Blackout Poetry in honor of National Poetry Month

         There are those activities that you start with your students that seem like such a great idea and then you try and they don't go as well. Then there are activities that you think - this might be over their heads but let's try anyway only to be blown away from the outcome.  This activity fits in the last category. I saw a great idea on Twitter called Blackout Poetry and had to try it. The premise is for students to take a page of a weeded book and then black out the words that they don't want to use for the poem.  The words not blacked out make the poem.
           Today's group did such a great job and you could really see the critical thinking that the students used for this activity. They were working on blacking out the words and kept going back and forth between what to use and what not to use and explaining their reasoning to each other. Then when we got to the end they needed a title. So one of the students looked at the words and said them out loud slowly: "stiff, look into her eyes, standing still". Then he had an "aha" moment and screamed, "MEDUSA! You turn stiff when you look at her."  It was a great moment of students analyzing their work and making connections to prior knowledge. Here is their poem and an image of the page that they use to create it.

MEDUSA

Each one was standing alone,
looking stiff and angry, 
he had to pass them on the way.
"TRAITOR!" 
He had to pass, 
didn't say anything. 
Just turned his head the other way.
They had the nerve to look at 
her in the eyes.

To read more check out our padlet: http://padlet.com/amitchell/poetrywall

More Poems to celebrate National Poetry Month and NCCBA

Third graders composed this poem after reading "Gravity" by Jason Chin.

Gravity

Gravity, Gravity

Gravity Saves the Day

If we didn't have Gravity

Everything would Float Away.

The moon and sun would float, float away.

Thank God we have Gravity!

-Logan

-Harlee

-Bryson

-Edwin

Third grade poem inspired by "Who said Women Can't be Doctors" by Tanya Lee Stone

Women Doctors

Twenty-eight Nos

Twenty-nine Tries

One Yes!

Graduated 1849

Proved Them Wrong

First Woman Doctor

-Savanna

-Lauren

-Arianna

Celebrating Poetry Month with our North Carolina Children's Book Award Nominees

This month I decided to revisit a lesson with 1st grade that I did with Kindergarten using the book Blue on Blue by Dianne White. I shared the book and then gave each partner a letter. The partners had to come up with a word that started with that letter that went with the book. Here is the poem that today's first graders came up with. It is entitled, "Rainy Day."

Rainy Day

Loud, Noisy Thunder!

Drop, Drop, Drop,

Rain hits umbrella,

Wet mud forms! 

Sun come out,

Mud Dries Up!

                                    - 1st Grade Class

Stormy Day

Rain Thunder & Lightning
Mud, Mud, Mud!
Umbrella keeps us dry!
Sunny Weather comes
Then beautiful night!

                                   -1st Grade Class

With third grade I put them in groups and let them read the books in groups. They then had to write a poem that went with the book. Here is a poem created to go with "The Cart That Carried Martin" by Eve Bunting.

Martin's Funeral

Martin's Funeral,

Sad, Sad, Sad!

Cart Pulled by Mules,

Cry, Cry, Cry!

But . . .

Hope and Freedom Still Lives!

                                    - Third Grade Class

This Orq

Cave boy
Has friend Woma,
Mama says, "No Woma!"
Woma makes a mess!
Woma saves Orq!

Mama loves Woma!

                                     -Third Grade Class

I will be adding more as the week goes on. 

Women's History Month in the Media Center

        What an exciting month it has been in our media center. We are celebrating Women's History Month by researching and reading about famous women.  Every grade level has participated in creating some type of artifact or project for our Women's History Museum.

Kindergarten and 2nd graders have listened to stories about famous women and then built a scene from the book using Legos. Kindergartners then recorded themselves telling about the project while 2nd graders wrote about why the built their design.

 

First grade students listened to stories about famous women and then filled their silhouettes up with character trait words. (See pictures above.)

3rd graders created a Google Slide presentation or a riddle about their famous women.

          

 . 

4th graders talked about how sometimes when you tour a museum you don’t learn from just looking; you have to interact with it. They created “Scavenger Hunt” type questions using Google Forms, in order for you to be interactive with our museum. Here are two examples. 

http://goo.gl/forms/DQP8drMLQn

http://goo.gl/forms/rdHmnYgqgg

5th graders researched a famous woman and then created an artifact for the museum about that woman. 

 

The students have learned a lot through this process and really love seeing their work on display.  

STEM meets Dr. Seuss

 While I have some of these on my last post the students did such a great job I needed to create a new post just to share them all.

 Fourth graders took part in a STEM challenge after I read Ten Apples on Top. I gave each group a bag of building supplies (sugar cubes, Popsicle sticks, pipe cleaners, and straws) to build something that will hold at least one apple.  The first day all I gave them was the items in the bag. Here are some of the structures that they created.
 

                                 

Day 2 - Day 4 I changed the plans a little and they could ask for one more item to use to build their structure. Here are some of the results. 

The groups with Popsicle sticks asked for tape. For this groups I told them that they had to think outside the box and couldn't just use the sticks to build a house like base. The moans soon turned to excitement as they worked on each design. 

    

The groups with straws asked for tape also. The students were engaged and focused as they collaborated on how to build each structure.

All groups with pipe cleaners asked for tape, except one. They asked for note cards. While not all of the designs worked, the critical thinking and collaboration that went into each design was great.

 

With the sugar cubes the students were asked to be creative in designing the structure.

  

Quotes about this lesson:

 "Let's do this more often." - 4th grade girl

"This was the best media class ever!" - 4th grade boy

"Thank you for getting them to think critically and problem solve!" - 4th grade teacher

                                           

Read Across America 2016

I love Read Across America week. Decorating the media center is so much fun. 

Front Door

Whoville

Oh, the Places We Will Go!

Lorax and the Cat in the Hat

Oh, The Thinks You Can Think!

Opposite Door 

 I have several different activities planned for the students. Fourth graders are going to take part in a STEM challenge after I read Ten Apples on Top. I am going to give each group a bag of building supplies (sugar cubes, Popsicle sticks, pipe cleaners, and straws) to build something that will hold at least one apple.  Here are some of their structures!!

North Carolina Children's Book Nominee Blue on Blue Lesson Plan

Blue on Blue by Diane White and Beth Krommes

By: Angie Mitchell

Grade Levels: K-5 ELA Classroom or Media Center

Subjects: Reading and Writing

Read the story Blue on Blue with the students without showing the pictures. Discuss the use of rhyming and figurative language inside the poem. Have them share what they envisioned happening during the page. Then reread the poem and show the pictures. Have a class discussion on if the pictures added to the understanding of the poem.

This next part you will have to modify to go with the grade level that you are working with:

Have the students get into groups of two or three depending on class size and then give them a letter of the alphabet. They are to come up with a letter that goes along with the theme of the book – stormy and sunny days.  Once they come up with their word come back into groups and share the words on the board. With K-2 do a shared writing activity where you collaboratively work on creating a poem with the words. With 3-5 have them go back into their groups and create a poem using their words. 

Extensions:

Have a Poetry Reading Event where students share their poems with parents and classmates.

Create their own picture book centered around their poem.

Here is the poem that one of the Kindergarten classes came up with during this lesson. 

Stormy Day

Thunder, Lightening,

Wind Howling, 

Rain Pounds Down, 

Umbrellas Pop Up!

Rain Stops!

Sun Sneaks Out, 

Time for mud jumping fun!

The only letters I gave them were T, L, W, H, D, U, S, M, J, and R. 

They worked in partners to come up with the words and then we created the poem together.