Saturday, May 7, 2016

Celebrate - Moms and Poetry!!

Today I celebrate the magical hour spent in my classroom yesterday!!

I invited all moms and grandmas to come to our Morning Meeting in my 3rd grade classroom on Friday. My mom came (and it was even her 81st birthday!). Almost all my students brought along a mom (20/22!) and three brought grandmas and one grandpa tagged along too.

I asked them to bring a poem they liked and the day before I asked each student to pick a poem that either they had written or just one they liked. Then they practice saying it to a partner 10 times!

I recalled from last May, Judith Viorst saying when she visited my classroom, that I should encourage children to memorize poetry. She said, "A poem should live inside their body." (click HERE to read about her visit last year!)

So as I awoke Friday morning, I practiced my poem 10 times, too. I wanted to be able to recite it and have it live IN me!! I had chosen my favorite - Dreams by Langston Hughes.

Then at 9am, the magic happened!! My mom, one student whose mom couldn't attend and me started. Jackson told a riddle - A man lived in a one-story house with a pink door, pink shutters, pink couch, pink, table, pink bed and pink lamp. What color were the stairs?  (answer at the bottom!!)

I recited using hand motions, Dreams and my mom read Trees by Joyce Kilmer.
Then, as a symphony share, turns were taken.
Lots of Shel Silverstein
Lots of poems written by the student reader
A piece of Shakespeare read at Elle's mom's wedding
A piece written by Paul that a mom explained helps her be a better wife and mom and friend that started with the line "Love is kind..."
Then a grandma said she didn't have a poem but she likes to sing and asked us to sing along...
   "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine..."
That's when my eyes teared up!

Magic happens when moms and kids can just stop and take time to listen to poems and share a favorite!!

I celebrate moms and poetry, celebrated yesterday during a magical Morning Meeting!



Riddle Answer - There is no stair - it is a one-story house!!

5 comments:

  1. Oh Sally! What magic. So lovely. A beautiful mother's day present. So much love of each other and poetry.

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  2. What a fun Mother's Day party.

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  3. Sally, you are such an inspiration to me! I love the wealth of knowledge and exposure that you and your students experience daily. What an AMAZING classroom community and everlasting memories and joy an hour can bring! Sally, you ROCK!
    Thanks for the 'magical ideas' that are racing through my mind, stay tuned.

    Happy Mothers Day!

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  4. I'm sorry I missed this event. Sounds like it was an impressionable moment!

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  5. I love the fun you brought to the classroom, Sally. Magic happened!

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