All posts in Shoesmith

5th & 6th graders use their thought machines

I’m excited to be back at Shoesmith Elementary to teach poetry to 5th & 6th graders. It was great to see familiar faces but also meet some students who were new to writing poetry. […]

Open Mic Celebration with 5th & 6th graders

This week not only marks our 20th session of poetry but the end of the school the year and residency as well. To celebrate their hard work and creativity Shoesmith 5th and 6th graders […]

Happy Summer Shoesmith 4th graders!

For our final session, Shoesmith 4h Graders had a great day of sharing! Students selected favorite poems that they have written over the school year and read them aloud in class. Before I left, […]

Words that 5th and 6th graders love

For their 19th week of poetry Shoesmith 5th and 6th graders explored different types of words. Words are powerful, they help us express our thoughts, feelings, and tell stories. But words can also be […]

Memories

For our last workshop in the month of May, I wanted to introduce Shoesmith 4th graders to the 5th/6th grade poet-in-residence, Joy Young. We read Joy Young’s poem, “3rd Grade Field Trip to the […]

Where does the stuff of dreams go?

“Where does the stuff of dreams go?” is a line from a poem by Pablo Neruda that 4th graders answered in a collaborative poem a few weeks ago. After identifying personification as the quality […]

5th and 6th graders race towards the finish line

We are getting closer to the end of our poetry residency. For their eighteenth week 5th and 6th graders had another rewrite session. To aid us in editing we looked at the poem “The […]

5th and 6th graders speak out for social justice

For their seventeenth week of poetry 5th and 6th graders explored social justice poetry. Social justice poetry reflects on the issues of discrimination and inequality in society. Students discussed major issues in today’s world, […]

How to Write a Recipe Poem

Last week Shoesmith 4th grade discussed ingredients, instructions, and actions for things that they know how to do well, and foods they know how to prepare. We read and discussed a poem by Shoesmith […]

Spoken word poetry with 5th and 6th graders

For their sixteenth week of poetry Shoesmith 5th and 6th graders explored Spoken Word poetry. Spoken Word poems are made for the stage, its storytelling told through elements of rhythm, rhyme, repetition, improvisation, jazz, […]

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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