As you may know, April is National Poetry month. Throughout April, students in fourth grade immersed themselves in all things poetry. They kicked it off with a workshop with the poet, Andrew Greene, who shared his work and modeled strategies for writing poems. The students were inspired, and they launched a poetry writing challenge with the end goal of submitting poems to possibly be published on Mr. Greene's Potato Hill Poetry website.
From there, they read lots of poetry. They appreciated the works of Silverstein, Prelutsky, Frost, Hughes, and an entire range of other poets . They wrote haiku, diamante, cinquain, and free verse-lots of free verse. They wrote poems about brothers and sisters, pillow fights and spooky nights. They wrote about waterfalls, rainbows, puppies, and snow leopards. They wrote poems about spring, summer, winter and fall. Some students even wrote about their pencils and feet. To say that poetry was in the air is an understatement. The students were truly inspired to write by everything around them.
Toward the end of the month, they had more guest poets visit to share some of their favorite poems and help the children with the revision process. After publishing his or her favorite poem, each student submitted it to the Potato Hill Poetry contest. After nearly a month of waiting, Andrew Greene contacted Ms. Kasmarcik last week to let her know that one of our own poets will indeed be published! Matthew McKenna's "Math Folder" will be available for reading on the Potato Hill Poetry website (http://www.potatohill.com) in the next few weeks.
Of course we are proud of Matthew's accomplishment. However, it must be emphasized how impressed we are with how each budding poet bloomed this spring.
