In the Hawaiian language, aloha can mean hello or goodbye; it also means love or affection. Today we had the last poetry classes of this year’s residency. It’s never easy to reach the conclusion, but it has truly been an amazing 20 (!) weeks of poetry at Skinner West! I want to thank all the teachers for welcoming me into their classrooms, and of course the students too for being such marvelous, smart, and zealous young poets.
In honor of our final day, we celebrated by writing collaborative poems. I asked the students to brainstorm about what poetry means to them, what it makes them think of, or how it makes them feel, and each contributed their own line. Check out these incredible results!
Poetry Is, by Room 124
Ms. Thiel, 2nd Grade
Poetry is like playing computer games.
Poetry is like laying on clouds.
Poetry is like a word planet.
Poetry is like a cool spider that has a word that said poetry is cool on his back.
Poetry is an explosion of words in my brain.
Poetry is fun.
Poetry is an excitement explosion in my brain.
Poetry is a creative way to express your feelings.
Poetry is like butterflies carrying me to a rainbow with a pot of gold.
Poetry is creative.
Poetry is greater than 500 bucks.
Poetry is more than 10000000000000000000000000000000 gems.
Poetry is sooo cool better than 1 million thousand dollars.
Poetry is like a writing workshop and it feels like I am an author.
Poetry is like a million flowers making a pretty perfume for the world.
Poetry is amazing!
Poetry is blank.
Poetry is calm.
Poetry is cool.
Poetry is the meaning of life.
Poetry is next generation, like a new Puck in poetry.
Poetry is a piece of imagination.
Poetry is like me flying in the air with birds.
Poetry is a piece of imagination and art.
Poetry Is, by Room 123
Ms. Ward, 2nd Grade
Poetry is an exploding mind.
Poetry is an explosion of happiness.
Water brings poetry to you.
12,000 years later I found out what it was.
Poetry is amazing.
Poetry is imaginative to me.
Poetry is outstanding.
I love poetry.
When I write poetry, it makes me feel proud.
Poetry is enjoyful in my heart, it understands me great.
Poetry is cool and awesomesauce.
Poetry is awesome to have you here in school, today you are my favorite.
Poetry is mind-blowing.
Poetry is built with fun.
Poetry is from your heart.
I don’t know what I will do without poetry.
Poetry makes me feel nice.
Poetry is my electronic favorite.
Poetry is the best.
Poetry is with lakes and oceans, seas too, well those are all blue.
I always look forward to poetry.
Poetry makes me feel active.
Poetry makes me feel free.
Poetry is like a soft creative breeze in the meadow.
Poetry is awesome.
Poetry makes me feel like a writer.
It feels like apples popping in my head.
Poetry is like I’m on a rollercoaster.
Poetry is amazing.
Poetry is interesting.
Poetry Is, by Room 217
Ms. O’Connor, 2nd Grade
Poetry makes me wonder.
Poetry is like nothing else but the same as many things.
Poetry to me is worth all the world’s diamonds.
Poetry is like riding a rainbow.
Poetry can be a rhyming riddle of a story driven by emotion.
Poetry is like a perfect invention.
Poetry is a lot of fun, it can be done by anyone, try it out before you know you’ll be another fantastic poet.
You should be grateful for poetry.
Poetry is like knowledge, and knowledge is power.
Poetry is like singing a song about joy.
Poetry makes me feel ready to play.
Poetry is a wonderful source.
Poetry is an infinite number of faces, words, happy or sad.
Let your poetry shine, don’t be shy.
You can’t sell poetry for anything.
Poetry is like 10 billion diamonds.
Poetry is like if I’ve dug up some gold that’s more valuable than anything.
Poetry is like playing basketball which I love, so I love poetry.
Poetry is worth 3 seventy bajillion zillion dollars just to get.
Poetry means that you express yourself.
Poetry is fun, quiet, not real, funny, and all of the above.
Poetry is amazing.
I feel: happy, sad, excited, silly, friendly! So these are the ways I feel like when I read poetry.
Poetry is like a whole new world full of imagination.
Poetry is great, I shall never be late for poetry.
Poetry is a machine that goes so crazy.
I think poetry is a thousand miles from sadness.
Poetry is worth 10000000000000000000000000000000 diamonds.
Poetry Is, by Room 219
Ms. Rupp, 2nd Grade
I think poetry is 1001 books filling my mind.
Poetry is a lightbulb of ima…gination!
Poetry means a god to me, I will never disobey it.
Poetry is like a dove carrying a million suns lighting up my mind.
Poetry is really fun, you can have a poetry run.
Poetry is great!
Why! Why. The world is ending. No more poetry.
Poetry is like the best subject ever.
Poetry is fun.
Because I made this poem for you!
Poetry is poet-y!
Poetry is cool awesome bop cool da best.
Poetry means it’s summer and I’m playing in the park.
Poetry makes me feel like I can fly.
Poetry is cool.
Poetry to me: mind-blowing, extraordinary, and expressing.
Poetry is great.
Poetry is poetry.
Poetry makes my imagination light up and go wild and crazy.
Poetry is making things and it’s like a wind blowing across the sand at the beach.
Poetry has lights that shine around us as we walk into blank light.
Poetry is like a million pink roses of wonder.
Poetry forefills my heart…CAUSE IT ROCKS!
Poetry is life, without poetry you are nothing.
Poetry is like being in the clouds.
We love poetry it’s my favorite thing to do, I opened my eyes and he said boo.
Poetry is my first favorite subject.
Poetry makes me feel like a free writer.
Poetry Is, by Room 121
Ms. Schwartz, 2nd Grade
Poetry makes me think about my family.
If poetry was a living thing, I would say poetry I love you.
Shame on you, poetry haters!
Poetry rocks.
I love poetry a lot, it is very fun, I love poetry too much.
Poetry is like a rainbow.
Poetry is like summer and it’s like ice cream.
In poetry, you can do anything.
Poetry is like the sun beating down.
Poetry lives in my heart and it is my favorite subject.
Poetry is like fantasy.
Poetry is like singing in the shower.
Poetry is a millionaire.
Poetry is like sweet candy.
The class is great, so are my friends.
Poetry is as fun as the Rainforest Cafe.
Poems are everywhere.
Poetry is delicious as ice cream.
Poetry is awesome.
Poetry is the best kind of writing.
Poetry is wonderful.
Poetry, I love the poems, I want more poetry.
Poetry is like Happy New Year.
In poetry, you can be as creative as Dr. Seuss.
I love poetry.
Poetry is like angels from heaven.
Poetry is like walking on Saturn.
Poetry is like Zootopia.
Poetry is as nice as Supergirl.
Poetry is like spring leaves.
Poetry is a paragraph that has been made up and you could write lots of things.
Poetry is in my heart and soul.
