OIK Tuesday returns

Happy New Year!  All the preparation done, the new recipes, the new table linens, a little extra spent on the better bubbly for the welcome guests--now the feast can begin!

You know the feast I mean:   the New Year celebration of classroom teachers the world round...we prepare, plan to try out some new ideas and approaches, dress things up a bit, splurge a little to get a special new tool...and then they arrive!

This year I have 16 adorables (so far)--a perfect number of kindergarteners, if you don't have an assistant. Oh, they are lovely!  Even my poor sad twin, who has never been apart from her brother and is finding it hard to love school, raises her arms like a ballerina to pose when I take her picture.

Yesterday, as always, we read Swimmy and became Ms. Mordhorst's Mighty Minnows.  In between, Camillah [all names are changed to protect privacy] lost track of her lunchbox.

"Oh, no!" she exclaimed.  I think I left my lunchbox in the Food Court!"

*********************************

Oof.  I tried to write a food court poem and composed a draft so bad I can't even post it...I guess the Happy New Year excesses have left me a little hung over!   I resolve to forgive myself.

OIK Tuesday: I will certainly be back

I was trying to write for my kindergarteners, from my kindergarteners, but then I found this comment in my inbox, too perfect to resist.

http://myjuicylittleuniverse.blogspot.com/2012/12/oik-thursday-profligate.html

Its like you learn my thoughts!

You appear to grasp
so much approximately this,
like you wrote
the e-book in it or something.
I believe that you can do
with a few p.c.
to pressure the message home
a little bit, however other than that,
this is excellent blog.
An excellent read.

I will certainly be back.

[OIK] Tuesday: the best part of the day

I'm working on my vow to write for kids, little ones, for a while...I have no kindergarten voices to draw on right now, so I'll be the 5-year-old for now. (This chart is not from my classroom, but it's nice, right?)

 

A Reason to Rejoice

 

Some of my friends are scared to choose-

all they can think of is what they'll lose.

But being the boss makes me rejoice:

My favorite time of day is Choice.

 

HM 2013

draft

OIK Tuesday: backpacks in love

It's been a while since I took up the challenge of writing poems based on the things I hear in the classroom, but as our year is coming to a close I have to slow down, pay attention and grab a few more bon-mots from the mouths of kindergarteners.

It just so happens that the two girls beginning with K in my class sit side by side at the moment.  The other morning they came to me to untangle their backpacks.  In the course of unpacking, in a way that you could never achieve even if you made it your day's work, the zipper tab of one backpack had hooked itself through the mesh pocket of the other.  I separated the backpacks and we went to work trying to formulate Big Questions about The Little Red Hen.  (My favorite this year was Indi's:  "Why didn't the Little Red Hen get angry?")

That afternoon at packing-up time, the two K's came to me from the closet where their backpacks hang side-by-side.  They held up their backpacks, again connected by zipper and pocket, and one K said,  "We think our backpacks are in love!"  The other K added, "Maybe it's because they both begin with K."

Gosh, I love kindergarteners!

*************************
Backpacks in Love

zip on over close to me--
               I'll hold your heart capaciously
pop into my pocket
              I'll never ever drop it
pack your hopes and dreams in me
              I'll carry all you ever need
wear me out and wear me down
              I'll always hang around


Heidi Mordhorst 2013
draft

OIK Tuesday returns! kindergarten poetry

Today Overheard in Kindergarten Tuesday extends into Poetry Friday!  My eighteen Mighty Minnows spent the week of April 15 meeting poems by Langston Hughes, Lilian Moore, Arnold Adoff and Beatrice Schenk de Regniers to learn what poets do.  On the Friday they worked to compose their own poems.  I'm excited to share this work from children at varying stages of independent writing ability.

My proudest accomplishment as a teacher is that EVERY child knew what they wanted to write and felt competent to write a poem, and that EVERY child chose a different small thing to write about (with one exception, and that was my fault; I gave homework the night before to write a little poem about pockets). How's that for Thinking and Academic Success Skills? 

