Poetry month

Well, here we are wrapping up our poetry theme already! It seems like March has just flown by. Instead of choosing a particular poet or poem form on which to concentrate this month, the children and I have been exploring a variety of poetry ranging from "Jabberwocky" and its made-up words, to Middle English and its half-familiar words, to limericks and haiku. The children have been writing their own short poems—quatrains, limericks, haiku, and styles of their own choosing—and we'll be compiling the poems written by our class into a booklet for the children to take home.

Yesterday, we took a short walk through the County Farm Park to search for signs of spring. The season certainly isn't in its full bloom, yet, but the children spotted mud and grass, and even some more human signs of the season such as cyclists and the ash from a controlled burn in the park last week. Some of the seasonal haiku that the kids were writing today were especially beautiful, and gave me the chills when I read them. We're all waiting for warmer weather and flowers, but in the meantime, we're happy to see the sun.

We've also been on a few visits to Ann Arbor preschools, to share the Summers-Knoll poems "Salmon of the Sun" and "Moon Wolf" with the little ones. My students have loved the experience, I know, and the preschoolers were very excited to see such big, grown-up kids!