In my world, there’s hardly anything better than a good school visit.
I get such a charge out of spending a morning with a bunch of 4th graders.
The voices, both eager and shy, are still (mostly) unselfconsciously unique.
Which is a beautiful thing.
Today, I facilitated writing workshops for two groups of kids and the gleaming moments were many…
The spontaneous hug from a girl named Jenna…
The line, "Fire outraged my head when I was born"…
The hands raised, over and over again, to read aloud…
We talked a bit about breaking rules, about joy and impulse, about the fact that some kids don’t like to write.
Some think it’s boring.
Others think it’s hard.
Many find it scary.
And who am I to tell them differently?
I mean, really.
It IS scary.
That said, there’s fun to be had and under the guidance of William Carlos Williams who said, "Anything is fit material for poetry," we wrote ourselves a collaborative poem full of outrageous untruths. AKA, lies. I think you might like it.
The Lie Poem
By the students of Baranoff Elementary
The ocean is home to the great possum.
The world has ten sides and my dog is blue.
Brussel sprouts were never meant to be eaten.
Birds can’t fly.
There is an ice cube in the sun.
The sun is so cold if you touch it, you will turn into an ice cube!
There is a planet where the sun is nothing but a big ball of ice.
I grew up on Neptune; the plants there are wet and water is dry.
I was king of Neptune.
My teacher was born on Mars.
I was born in a stuffed animal!
I can walk on space for the whole universe world.
I danced into a volcano.
I didn’t break it; he did it, he did it!
People are smaller than ants.
I could actually pick up the world —
I could walk on water!
You can never die blue.
Oh that’s a great one! I love group poems.
We tried one yesteday without as much success. I tried getting them to think outside the box but they were totally focused on getting the facts straight. I’ll keep trying.
Love “I danced ito a volcano.”
I know — I love that line, too.
You are moving mountains, Susan. Keep on keeping on…
love the lie poem
Mom went YAY when she heard that brussel sprouts should never be eaten. But then she realized that it was a lie poem. She said that because she HATES them and I love them! I also want to know if you Finlay Willa or Kurk like them?
Love,
Mary Tanouye
Re: love the lie poem
Finlay and I LOVE them if they’re sauteed with garlic!!! How do you like them cooked, Mary? I’m sure your mom will be happy to cook some for you tomorrow!
Re: love the lie poem
I love them sauteed too! My mom won’t make them tonight or tomrrow. But she is going to make them for my birthday dinner!She also is going to make chicken with bread crumbs and mashed potatoes. Say hi to Finlay and Willa.
Love,
Mary ^_^
That’s awesome!
Hi Liz,
I love the lie poem. Reading your post reminded me of writing songs with my classes. I can’t wait to see what my fourth graders come up with this year as it’ll be the third year in a row that we’ve done the collaborative language arts and music lesson.
Thanks for sharing it,
Alisha
Re: That’s awesome!
FUN! Share some results!
What a nice post. I hope I get to the point where I love school visits. Right now, I’m terrified of them. Especially if I have to do big groups. (One school asked me to talk to seventy first graders at once, but I convinced them to split it up.)
Yes — waaaaaay more fun if you’ve got smaller groups. When there are that many kids, it’s really more presenting than interacting, which isn’t nearly as much fun…
That was a great activity to get the kids writing. I can see it now, some kids shooting their hands up to recite the next line while others just shout them out.
That poem rocks, but I still can’t get past “Fire outraged my head when I was born”…Whoa.
What an honor it must be to collaborate with them….
Jules
7-Imp
Great activity, Liz! I love the way you’ve structured this so everybody who wants to can participate, and it doesn’t all have to flow or have logic, though it does in serendipitous ways!