Poems for Readers

For two sessions in March, Bret Harte 2nd graders have been thinking about reading and writing. They shared things they like about writing, such as “it can help you make books,” “you can write your own experiences and ideas,” and “it is fun and makes you happy.”

As for things students dislike about writing, the list includes “it takes too long to write a whole page,” “it is a struggle to write every page” and “hurts your hand.” We read the poem “I Love the Look of Words” by Maya Angelou, and enjoyed beautiful illustrations by Tom Feelings of young people engrossed in reading books. Some favorite lines in the poem were about words “rushing into my eyes” and how ideas from reading can “stay stuck/ in my mind, like the sweet/ smell of butter perfuming my/ fingers…”

The following week, some courageous students volunteered to come to the board and create poems about reading in front of the class. See if you can find the similes in their poems!