to the illustration conversations. They knew which lines they were specifically illustrating. We are going to put individual copies in our Poetry Folders we use for practicing all things fluency.


Thank you Amy LV for inspiring our writing thoughts and hearts. XO

Thank you Jone for hosting Poetry Friday this week.

10 comments:

  1. I love the work your kids have done. Thank you for sharing.

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  2. Dear Writers,

    I so enjoyed reading your poem and looking closely at your thoughtful illustrations. Your poem is making me think about how much I, too, value all of the things you listed in your poem.

    I learned something from your poem too. A person can write an "If" list poem like you did, listing many "Ifs," each followed by a new thought. If any of you wished to, you could choose one of the great lines in your poem and stretch it out to make a poem about just that one thing. An "If" poem about no school or no plants. It is so neat how one writing idea can lead us to another, isn't it?

    The ending question left me so so happy that we DO have books. What a great way to finish your piece.

    Thank you for visiting The Poem Farm. I wish that we could really be there in person together, but I feel very lucky to have met in this way.

    Peace,
    Amy

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    Replies
    1. Dear Miss Amy,
      That was really kind of you to compliment our poem and write back to us. Thank you for giving us advice about more poems from the poem we made. We really like the books you have made and we sure want to meet you in person too. We will visit your website The Poem Farm again.
      Your friends,
      Mrs. Robek's Third Graders 2022-2023

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  3. Oh, this is wonderful. I love that ending! Life without books is unimaginable. And Amy's always an inspiration!

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  4. I'm so happy to hear/see poetry activity in the classroom! Thank you!

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  5. It's terrific to read about this journey, Mandy, and I love the poem & the peek at the art, too, always a joy to see. Amy's post was indeed an inspiration!

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  6. Mandy, the ending question in your If poem is such a great closure. Congratulations to your class for being such inquisitive young poets.

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  7. How fun that you and your class collaborated on a poem. Amy was a perfect inspiration.

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  8. I love this almost cumulative almost circular love poem to books and teachers and learning. Hooray to the Robek Crew for a fabulous IF poem!

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  9. Dear Writers, your If poem and illustrations are wonderful. Thank you for sharing your work with us.

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