All posts in Leslie Reese

“Winter Fun Stuff”

Our 2nd sessions this year coincided with International Assembly Day at Swift! So many students were participating in cultural performances including dances, songs, and fashion presentations. There was a lot going on, but we […]

“I give the thoughts that speak through my heart”

I was pleased to be invited to return to Swift as a poet in residence, again – this is year five! For our first session of this school year’s residency, it was all about […]

How Would YOU Write a Poem?

For our 10th and final session – which took place the week before school let out for the winter holidays – Twain 3rd graders brainstormed what is needed to write a poem. As students […]

Older Generation Poems

For our second-to-last session, Twain 3rd graders thought about their older generation of grandparents, aunts, and uncles. We read “My Grandmother” by Pela Chacon and “Abuelito Who” by Sandra Cisneros – both poems in […]

More Instructions

Some students in Mr. Adenuga’s class were still interested in creating poems that give instructions for how to do things….and so we continued. Notice how one student chose a straight forward approach, while others […]

3rd Graders Get Colorful

Instead of writing new poems for our 6th sessions, Twain 3rd graders had a day of review and sharing. They practiced reading their poems aloud for their classmates, as well as offering and receiving […]

Stirring and Whisking Non-traditonal Recipes

Last week 4th graders in Mr. Adenuga’s class talked about food and cooking traditional and non-traditional recipes. They shared that they knew how to make breakfast, spaghetti, fried chicken, burgers, baked beans, and grilled […]

“A poem that runs out of ideas”

For our 4th poetry session, students thought about different kinds of dreams and wrote Dream Poems. For our 5th session, we began with a game of rhymes, before talking about coming up with crazy […]

“A World Made For Us”

For our 6th sessions, Twain 3rd Graders imagined the kind of world we would live in if they were in charge. I shared my poem, “Life is For Us and It Shines,” which is […]

“I Am Black”

After getting off to a rocky start for our 3rd and 4th sessions, 4th graders in Mr. Adenuga’s class began to open-up to poetry. This week I shared Kwame Alexander’s book, How to Write […]

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I’M FROM THE CITY LIGHTS / STREAMING OUT IN THE NIGHT / AND HUGE SKYSCRAPERS / TOWERING OVER THE LAKE – MELISSA E., 7TH GRADE POET