Greenhill Lower School Library : Poetry Month!

Wow! So much has happened since I last wrote! Poetry Month began in April, we attended our annual library conference in Austin Texas, and we hosted a "book tasting" in the library for our teachers and staff. So lots to talk about!

After the Easter holiday our school had a professional development day. As a staff we were given the opportunity to host a session for other teachers if we so desired, so the LS Library decided to host a "book tasting" along with our literacy specialist at our school. Basically what this meant was sharing many of the new books we have learned about and ordered this year, as well as sharing new knowledge that we have acquired at various trainings throughout the year. We decided to share a variety of fiction and nonfiction books and how they can easily be paired together, as well as what types of skills and activities you can do with the books. Then we demonstrated how you can use a particular book to teach a complete literacy lesson or workshop. It was pretty neat if I say so myself and we had candy in fun glasses to make it even more "tastier!" Ha! Here was our setup.

In the middle of preparing for that, we also had the opportunity to collaborate with a few of the second grade teachers and classes to complete a fun project. The second graders were learning about writing summaries so the teachers asked us to pull a variety of fun fiction books that the second graders could choose to read and write a review for. The students wrote their review for the book they chose and they also assigned the book a reward of their choice. When they were all done, the kids came to the library and using an app called, VoiceThread we helped them record their review. We then turned their recorded review into a QR code and placed the code on the front of the book as well as on a copy of the front of the book, so students, parents, and patrons, could download and listen to the reviews. It was really fun and the kids did a super job. It was a cool project I was excited to help with!

And finally poetry month! For the first week of poetry month we hit the ground running reading and writing all kinds of poetry! We decided to have a Poet-Tree in our library this year so that throughout the month kids could hang the poetry that they write or create on the tree. So far it is really blooming with poetry!

With our younger students (Pre-k, Kinder, and Primer) we read and wrote sensory poems. We started off learning and reviewing what our five senses were. We then discussed that when poets write poetry often times they are using all five of their senses to describe what they are hearing, smelling, seeing, touching, and tasting. We read a few sample sensory poems, and then the kids tried their hand at writing one. With Pre-k we did one all together. I had set out a variety of different objects and the kids chose one to write about using as many words as they could to describe each sense. Their paper looked something like this (this is just an example) but it had all five senses on it (and not hearing twice!)

Kinder students studying their objects and writing about them using their senses.

Doodle Dandies: Poems that Take Shape by J. Patrick Lewis

Shared with: First and Second Grade

Skills: Shape Poetry

With first and second grade, we learned about shape poetry. Shape poetry has many other names such as concrete poetry and theme poetry. We read a few sample poems from this book and discussed what the author had to do to create poems like this. Then the kids tried writing their own. We gave the kids a variety of different shapes to choose from and after choosing a shape, they could write down words that described that shape or write a poem about it.

With the third and fourth grade classes we learned about a type of poetry called, "Blackout Poetry." "Blackout poetry” is poetry made by redacting the words in a text with a permanent marker, leaving behind only a few choice words to make a poem." Together we watched a Prezi that I found that explained the process of creating this type of poetry and we then handed out a variety of copies of pages from various books or newspapers for the kids to create their own poem. The kids came up with some really cool ones. Below are just a few samples of poems that I found online, but this is what the final product looks like to give you a better picture.

A third grader creating her Blackout Poem.

Finally in the midst of poetry month I, along with some of the other librarians at my school, attended TLA, our annual Texas library conference. This year it was held in Austin and we had a great time! It is a perfect opportunity to meet authors, connect with other librarians, attend a variety of sessions on various topics, learn new things, and see new books and products! On one of these days we were there Christine and I were walking around the exhibits and we ran into Tom Angleberger, author of the Origami Yoda series and more! Christine got an autograph and I snapped a picture of them!

We also stopped by this booth....Somedays I do feel like I am Wonder Woman even if I don't look like her! Ha!

But I have to say my favorite part of the conference was The Texas Bluebonnet Luncheon that Christine and I attended. The luncheon is a ticketed event that you have to sign up for in advance, but they serve you a great lunch and you get to hear from the author and illustrator of the winning Bluebonnet book. This year, The Day the Crayons Quit won so the author, Drew Daywalt was there and so was the illustrator, Oliver Jeffers. They both gave amazing and hilarious speeches and it was just great fun! I also love this luncheon because librarians around Texas who participate in the Bluebonnet program are eligible to nominate a student at their school to be a part of the luncheon. If their student gets chosen then they get to come to the conference luncheon and introduce and represent the district they are from. They also get to meet the author and illustrator of the winning book! Some of the kids get to even introduce the author which is a neat honor. I am going to enter one of our kiddos next year I think!You never know! They might just get chosen!