All posts in Waters

Haikus in Motion

The poets from Waters Elementary learned and wrote an ancient form of Japanese poetry called Haikus which follow a specific structure of three lines, with the first and last lines consisting of 5 syllables […]

Group Poems

After watching several group poems from the different Poetry Slam competitions, the poets from Waters Elementary wrote their own group pieces. This lesson focused on working together as a team and respecting each other’s […]

Fade To Black: Blackout Poetry

Blackout Poetry: A blackout poem is created when a poet takes a marker (usually a black marker) to already established text–like that from a newspaper–and starts redacting words until a poem is formed or […]

‘go in search of crocodiles’: Travel Poems

We took a look at Richard Blanco’s prose/mix/hybrid poem about missed destinations, We Are Not Going to Malta. Students were then given travel brochures exhibiting lush locales (decidedly not always depicting reality), and asked […]

‘a secret/ Recipe passed down…’: Portrait Poems

Students read Instructions to the Artist by Billy Collins before crafting their own portrait-inspired poems. Lesson Note: According to findings by the leading researcher on the power of writing and journaling for healing purposes, […]

‘I’ll start’: Star Poems

Students read Choose Something Like A Star by Robert Frost and listened to a choral arrangement of the same poem, before trying their hands at their own poems addressing something… bigger than themselves. Lesson […]

Don’t Go into the Waters!

Today we started one of the favorite lessons for middle schoolers. The fear lesson! The Poets from Waters Elementary School read and discussed “The Cremation of Sam McGee” by Robert service and “Raven” by […]

Not So Simple Similes

Today the poets from Waters Elementary School learned about the power of one of the most used literary devices in poetry; similes and metaphors. After reading “Dreams” and “Harlem” by Langston Hughes, they were […]

Let’s Rhyme!

The Poets from Waters Elementary School learned a little lesson in hip hop. One of the most used rhyme schemes in rap music are couplets. After studying the lyrics and watching the performances of […]

Making Sense

The poets from Waters Elementary School took an exercise in description and metaphors. We experience the world through our senses. The young writers wrote of an experience through describing it by only using their […]

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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