Animals 

I found a cat

I found another cat

I found three cats

by Nadja

 

Mosquitoes

 

I hate

mosquitoes

They bite

people

They give me

rashes 

by Bertrand

 

Flowers

 

I like flowers
You do too 

They can be colors

Well, you can like them

too   

Everybody can

by Karina

I Am Pretty 

I walk

to a big butterfly

I wear

my green dress
I go

to my castle

by Janie

 

Pockets

I really like pockets

and what you can put
inside 

you can take it out

and show it

or you can keep it in

and hide
 

by Briella 

unleashing the undead
 

the night unleashes

the dead: vampires,

zombies, ghosts, ghouls

ripping your throat.

by Beck
[Beck and I mutually agreed that while this is a cracking poem,
it isn't quite appropriate for a kindergarten anthology.  He's written
a new one about shoes, but I wanted to post his original creation here.]

Scaring Carrie
 

BOO!

I’m a giant.

and she goes

away!

by Santiago 
 

Dominoes
 

dominoes

put them in a row

flick really soft

flick with your finger

watch them tumble

see them tumble!

by Mikael

 

 Fast 
 

Fast brings

  speed.  fire

  brings

super
            speed!

     super super

   super speed!

    speed   That’s what

I call it!
 

     by Arden

 

Popcorn

 

popcorn

in my pocket
popcorn

in my pocket

then my popcorn

pops away! 

by Antonio 

Why 
 

Why do you think

you’re going to

bed?   I don’t think

I am going to bed.

Ohhhh!
 

by Tonya
 

To the Sun 
 

I flew to the sun
and was gone

forever and

I said   NOOO 

by Tiago 

Sing
 

Sing me

and everybody

sing and

the world

can sing

too

by Henderson 

A Horse

the wind is going fast

when the horse goes fast
the wind goes blowing

through her hair

when the grass blows

the horse goes away fast
the horse stops
to get a drink 

by Le’Ann

[Can you see the influence of Christina Rossetti here?  One of our
anthology poems was "Clouds," with the white sheep walking away
slow.]

Paul’s Pockets

 
pocket skirts and

pocket shirts and

pants and pretty dresses

all have pockets
but I like Paul’s pockets

best

by Cora



 

Cats

 

cats are furry

cats are cuddly

cats are friendly

cats are hairy

cats are mean sometimes.

by Merrilee 

The Pockets

the pockets

are very important

why?  they help you

carry things when you

need them 

by Indi 

My Shiny Bow

Shiny shiny!
Shiny bow

I like it
I like it

It’s very low

Very very

Very very

Very very

Very low

by Susye

***************
 

OIK Tuesday: sky mice

This week I'm sharing a poem that the Might Minnows discovered, hiding in plain sight, in the Leo Lionni book Frederick. We read it in November, when the change of seasons was unmistakable here in the mid-Atlantic and it was important to think about storing up food--and sunrays, colors and words!--in preparation for the long winter.  This book also served as our first introduction into what it is to be a poet.

I won't post the well-known "Five Little Pumpkins" rhyme that came before this one--it can be found enough places.  But I will point out that our poetry anthology, when completed, deliberately included both simpler poems like "Five Little Pumpkins" and more complex ones like the one below that I titled "Frederick's Sky Mice."  Sometimes we all learned the poem by heart, and sometimes it was enough to hear it over and over again and complete each line as the teacher read it.  When we reviewed our anthologies at the end of the year, some children were surprised to find that they could read this one independently now!

Frederick’s Sky Mice
by Leo Lionni

Who scatters snowflakes? Who melts the ice?
Who spoils the weather? Who makes it nice?
Who grows the four-leaf clovers in June?
Who dims the daylight? Who lights the moon?

Four little field mice who live in the sky.
Four little field mice … like you and I.

One is the Springmouse who turns on the showers.
Then comes the Summermouse who paints in the flowers.
The Fallmouse is next with walnuts and wheat.
And Wintermouse is last … with little cold feet.

Aren’t we lucky the seasons are four?
Think of a year with one less … or one more!

