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All School Poetry

Magical Place Reading Buddies Poetry Poetry Project September-October 2011

Children tucked into comfy places, snuggled inside a cluster of small hemlocks, sitting on soft moss, crouched on a piece of ledge, clipboards and pencils in hand, senses engaged—this was the scene outside as buddies worked together to begin creating poems about their Magical Places. We had a beautiful morning (finally!), enjoyed a delicious snack of roasted potatoes and let our creativity flow. The next day, we traipsed upstairs to the preschool and K-1 and worked to create pictures of the magical spots. Children worked on their poems together too.

(Please find the poems on the left.)

Writing Poems In Our Magical Places


Drawing Pictures and Polishing Our Poems

It was lovely to see how well the 4th-6th graders and their K-1 buddies worked together. Some, such as Preston, Jaiden and Brent, wrote three poems, with Preston helping the younger children, and giving them suggestions based on what he had learned about line length and word choice in the older class. Others, such as Robbie, Gabriella and Samantha, wrote a single poem that combined ideas from all three of them, with Robbie as scribe.

(Please find the poems on the left.)

Poetry Readings

After the successful poetry writing sessions, the older children teamed up with their younger reading buddies for several whole-school poetry reading sessions. Each child read his or her poem to the rest of the school, with the older children reading on behalf of their younger reading buddies, when necessary. In the class we discussed what good reading aloud involves, and it was a pleasure to see how carefully the children approached the whole event. It was a real community celebration of poetry.

(Please find the poems on the left.)

(Please find the poems on the left.)