All posts in Leslie Reese

Image, Imagination, Imagery!

So far – in addition to covering LINE, STANZA, and SIMILE – 3rd graders at Twain have learned that poems can be inspired by likes [and dislikes], as well as curiosities and dreams. Today […]

“…to make stuff up in your mind”

Our 4th sessions gave Twain 3rd graders an opportunity to contemplate dreams. We read Carole Boston Weatherford’s “Which Way to Dreamland?” and noticed its questions, rhymes, and repeating lines. One of students’ favorite stanzas […]

Similes are like Paintbrushes

For our 3rd sessions Twain 3rd graders in Mrs. Murphy’s and Ms. O’Reilly’s classrooms discussed tools that writers and poets use to make their writing come alive for readers. Our key terms were COMPARE […]

“…Would it evaporate like steam?”

I got the idea for “The Beauty of Questions” lesson awhile back when I was looking through the Book of Questions by Pablo Neruda and illustrated by Paloma Valdivia, which was published in 2022. […]

“The Reason I Like Chocolate”

Wednesday I was reunited with Mrs. Murphy and got to meet new-to-me 3rd graders at Twain Elementary. It was great meeting Ms. O’Reilly who is covering for Ms. Isaacs while she is on leave. […]

Cooking Poems & Illustrations

Today, Brennemann 2nd Graders in Ms. Richter‘s class worked collaboratively to create a recipe for how to cook a poem: “How to Cook a Wonderful Poem”by the Class First: get pencils, papers, and erasersfrom […]

“Pencils are wild, magical, and so cool”

On the last day of our 2nd grade poetry residency at Swift – we looked at Carl Sandburg‘s poem “Pencils,” in which I omitted a number of words and lines. Students came up with […]

“…misty water-colored memories”

For our last session, Brennemann 5th graders talked about the different ways that “freedom” is experienced as they move from being younger to older. They talked about not having homework, chores, or responsibilities, and […]

“Poetry is many things that inspire people…”

To bring our terrific 6-week poetry residency with 2nd graders to a close, we talked about (1) things that poetry is: “many things that inspire people;” “imaginative;” “an art;” “its own world;” “art & […]

“When will it be my turn to control time?”

Today Brennemann 2nd graders talked about what it means to be curious: to be interested in learning what we don’t know and wanting to understand how things work and why things and people are […]

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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