We had our concluding classes of the 2nd grade residencies this week. First, we read Bill Yarrow‘s poem, “Laundry List.” Many students initially focused on its playful final line—“Do the left thing”—and interpreted it as a funny poem. I agreed, but asked if it was serious as well? For example, we talked about what “Water all the flowers in the graveyard” or “Give God two weeks’ notice” might mean. The most popular line was definitely “Squeegee the walls of the shower of your mind,” since many students could identify with the idea of clearing your head or getting rid of bad thoughts. It was a terrific poem to end our time together with!
Instead of having everyone write individually in response, I said we were going to create a class poem where everyone finished the line, “Poetry is…” The resulting efforts are below.
Thanks to the teachers and students for making the past ten weeks so incredible!
Mrs. Haddad, 2nd Grade
Poetry Is…
Poetry is cool because you can imagine things.
Poetry is 1,600 fun!
Poetry is having a smiling puppy in your lap.
Poetry is 1,000 fireflies in your heart.
Poetry is 1,000 turtles in a blue sea.
Poetry is a butterfly with one wing.
Poetry is like sea toy turtles swimming in blue yarn.
Poetry is emotional for people, it could mean death or worse.
Poetry is 1,000 cupcakes.
Poetry is fun, poetry is cool, poetry is like being at the pool.
Poetry is a picture of Texas, New York, and Florida.
Poetry is like making a cake.
Poetry is the devil’s fire but love and peace at the end.
Poetry is fun and endless and friendship and nature and animals and magic.
Poetry is thousands of butterflies flying through the air; when they’re flying they’re being read by an eye of the air.
Poetry is my mom’s cookies.
Poetry is like your brain that you’re facing, it’s endless.
Poetry is nice to write.
Poetry is creative.
Poetry is Shakespeare.
Poetry is awesome!!!!!!!!!
Poetry is like an art in my brain.
Poetry is like the whole wide world inside of a big bucket of talent so everybody has talent in the world.
Mrs. Ward, 2nd Grade
Poetry Is…
Poetry is 1,000 ninjas.
Poetry is beyond the stars.
Poetry is the best thing ever.
Poetry is the best, and cool.
Poetry is a bunch of bananas eating monkeys.
Poetry is candy canes.
Poetry is 50,000 narwhals poking at gold.
Poetry is like ice cream in my heart.
Poetry is superheroes saving the world.
Poetry is like a shoe.
Poetry is a rollercoaster and it took me on a ride.
Poetry is like a ballerina doing the Swan Lake.
Poetry is like Krystian staring me in the face.
Poetry is as great as 1,000,000 whales surfing in the sea.
Poetry is 3,000 monkeys dancing on trees with bananas in their faces.
Poetry is ice cream wonderful.
Poetry is cool as the Chicago Cubs.
Poetry is like 1,000,000 monkeys laying eggs on the moon.
Poetry is so, so, so creative.
Poetry is life.
Poetry makes me go downstairs and eat pie.
Poetry is pink, fluffy unicorns dancing on rainbows.
Poetry is original.
Poetry is pretty party people.
Poetry is puppies flying in the air.
Poetry is amazing.
Poetry is if you have one then you can’t have two without poetry.
Poetry is 1,000,000 pink, fluffy unicorns dancing on rainbows with stars that shoot out licorice.
Poetry is Harry Potter.
Poetry is awesome.
Poetry is 1,000 people jumping on the moon.
Poetry is—I cannot think of something.
Mrs. Daigle, 2nd Grade
Poetry Is…
Poetry is fun.
Poetry is the air in a basketball.
Poetry is like hugging a cat on the way to the moon.
Poetry is like hugging a puppy every day.
Poetry is Odell Beckham, Jr. catching a ball.
Poetry is when Michael Jordan shoots the ball.
Poetry is amazing!
Poetry is everything.
Poetry is awesome.
Poetry is the best.
Poetry is like holding fluffy puppies.
Poetry is really fun and each night I would hug my dog for it.
Poetry is ultimate pie.
Poetry is going to the moon and dancing.
Poetry is as fun as me reading a lot of books.
Poetry is fun like sitting out in the sun.
Poetry is sometimes confusing.
Poetry is amazing!
Poetry is very fun.
Poetry can teach you how to write and it can teach you how to do stuff without writing a whole sentence.
Poetry is fun—I love poetry!
Poetry is fun and exciting and you get to write.
Poetry is tough, poetry is rough, and there is such thing as poetry is fun.
Poetry is awesome, you get to learn new things, it helps you with our reading and writing skills, it has rhyming.
Poetry is great.
Poetry is fun, and it’s fun to learn about poetry.
Poetry is fun.
Poetry is like being on the beach.
Ms. O’Connor, 2nd Grade
Poetry Is…
Poetry is fun.
Poetry is like things that are fun and creative.
Poetry is like flying with Y-wings.
Poetry is putting creative words together.
Poetry is like a dream on a cloud.
Poetry is exciting, fun, and entertaining.
Poetry is like getting a hat trick in hockey.
Poetry is as fun as going on an ice roller coaster with a penguin in Antarctica.
Poetry is like watching with little chicks as they grow.
Poetry is the school’s goldfish.
Poetry is like Superman flying in the sky.
Poetry is writing, I can do whatever I want—big letters, small letters, no punctuation, any style, and fun and exciting.
Poetry is interesting.
Poetry is like flying with a mallard duck with a shark under it.
Poetry is like riding on a shark.
Poetry is like being the star of a show.
Poetry is like flying with the stars in the sky.
Poetry is the best class I have ever had!
Poetry makes me feel good.
Poetry is weird.
Poetry makes me excited about what I’m writing.
Poetry is like sailing on a blue, calm sea.
Poetry is like a little adventure.
Poetry is weird, because the poems don’t make sense.
Poetry is confusing, because there’s a bunch of weird stuff in it.
Poetry is weird because, I dunno.
Poetry is fun because I get to experience the life of writing.
Poetry is mysterious.
Poetry is easy to understand.
Poetry is all about weird A’s.
