Poetry Celebration

Every April we have a Poetry Celebration. The kids dress up and parents are invited to come hear their child's original poems and enjoy finger sandwiches (the kids get a kick out of making those). What I loved about doing the activity is seeing how much the kids have grown in their writing since last time we did a class book at Thanksgiving. That's one of the things I just adore about teaching Kinder-they grow so much while they are with you. As much patience as it takes to teach writing at this stage, it feels like you actually did make a difference! Here are their poems; they could write about any topic they wanted to (when I cropped their names out, I cut off some of the last sentences):

I wish the sun is not so hot.

My friend and I talk. We write. We sing. We fight. Everyone should have a best friend.

I love this one because we read Langston Hughes "Life Ain't Been No Crystal Stair"-and she remembered that! "I want crystal stairs because they are magical. I feel like I belong. I dream about a life with crystal stairs".

Little Star. The star shines in the sky like a firefly. It is sad because it can't get away from the wind. So it just went away.

A Rhino. He ran in the castle and stole the crown. The queen sent him to jail. I feel bad.

The Life of a Rug - When you are a rug you get dirty. People stop and shake me. It's a mad life.

Ruby is my dog by the way. Do you think I might talk about her too much in class?

Flower, Flower. There was a flower bloom and one day a girl saw it. So she love her too much and keeped it, she keeped it.

My black shoes were clean but then I stepped in red rocks. My shoes were red. My mom got mad--very mad.

The spring day flashing, every day is ordinary but not spring. That is when kids have fun and run, run, run. (Doesn't that sound like a real poem--I was very impressed!)

My Mom. Her food smells good. She is beautiful. I wish she had lots of dresses.

My Granny-she is extraordinary because she takes care of me. I feel happy about her. (Not much would top being called extraordinary by your grandchild! :)

The World-it helps you survive. It gives us healthy stuff. I feel amazed.

My bike is blue and orange. My bike makes a screechy sound. It makes me happy.

The star is shiny because the light up in the sky. You can see lot of stars there are a lot you can see.

I love my chicken. I try to catch my chicken but it ran away because it doesn't like me. But she goes home to lay eggs. (A little stream-of-consciousness-but we do say poems have no rules! :)

The Rainforest. A lot of animals. Cool birds. Flowery plants. Scary scorpions. Silly monkeys. It makes me happy.