This week we read Looking Around, Believing by Gary Soto. We discussed what Soto means by the first line in the poem, "How strange that we can begin at any time," deciding that it is possible to change our lives and see new things simply by leaving the familiar behind. Everyone felt that this was a great poem for Spring, since it appeals to so many of our senses and also describes a feeling of newness and awakening. As the poet walks through his neighborhood, he notices a child, "singing through a rolled newspaper," and that image inspired our last poetry idea. Students were put into groups. Each group was given a section from the New York Times—Travel, Sports or Business—and had five minutes to cut out interesting words or phrases. Then, as a group the students decided which words they would use to create their own newspaper poems.

Leanna
Eli
Nina
Chris
Cathlyn
Alvin

Vicky
Riya
Yasmin
Xavier
Andres
Natalie

Joseph
Rynia
John
Kate
Jazmin

Vincente
Abdullah
Samantha
Ihsan
Vanessa
Adam

Mr. Sandlass, 4th Grade

Daniel
Griffin
Abel
David
Alex
Eric

Allison
Anton
Andrena
Aleena
Jacob
Andrew

Nicole
Jerry
Devlin
Maya
Jericho

Mrs. Goode, 5th Grade

Jorge
Minh
Matthew
Danyel
Yara
Kayla
Trizia

Klea
Milad
Diana
George
Phuong
Sammy

Sherine
Calvin
Elijah
Stephen
Kaelin
Vivian

Danyel
Anastasia
Isis
Momo
Sargon
Waleed
Jimmy