All posts in Poems

Twain 5th graders begin to take hold of their dreams…

For our 3rd time meeting for poetry, Twain 5th graders shared some of their daydreams and sleeping dreams before we read 3 different poems about dreams: one by Annie C., a 3rd grader, one […]

‘with twigs and mud and worms for eating’: Video-Inspired Poems

Students watched a bear cam video similar to the one described in the poem we studied, ‘There was this bear cam’ by critic and poet Sandra Simonds. Sandra Simonds charts the formations and deformations […]

Dear Sky,

For their 8th week of poetry Hamline 6th graders explored various ways to communicate with one another. Nowadays people usually use social media, emails, texts and phone calls to stay in touch with one […]

“He is like a bolt of lightning”

This week, we read (in our best Hulk voice!) an excerpt of “Hulk Smash!” by Greg Santos and “Forest Walk” by Kristine O’Connell George. We talked about how to write a persona poem in […]

Allusions: “Whenever I see a heart, crown, and a trident…”

This week we talked about allusion! We read a poem by Nikki Giovanni, brainstormed our own allusions, and then students used their own brainstorms to write a poem about allusion in whatever way they […]

“Your voice, your choice. It’s you” Poetry Books with South Loop Poetry Club!

For our last week of South Loop Poetry Club, our talented poets continued to work on and finish our individual poetry books. Some students revised and reminisced on old poems we wrote in class, […]

Kindergarten Final Party

We received our published books in Kindergarten today and held a final “Coffeeshop Party.” We ate sprinkle-y cookies (because poetry is full of color and detail and surprise!) and did a reading, including snapping […]

Experiments in Revision!

Today, we did a wild revision experiment in both the 5th and 8th grade classes at Clinton Elementary. The students each chose a poem from the year that they were interested in continuing to […]

Sharing Know-How

Our Sayre students’ read the poem, “The Gift” by Ocean Vuong and considered the intertwining of narrative and imagery. We were especially struck by “the b bursting its belly/ as dark dust blows/ through […]

Secret Dreams

For their 6 week of poetry, Twain 6th graders explored ideas about dreams. Dreams can be stories we create while we are sleeping, wishes we want to come true, or goals we have for […]

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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