All posts in Shoesmith

4th grade Syllable Math!

As remote and hybrid learning continues, Shoesmith 4th graders [and their teachers!] have been practicing resilience. With each poetry session students return stronger than ever to express their ideas and concerns, finding new ways […]

Golden Shovels @ Shoesmith 5th & 6th Grade

For their seventeenth virtual lesson, Shoesmith 5th and 6th grade students dug up new poetry using golden shovels. A Golden Shovel is a poetic form that takes a word from each line of an […]

Defeating Writer’s Block @ Shoesmith 5th & 6th Grade

For their sixteenth virtual lesson Shoesmith 5th and 6th graders explored the meaning of writer’s block. Writer’s block occurs when a writer feels stuck, overwhelmed, and has trouble writing anything new. Students were asked […]

Origin Myths @ Shoesmith 5th & 6th Grade

For their fifteenth virtual lesson Shoesmith 5th and 6th graders explored myths. A myth is an ancient story or legend explaining the early history of a group of people or about a natural phenomenon. […]

Laments of Loss @ Shoesmith 5th & 6th Grade

For their fourteenth virtual lesson Shoesmith 5th and 6th graders explored ideas about loss through laments. A Lament is a poem that expresses strong feelings of sorrow, grief, and regret usual about someone who […]

Mini Cookbook of 4th Grade Recipes

What is your recipe for courage? What is your recipe for being lazy? Shoesmith 4th graders were thoughtful about these things before, during, and after reading “Recipe for Courage”by Marilyn Singer, and “Recipe for […]

Poets Become Artists @ Shoesmith 5th & 6th Grade

For our thirteenth virtual lesson Shoesmith 5th and 6th graders became artists. We explored Ekphrastic poetry, poems inspired by famous works of art. Together students read the poem “River Song,” by Warren Woessner, which […]

Humorous Hyperboles @ Shoesmith 5th & 6th Grade

For their twelfth virtual lesson Shoesmith 5th and 6th graders learned to laugh at themselves. Together we read and discussed the poem, “I Finished My Homework,” by children’s poet Kenn Nesbitt. In poem the […]

4th Graders Imagine Worlds of Words

For our 10 and 11th sessions of exploring poetry together, Shoesmith 4th graders were asked to consider their feelings about reading and writing. We contemplated artwork by Tom Feelings that features images of young […]

Mic Check @ Shoesmith 5th and 6th Grade

For their eleventh virtual poetry lesson Shoesmith 5th and 6th graders revisited some of their old poems they wrote since the beginning of our residency. Our lesson objective was to revise and edit poems […]

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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