Teachers, go here and here for great resources on Lionni's books, and enjoy the photos of mice visiting the Mighty Minnows!

OIK Tuesday: what do kindergarten poets do?

I love kindergarteners.  They are just so fresh and willing when it comes to language, ideas, possibilities!  Last week, to supplement our biweekly Poetry Friday activities, we worked all week on a poetry study  called "What Do Poets Do?"  Each day brought a new poem and a new thing to notice.  I guess I need to learn how to upload a document, but here's what the cover of the booklet looks like. 

What Do Poets Do?

Dear Family,   

                                                

This week we read poems to find out what poets do.  We noticed that poets often choose to write about one small thing.  We noticed that poets choose juicy words that sound good together.  We noticed that poets choose how to arrange their words.  Then we tried writing our own small poems by choosing and arranging juicy words.  Please read all the poems with me, and when we’re done, let’s talk about which one gives us the strongest feeling.

                                              Love, ____

The poems included are "April Rain Song" (Langston Hughes), "Hey, Bug" (Lilian Moore), "My Mouth" (Arnold Adoff) and "Night Comes..." (Bernice Schenk de Regniers).  On Friday we listed some small things we could write poems about and some strong feelings we could make room for, and then off they went.

Here, without further ado, are the poems that resulted, in no particular order (a few of the twenty need a little editorial development--or just plain deciphering. I'll add them soon).  I'm so pleased that they all felt equipped to be The Boss of Their Poem, and that their work, each according to his or her means, is as individual as they are! 

Apple Pie

apple pie to ice cream

up            down

apple pie go ice cream

up           down

by Sidney L.

Griffin

something

soaring

through

the night

it’s dark and

scary

black

monster

come out

by Cale H.

hair

hair is perfect

it I love

hair is pretty

it I love

by Johanna A.

Trains

trains on the

track

trains on the

track

trains on the

track

trains on the

track go

trains on the go!

by Juan M.R.

Tea Party

my best friends

we had a tea party

with my toys

with Jasmine and Sarah

that like to do

together

with my toys

that was happy!

by Camille G.

Basketball

basketball rock

basketball roll

basketball awesome

basketball shoot

basketball miss

basketball bounce

by Ezer Y.

the sun

the sun

shines down

on us  it glimmers up

on us  it spreads

on us  it spins

out there in

space   it goes

down at sun set

it goes up at sun

rise

by Talia W.

about food

when the food

wakes up the

food is so happy

by Edwin M.

This one deserves special mention because of the detailed pencil-and-crayon drawing that shows apples and carrots with faces using tiny arms and legs to leap, wide awake, right out of the ground and their tree! 

Princesses

Me and Camille

and Sarah we are

princesses  we

are going to

the woods.

We are excited

because we are going

to the woods!

because we are going

to see

deer and birds!

by Jasmine R.

Aw man

aw man aw man

aw man aw man

aw man aw man

aw man aw man

aw man aw man

mom   what can I do?

perhaps you can

play with your

toys

aw man!

by Jordan L.

Star Wars Grand Canyon

Darth shot

the Grand

Canyon

Light sabers

Crashed

Luke grew flowers

They battled

The people grew

by Hamish D.

The camp

Camping is fun

when I go out

for a hike

I love

to camp  do you?

by Octavia S.

Sea Monsters

    Me and

    my brother

    saw the

sea monsters

    then the

monsters

vanished

    into Bernard’s

    mouth.

by Byron A.

Ice Cream

I eat ice cream

eat eat ice cream

the ice cream

truck

by Alfredo C.F.

Computers

computers

are fun you can

learn about things

like the world you

can pick whatever you

want you can pick

whatever game you

want   I say I like

this game a lot!

by Emily L.

happy

surprise

present

toys

happy

by Gloria C.

Happy indeed, the surprises and gifts of 6-year-old poets!  Which are your favorites?

************************
Meanwhile the Progressive Poem is leaping and landing and buoying towards its conclusion, with the latest addition being Renee LaTulipppe's at No Water River. I'm excited because I've been wanting to get back to Jeannine Atkins's silver slippers. 

