All posts in Leslie Reese

What is Black?

For our most recent session, Shoesmith considered ideas related to color. We read poems from The Heart of My Palm: Poems by African American Children [by David Adejouma and illustrated by Gregory Christie] and […]

What If?

On February 10, Haines after-school poetry group spent time wondering and asking questions after reading Langston Hughes’ poem “If-ing Around,” and “Whatif” by Shel Silverstein. Langston Hughes’ poem is written in the voice of […]

Imagination Ticklers

For our 5th and 6th meetings, Shoesmith 4th graders played with out-of-the-box thinking, creating new worlds to tickle the imagination. Enjoy! Ms. Lehner 4th Grade I wish to get Kyrie W. I hope to […]

Poetry Stew

For my 10th visit with 2nd graders at Bret Harte, we talked about things we know how to do well before the discussion turned to recipes. I began to take items from my bag: […]

4th Graders Play With “Out of the Box” Thinking

I feel proud to work with Shoesmith 4th graders, who are willing to share their ideas, feelings, questions, and imaginations with me every class session! For our 5th session, we played around with out-of-the-box […]

Hot Cocoa Days

Even though we wrote wintery poems as a group during our last session, many Swift 2nd graders wanted to try their hands at writing individual winter poems. Have you ever imagined yourself as a […]

Winter: Hot and Cold

Bret Harte 2nd graders were back in school for our recent session and our discussion and thoughts were on the season: WINTER. We read Nikki Giovanni’s “Winter Poem.” Some students elected to work in […]

Haines Wishcraft

After a break for munching snacks, students at Haines showed me how to get to our after-school meeting place for poetry where we got acquainted and wrote “Wish Poems.” Enjoy! Brooklynn T. I wish […]

Wintery Words

For our 8th session, Swift 2nd graders were learning from home. We read “Winter Poem” by Nikki Giovanni and spent time talking about wintery things. One student shared that his name, Shishir, is related […]

Getting Back into Poetry with Monsters!

Happy New Year! 2nd graders at Swift kicked off 2022 by sharing things they are afraid of, and debating about whether or not monsters are real. We had fun with Dennis Lee’s poem, “I […]

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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