Greetings Galileo poetry friends and followers! After reading “Hairs”—a section from Sandra Cisneros’s book, The House on Mango Street—we discussed, is this a poem? Some students said no, because the text is written in paragraph format and follows conventions of sentences and punctuation. Other students said yes, this is a poem, because the language describing different family members’ hair styles is very creative and expressive. The conversation expanded our ideas about what makes something poem-like.
Because of an unusual schedule during a morning of testing, each group worked on slightly different writing tasks this week. Group 1 continued with our theme of celebrating family members by creating very short poems, choosing each word carefully. Group 2 worked on revising an already-written poem by making changes to stanzas, line breaks, or word choice. What do you think is poem-like about this week’s published poems?
Mrs. Van
4th Grade, Group 1
My Sister
Samuel L.
smart strong fun funny
kind when I see her
she reminds me of my tia.
My Sister
Christian R.
sweet
kind
helps with homework
smart
Brother
Isabella T.
Kind
like a flower
Tall like a giraffe
helpful sweet
Mrs. Van
4th Grade, Group 2
Adventurous Self
Xyala W.
A geologist/always who I
wanted to be like it/or not
Adventurous looking at the world
left & right/trying to figure out/
is that who I really want to be/
I could explore the world/
read books/I could be an
explorer, geologist, doctor
All things I dream
about having one day
I will go into the dark &
light.
Just only me!
Giyah W.
Dark hair, rose pink glasses
pink big bike, big bedroom, nerdy collector
Anime-nerd, she, not he
Master drawer, manga maker
Not super anti-social, just a little
Dresses like a tom-boy, likes anime sweaters
There’s way more, do you want to know?
Grandpa
Dahlia Z.
you’re sweet and kind
you have a wonderful mind…
inspiration, motivation,
trust without a conversation…
I love you too.
My Dad
Mateo R.
My dad is a good cook
He’s expressive with his recipes
He can make me laugh
with a tickle or a story
He is very thoughtful
and caring
Helps with work
and projects
And the final thing
I have to say
is that… he’s just great!
