All posts in Leslie Reese

Monster List

Last Friday, I was reunited with Swift 2nd graders after missing them for two weeks in a row: one Friday they visited the Peggy Notebaert Museum; and the following week there was no school […]

“Look Admidst the Trees”

Last Thursday in my sessions with Brennemann 5th Graders, we talked about gardens and the value of having someone who believes in you. We viewed a video of the poet Joaquin Zihuatanejo, who talked […]

“why are there so many questions?”

My first sessions with Nettelhorst 2nd graders were a joy! Their teachers had recently concluded a poetry unit and students were excited to delve into it some more. My hat goes off to Nettelhorst […]

What is shiny, hot, yellow, and orange?

Today Brennemann 2nd graders put on their imaginative thinking caps to meet the challenge of creating their own comparisons and writing similes (a comparison that uses the words “like” or “as.”) We talked about […]

“a fire alarm that sounds angry”

For our 2nd sessions, Brennemann 2nd graders sat with me on the rugs in their respective classrooms, as I read the poem “Collecting Words” by Pat Mora, from her book Bookjoy, Wordjoy. The poet […]

“We use tools”

For our 2nd sessions, I showed up in Brennemann 5th grade classrooms all set to introduce them to the Gwendolyn Brooks poem, “We Real Cool,” but they were already familiar with it from a […]

2nd Grade Wishing-Well

I met Brennemann 2nd graders for the first time this week. They were curious about everything from what I was wearing, to what is a poem? and what do I think about animals? and […]

What a monster looks like!

For our first session upon returning from spring break, I thought we could spend time reviewing, as well as looking at some illustrated poetry books and reading poems aloud. This is what we did […]

“yo sueño en hacer poesia y ser grande”

It was my pleasure to meet with Brennemann 5th graders for the first time last week. They were energetic, curious, and open to going with me on a creative writing journey with poetry. We […]

Jealous clouds, guitars, and more

In our recent sessions, Swift 2nd graders were counting down the hours before spring break began! We read “Ode to My Shoes” by Francisco X. Alarcón, and talked about giving non-human things – like […]

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I’M FROM THE CITY LIGHTS / STREAMING OUT IN THE NIGHT / AND HUGE SKYSCRAPERS / TOWERING OVER THE LAKE – MELISSA E., 7TH GRADE POET