Ms. Malaney Takes Over

This morning marked the beginning of my three week experience as our classroom’s lead teacher. We started our Monday morning in a similar fashion with reading and writing. I was so delighted to see how many students brought in strong feelings to write in their tiny idea books. In poetry we worked on comparing things we love to real world objects. Again we turned to our mentor Zoe Ryder White and read her poem “Inside my Heart.”  It’s amazing to see how the class is beginning to grasp the concept of emulating a poet’s work. This week I will work to remove the highly structured poems we have been working with and allow each student to explore creating poetry.

In social studies today we studied time capsules and decided to make our very own A-7 time capsule. Below is a copy of the note that was sent home with your student. We won’t be creating the time capsule until after spring break so no rush on collecting things. In addition to the artifacts we collect, each student will be submitting a note to the time capsule about their year in first grade at Burns Park School.

 

Mrs. Ambrosino has been reading The Indian in the Cupboard to our class for several weeks. Now that I will be leading the class for the next few weeks I decided to choose a new chapter book to read to the class. Today I began reading Lemon Snicket’s Series of Unfortunate Events-The Bad Beginning. It is a great 13 book series I couldn't help but introduce them to.

 

Tiny Idea Books

Now that our class has officially become poets, (even after a week of studying and writing we are already feeling quite confident) we are also learning about how poets collect inspiration. We now know that we need somewhere to store all this inspiration we have been finding. Yesterday in class we created tiny idea books.

 

In first grade it helps to write about something that gives you a big strong feeling. When you have big strong feelings about something their is usually an object, detail, or moment associated with the feeling that can create amazing poetry.These small 3x4 inch books are the perfect place to jot down a quick note about the beautiful tree they saw on the playground during recess, or the interesting experience they had at the drinking fountain . This will be helpful when it comes time for writing workshop, because each poet will now have a quick place to reference some of their big strong feelings which can help them start writing. Encourage your poet to jot down something that gives them a big strong feeling this weekend. They can bring it to school to add to their tiny idea book on Monday.

Poetry Comes in Many Forms

Today in writing workshop we talked about how we can use poets as mentors. In class we listened to Jack Prelutsky’s Louder Than a Clap of Thunder to see if we could hear what it was in his poem that made it so enjoyable to both read and listen to. We then created our own Louder Than... poems. They had a great time choosing noises to write their poem about.

The class also really enjoyed listening to poetry being preformed. As a teacher, I am excited for later in our study of poetry when they will be able to record their voice reading a piece of their own poetry. Their words become so much more powerful when you get to hear the small but smart little voice that created the poem. Here is a link to what we listened to in class, enjoy!

 

Louder Than a Clap of Thunder

Inspiration from within....

Today, as we contiuned our journey, we had the pleasure of studying poetry created by our very own classmate D.S. A few months ago he wrote a poem about a particular hallway in our school while walking back to class with Mrs. Roderique. Today in class we studied how he took an ordinary, everyday place, and found a new beautiful way to describe it. As we continue we will all be working to see the world in this new interesting way. Below is a photo of the poem our friend wrote which is displayed in the very hallway that inspired him.

(Although I would love to give credit where credit is due, for privacy reasons students names have been removed from their work.)

Poetry Glasses

 

 

 

Today to start out our unit, I decided we needed to become poets. We did so by slipping on what Lucy Calkins calls our poetry glasses and seeing the world in a new, fresh way. We walked around the classroom looking at everyday objects and saw them in a new light. We had help from a great mentor Zoe Ryder White, who wrote the two poems below. We studied her poems to see what she saw when she put on her poetry glasses and gained inspiration to see things in a new way when we put on our poetry glasses.

 

Pencil Sharpener

By Zoe Ryder White

 

I think there are a hundred bees

inside the pencil sharpener

and they buzz

and buzz

and buzz

until my point is sharp!

 

Ceiling

By Zoe Ryder White

 

The ceiling

is the sky

for the classroom

 

 

 

 

1^st Day 1^st Poem

Each week this year during Reading Workshop we have read a poem and put it in our poetry journals with an illustration to match. This week I got to choose our first Reading Workshop poem during our poetry unit. Tomorrow we will be learning about poetry glasses, and Valerie Worth is an amazing poet who uses her poetry glasses to write all her poems. We will be studying her poem all week!

 

Safety Pin

By: Valerie Worth

Closed it sleeps

On its side

Quietly,

The silver

Image

Of some

Small fish;

 

Opened, it snaps

Its tail out

Like a thin

Shrimp, and looks

At the sharp

Point with a

Surprised eye.

Welcome!

 

This letter went home with your student today, and I'm so glad you got logged on. Feel free to look around. I've posted some other materials used in my planning for you to check out if you're interested to see what our unit will consist of.