Poetry: Powerful Thoughts in Tiny Packages,

Inspired by Lucy Calkins’ Poetry: Powerful Thoughts in Tiny Packages, the youngest children explored writing poetry. The unit starts with a poetry museum, which asks children to write about objects that have been collected. As each object is observed children are encouraged to see with poet’s eyes, to see the unusual in ordinary objects. As the unit progressed over the course of 8 weeks,  students learn about the many ingredients that make up powerful poetry. They explored learning about line breaks, showing and not telling, searching for honest and precise words, patterning on a page and using comparisons. We encouraged children to stretch out their sounds and not to worry about spelling. It was important however, that they could read what they wrote. The highlight of each class came at the end when they each shared one treasured poem.

Six eggs in

a basket.

then a little girl

was picking up

some baskets.

Then she said,

“This is the best day ever.”

by Aurelia, aged 5

The park

is a place for everyone.

It’s a place

for

everyone.

The park

is a

place for

everyone

to

play.

by Eisen, aged 6

The vacuum is

A monster

And it eats dust and dirt

It gets mad

When you don’t

Drop

Anything.

by Frannie, aged 7

Boy camping

with my dad and

syris sleeping

There is a lot of

bugs.  I have soda

I sleep in a

sleeping bag

and I got

to toast marshmallows.

by Rowyn, aged 6