"amazed of the nature"--habitat poems by 2nd graders

Long post today! First, want to publicly acknowledge the gift of poet Amy Ludwig VanDerwater, who gave 20 very full minutes of her precious time to two classes of 2nd graders yesterday via Zoom.  Thanks to the dedicated efforts of my media specialist, @JoelaPaik, the technology worked beautifully and those kids are marked by the blessing of her poetry and her personhood forever.  Thanks, Amy!

Last Poetry Friday in Room 203 was a day with more gorgeous than bitter (it always is).  Again this year (see past projects 2017 here and here 2018), after quite some time spent researching and writing informational brochures about a range of world habitats, the Diamond Miners enjoyed some inspiration from the books pictured below as well as FOOTPRINTS ON THE ROOF by Marilyn Singer, and then set to work.

AFRICAN ACROSTICS by Avis Harley, FOREST HAS A SONG by Amy LV, WATER SINGS BLUE by Kate Coombs and, importantly, REJOICE: RAINFOREST POEMS by 3rd Graders (Scholastic Kids Are Authors series)

 Habitat brochures & poems:  I dislike the blank spaces but there is only so much catching up I can organize...

As always there were a couple who had trouble getting started--but only a couple and only a little!  Most kids understood that they were going to use all the knowledge they had accumulated through research to inform a poem and went to work with very definite ideas. And as always, I consider it evidence that my Poetry Friday routines are effective that every kid felt able to strike out on their own to act as "the boss of their poem."  I find that Poetry, in contrast to its bad rep for making people feel dumb and inadequate, Is Empowering for kids.

We started our workshop off with a shared acrostic involving ALL the habitats students had researched.  I'm particularly struck by the effectiveness of this year's acrostic poems--there were two that I actually didn't recognize WERE acrostics until I went to type them!  Today's project is to illustrate; I'll add those into the post over the weekend somehow.                      HABITATS

                      an acrostic poem by The Diamond Miners

                                             Have you seen

                                             A gila in the desert?

                                             Blue shiny waves

                                              In the ocean?

                                             Trees towering

                                             And expanding in the forests?

                                             Tall grasses waving over wildebeest in the

                                             Savannah?  Have you seen habitats?

And now, here are the students' poems!

Forests Spread

    by Chris M.

Forests spread

until the sun gets

low and low   The

leaves look dark

Fantastic trees

look at the sun

while it is getting

low    Green leaves

sleep


  Deserts

 by Isabella ZR 

Deserts are hot

what can I do? I might melt
on the sizzling sand
You know why! I might burn
myself!!! but some
have snow.  I might go!
Will I see snow?

Rivers

 by Ethan F.

rivers are   smooth   soft

relaxing   sometimes rivers

grow   no one knows when they

grow

Tall Grasses Dance

by Siddhartha Dangol

tall grasses dance in the

wind   they dance all

night and day  

never stop  never stop  

they like to stay in the light

and night    never stop

tall grasses always dance

in the grassland every

day    never stop at all.

Ocean

     by Christian W.

Open blue sea

Covering the land   I’m the

Emperor of the sea

Amazed of the

Nature of the sea.

  

Forests

    by Ashly AM

forests are covered

with orange and red

in fall

forests are covered

with green and yellow

in summer

In the Desert

 by Kymani F.

in the desert

the wind blows hot

in the desert it prickles

and it tickles

the sand and the cactus

in the desert

Rainforest

 by Hannah D.

Really hot

Animals everywhere

In the rainforest

Noisy and quiet

Finding things to eat

Organic habitat

Really calm

Expanding trees

So much rain

The plants so pretty

Forest Is

 by Matthew H.

Forest is green and

brown and blue

vines on trees and

leaves and bears

wood and lakes

Grasslands

by Ezra W.

a grassland is

covered with grass

as tall as a zebra’s

belly

covered with animals

like hyenas

hunting

Desert

by Bruce H.

Day after day it is hot.

Every monster can be dangerous.

See if you can touch one?

Evenings animals hunt for food,

Ringing on houses for prey.

There is not much rain.

forest

    by Emma D

          forests
      r i p p l i n g
rain on the leaves
          falling
          on the
          mud 

           soaking 
        into the
      g r o u n d

 

Thunderstorm in the Savannah

by Corwin R.

thunder

storm

is coming

in the savannah

fire and rain

thunder

on the hill

with the

ant mound

Rain Forest Research

 by Jadeline Z.

      Rainforests don’t get snow!

      But why?  You need to know!!!

You can look at a book.

What about PebbleGo?

Fine, but where’s the computer?

I lost it.  What?!!!

In the Desert

 by Heidy R.

in the desert

it burns my feet

the weather is windy 
the wind blows the sand

      

Ocean 
by Aydin T. 

Water rippling shiny & blue.
Ocean splashing fiercely on shore.
Waves crashing & splashing.
Thunderstorm’s a comin’!
Water smooth, water calm.
Thunderstorm’s all gone! 

And finally, I must mark the passing of one of our quietest yet greatest voices in poetry, Mary Oliver. I believe she would have enjoyed these poems by 7- and 8-year olds, and certainly, through me, their voices are influenced by hers. In memoriam...

Poem
by Mary Oliver

The spirit
   likes to dress up like this:
     ten fingers,
       ten toes,

shoulders, and all the rest
   at night
      in the black branches
         in the morning

in the blue branches 
    of the world.
       It could float, of course,
          but would rather

plumb rough matter.
   Airy and shapeless thing,
      it needs
         the metaphor of the body,

lime and appetite,
   the oceanic fluids;
      it needs the body's world,
        instinct

 and imagination
   and the dark hug of time
     sweetness
       and tangibility

to be understood,
   to be more than pure light
      that burns
         where no one is --

so it enters us --
    in the morning
       shines from brute comfort
          like a stitch of lightning;

and at night
   lights up the deep and wondrous
      drownings of the body
         like a star.

The roundup today is with Tricia at the Miss Rumphius Effect.  Let us mourn and rejoice together.