Poetry Friday, Peek, & #199

My Favorite Restaurant

by Amy LV

This is poem #20 in my Friday series of poems about poems!

For our sixth Poetry Peek, we welcome two classes of Cloverbank Elementary's fourth grade students with their community poems.  As you read these two autumn poems and the third about a beloved teacher, notice the layering of words, the layering of sounds that comes from so many voices working together.   These student poets hail from Mrs. Lynda Sentz's and Kristen Snajczuk's fourth grade classrooms in Blasdell, New York.  

Here are the words from their writing teacher and author of the new professional book, WRITE WITH ME, Lynda Sentz...

We have been trying to make our writing more descriptive.  Autumn is a season that truly tickles and delights the senses.  We began our effort by brainstorming as many fall sensations as we could come up with.  What do we hear in fall?  See?  Smell?  Taste?  Touch?  Our lists were gigantic.  Every student then gathered bits and pieces from their notebooks and wrote at least one line for our class poem.  We didn't spend much time on this, but the resulting poems were something they were very proud to see hanging in the hall.  Each wrote out a line on a sentence strip, and I affixed the strips to a large, long sheet of paper.  Students illustrated and decorated the edge of the paper near their line of poetry.  The result is quite lovely.

Fun in the Fall

by Room 211

I close my eyes for a moment and slowly open to see

pumpkins, pies, apple cider, leaves slowly falling to the ground.

I see the leaves changing color.

The colorful leaves on the tree dance as I watch

slowly and carefully.

Red, brown, yellow, green - all the colors of some cool surprise -

crunchy or soft, also colorful or dull.

When I walk out the door, all I can smell 

is Mother Nature's leaves falling down from those wooden trees.

The maple tree in my backyard was my territory.

I would sit back there all day.

I would draw what I saw.

The maple tree in our backyard is so peaceful -

drawing the leaves changing color

hearing the birds chirping

watching the squirrels play tag

with the breeze tapping on your shoulder

asking you to play.

My feet, stepping one-by-one while running,

I can hear those leaves and my heart beating.

Running, jumping, crackling.

I love the thick pumpkins, mushy and soggy

and even the soft seeds.

I love feeling the mushy stuff inside of the pumpkins

The sweet smell of hot warm pumpkin seeds 

in the oven crackling - crack, crack, crack.

While I am smelling the dampness in the air 

on a wonderful sunny day in fall, my mom calls out, 

"Your pumpkin pie is ready!"

Kids jumping proudly into a screaming pile of flowing leaves -

my brother and I play in the leaves

and we play in the colorful leaves.

When I jump in the leaf piles

all of the leaves brush up against my clothes.

I feel the crunchy leaves 

when I jump into a huge pile of leaves.

The apples are so good in the fall

and weather sounds - I can hear the wind blow.

When I see all of the candy wrappers on the floor

my stomach starts to hurt.

I hear the sweet howl of wind blowing against my skin.

I see baby blue birds

a family of brown deer

and I see brown and orange leaves.

It is the most beautiful season.

Awe in Autumn

by Room 202

Wind blowing in my ear 

branches falling and the sky is calling me to play.

I can feel the cold mist almost touching my skin.

In fall, I feel the wind.

I feel a cold breeze of cold wind.

I can see the leaves in many beautiful colors.

I can feel leaves and I also feel heat.

I can hear the little kids screaming 

"Apple cider!  Apple cider!"

And when I scream I feel like there is apple cider.

I can see pumpkins putting on their orange jackets

as fall gets colder.

I can see the orange jack o'lanterns and their scary faces.

Spending money, some are funny, make-up runny - costumes!

I smell the fresh pumpkin pies

and hear the scary noises all night.

Apple pie, apple cider - tastes so good in the fall.

I can smell the hot pumpkin pie.

I see the squirrels getting food for the winter

Birds chirping and singing in a perfect harmony to me

Bugs, gourds, pumpkin seeds - 

Why are they all so nice to me?

The first time I did this communal sort of writing lesson, my students and I were saying goodbye to a dear teacher who passed away very suddenly.  The students did not have an opportunity to prepare for the loss or say "Goodbye".  Together, we came to grips with our grief and sadness by writing together.  Each student contributed a line.  Some were funny, while others were moving.  Ten-year-olds have emotions that run deep.

I put the lines together in stanzas and printed a copy for each student.  We stood in a circle on a sunny May afternoon and read our poem - each student reading his or her line.  It was a lovely, quiet goodbye for our cherished reading teacher, Mrs. Koss.  I only wish she could have heard her students reading their poetry lines with such confidence and pride.  Perhaps she did...

Ruminations about Mrs. Koss

by Room 211

Mrs. Koss started us learning.

Mrs. Koss is a busy bee!

Kind, compassionate and always giving a helping hand

Mrs. Koss makes people smile really, really, really big.

Mrs. Koss is fun and quirky like beef jerky!

Mrs. Koss is a great reading teacher!

Mrs Koss is pretty, Mrs. Koss is fun, and Mrs. Koss is smart.

She's respectful to us and everyone else around the world

Friendly when she teaches.

Always inspiring us to work harder, reach higher

She is a leader.

Generous, kind, helping, and giving

Nice and caring person, Mrs. Koss.

Mrs. Koss is as gentle as a fly.

Mrs. Koss is caring, nice, sweet, loving - 

Always helping people.

As pretty as a flower

Mrs. Koss is as bright as the sun.

Always on time and is genteel

Mrs. Koss is as bright as a star.

Lois was all that and much, much more....

Poetry can be deeply personal, deeply cathartic even when you are writing it with twenty of your closest friends.  Early in the year, we can build bridges between friendships.  Later in the year, we can enjoy the journey of the writing.  And yes, when we suffer a great loss, we can mend a piece of a broken heart.

A great thank you to teacher Lynda Sentz and her student writers for sharing their community poems with us.  If your class tries writing such a community poem, please write in a comment and share.  I'd love to spotlight any more community poems in a future post.  This post will be cataloged along the right hand sidebar with all other Poetry Peeks into classrooms.

Please check out Lynda Sentz's brand new book, WRITE WITH ME: PARTNERING WITH PARENTS IN WRITING INSTRUCTION, published by Eye on Education.  Please click on the title above to read about the book or here to read sample pages.

Next week is KitLitCon 2010 and our Poetry Friday Panel!  If you have anything to share regarding how Poetry Friday or The Poem Farm have influenced your teaching and students' writing, please leave a message in the comments, and I will be sure to share it with the group.

This week's Poetry Friday is over at Liz in Ink.  Please mosey on over and cozy up to a family of new poems and poetry posts.  

Tomorrow marks 200 days of nonstop poems at The Poem Farm!

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