I have really enjoyed getting to know Renee's work over the last eight weeks or so, through the March Madness Tournament and her blog.  Despite having the increasing feeling that We All Know Each Other in the KidLitosphere, this will never be true, so it's a good thing that we are so welcoming and supportive here when "new" folks explode on the scene.  (I'll skip over the part about how envious I am of the time Renee and others spend working on so many fabulous projects...we makes our choices, right?)

Poetry Friday--the last of National Poetry Month--is happening today with my "walking friend" Tabatha at The Opposite of Indifference.  I just love her Fictional Favorites series, and since I haven't read so much of the fiction which is being linked with the poems, I get a double dose of goodness:  the poems, and the pointer towards what to read.  The good news is that I seem to be returning to Reading Mode after many years of resisting books out of self-preservation.  How will I ever catch up?!

OIK Tuesday: st. patrick's secret identity

On March 1 I presented the new month's calendar to my kindergarteners.  Although many in my school enjoy the undeniable convenience of a calendar stored on the computer and presented on the Promethean Board, I still make a grid on a big sheet of 1-inch graph paper and hang it at the front of the room.  The physical work of each day's Calendar Marker is then always visible, birthdays and other special days can be referred to at any time, and the months become concrete artifacts that line the top of the walls and create a timeline of our kindergarten experience.  Call me old-fashioned, but I think 5- and 6-year-olds need this concrete, omnipresent record of passing time in order for it to begin making sense.

So there was the blank calendar, with weekend numbers recorded and a small green shamrock in the number 17 box.  "What do you notice?" I asked the class.  Some of the responses were...

"What is that green leaf for?"
"I notice a clover for Leprechaun Day!"
"St. Patrick's Day is coming."

I acknowledged these varying levels of familiarity and began a short and challenging explanation of St. Patrick's Day for a widely diverse group of children--after all, how do you fit the gigantic concepts of Christianity/Catholicism, sainthood, Ireland, history, immigration, cultural traditions and leprechaun magic into two sentences?  After my first sentence about how many kinds of people have come to live in America, just like some families in our class, and have brought their celebrations with them, like Chinese New Year, I started to say, "St. Patrick was--" and then got interrupted by a visitor at the door.

Bryon filled the pause that followed:  "--a rock star?!"

****************************
Have you heard of the rock star called Patrick
Who pulled off a Catholic hat trick?
The shamrock he takes;
The Irish he makes
Into Christians with wakes,
Then banishes snakes.
I'd like to see Bono do that trick!


Heidi Mordhorst 2012
all rights reserved

****************************

Okay, I worked way too long on that terrible piece of nonsense.  I may have to come back and try again with a poem on the bigger idea of the rock stars of Kindergarten:  those personalities who loom large in the K curriculum and the way their contributions do or don't make sense in the egocentric, here-and-now minds of 5-year-olds.  Happy upcoming St. Patrick's Day, folks.

OIK Tuesday: don't let the teacher drive the bus

Overheard in Kindergarten

There's a new girl in my class, Jasmine, who moved here from South Carolina and is still learning how things work at this school and in this community.

Today it was my turn to escort all the kindergarten bus riders --something like 45 kids--down to the APR to wait for buses (which is the recipe for an instant migraine once all the other bus riders in the school have arrived).   It was just one day this week rather than the usual five days in a row, thank goodness.

By the time Jasmine heard me announcing that I had "bus duty," I was wearing dark trousers and a white shirt, having shed my cardigan like a mealworm molts its exoskeleton--because even with the windows open it's like 85 degrees in my classroom.  Jasmine came right up to me, eyes wide, taking in what must have looked like a uniform.

"Teacher!  I didn't know you could drive the bus!"

*******************

I have dreams, you know.

At the end of the day, I'll lead the line,
singing,
all the way onto the bus,
climb into the driver's seat
and zoom away,
without even synching my Palm first.

I bet your mom would let me.

~Heidi Mordhorst 2012
all rights reserved