writing from research: 2nd grade poems

EDITED REPOST!  NOW WITH ILLUSTRATIONS!
As last year, one of our big projects in 2nd grade is researching and writing informatively about "special places," which I link with our geography objectives by narrowing (or broadening!) to habitats or ecosystems.  This year our information brochures covered forests, both temperate and rain, grasslands and coral reefs.  To close our project, we read selections from Forest Has a Song by Amy Ludwig Vanderwater, Rejoice! by Mendon Center Elementary 3rd Grade and Water Sings Blue by Kate Coombs to inform and inspire our habitat poems.

As always, I know that our Poetry Friday and Writing Workshop have been effective when just about all my 7- or 8-year-olds can strike out on their own poetry paths, making empowered decisions about what and how to express their learning in poetic form.  Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

This week's Poetry Friday round-up is a veritable blizzard of opportunity with Carol at Beyond Literacy Link.  Flurry on over to join in.

cybils poetry finalists

This year I'm serving again as a final-round judge for the Cybils Poetry Award, which you can read all about by clicking the link.  In this arduous but pleasant task I'm joined by four other children's and young adult literature bloggers whom you should get to know, if you don't know them already!  They are:

Joy Acey at Poetry for Kids Joy
Linda Baie at Teacher Dance
Kate Hillyer at Kid Book List
Buffy Silverman at Buffy's Blog

The nominated books this year range widely from humorous to historical, from parody to honorifics, from collections for the youngest to a Greek myth versified for the YA set. And here (drum roll, please) are the seven contenders this year:

Bull
David Elliott
ISBN: 9780544610606

Fresh-Picked Poetry: A Day at the Farmers' Market
Michelle Schaub
ISBN: 9781580895477

I'm Just No Good at Rhyming:

And Other Nonsense for Mischievous Kids and Immature Grown-Ups
Chris Harris
ISBN: 9780316266574

Keep a Pocket in Your Poem: Classic Poems and Playful Parodies
J. Patrick Lewis
ISBN: 9781590789216

 
 

Miguel's Brave Knight: Young Cervantes and His Dream of Don Quixote
Margarita Engle
ISBN: 9781561458561

One Last Word: Wisdom from the Harlem Renaissance
Nikki Grimes
ISBN: 9781619635548

Out of Wonder: Poems Celebrating Poets
Kwame Alexander   

ISBN: 9780763680947

What a treat, to have to dig deeply into these seven books over the next month!  The winner will be announced, by tradition, on Valentine's Day, lending a new poetic flavor to the celebration of LOVE!

Our round-up today is  at A Journey Through the Pages with Kay (aka Ms. McGriff). Mail yourself over to join the panoply of postcards!

rekiddifying for the new year

Happy New Year! May it actually be so, for all of humankind (kind being the operative word).

I've been doing a lot of writing for my adult self lately, and while that's going well (in the sense of being challenging and revealing and effective), in reading for Cybils judging I have remembered that I also write for kids, supposedly.  So that will be my focus this month.


sweeping the snow


swinging the broom   swinging the broom
      powder clouds and sprays

dragging the broom   dragging the broom
     white lines slide and stay

pounding the broom   pounding the broom
      lightness leaps away

spinning the broom   spinning the broom
      snowdust-flow ballet

draft (c) HM 2018


The round-up for this new year beginning is at Reading to the Core with Catherine, who's featuring the important book by Irene Latham and Charles Waters called Can I Touch Your Hair?