Winter is here and what better way to celebrate than with a fresh batch of poems? This week, Hale’s 6-8th grade poets donned some holiday spirit and crafted seasonal poems. Despite Chicago’s winter cold, many of our poetry students said they love the season so it’s not surprising that many of this week’s poems were bursting with biting images.
On Tuesday, students read Claude McKay’s “To Winter,” noticing the poet’s switch in weather patterns as he writes about winters in both Jamaica and Harlem. We practiced identifying rhyme schemes, then borrowed McKay’s rhyme pattern to craft new poems about winters in Chicago. Some of the poems celebrated family holiday traditions and others shared their excitement about the changing weather.
Ocean G.
Long pointy icicles
They stand like popsicles
Cool air brushes against my face
So much snow my footprints can never leave a trace
The snow is so pale
So many tracks there is no trail.
On Wednesday, we brought winter weather into the classroom and wrote snowball poems. Students each wrote lines inspired by the season on pieces of paper and turned them into snowballs. The classroom transformed into a battleground during a snowball fight, but each student was a winner as they walked away with new snowball lines to incorporate into their poems.
Yeya R.
The snow is falling down and the snowman’s smile comes back at winter
The sight of people decorating their homes
And to the little girl, the Christmas tree is mother nature’s way of saying
winter is back
Her eyes sparkled like the star on top of that tree
Excitement filled her joyful heart
And suddenly she became a saint when she heard Santa’s sleigh bells
Laying in bed waiting for Santa to come down the chimney
Her eyes started to feel like bricks
And when she woke up, the wrapped presents under the tree
made her as happy as a full baby.
On Thursday, we closed our 2021 poetry club with a celebratory open mic for Ocean’s birthday. Students read their written poems, then ended with freestyles sharing their appreciation for their poetry clubmate.
Wishing you all a joyous holiday season and happy new year!
