| The following poems are the result of an exercise in which the children were asked to write on one of the following themes: 1.) An early humiliation Initially, they had to think of at least one idea to fill each category. If they had more than one, that was fine. They were then to look over their list and choose one on which to develop their poem. Once the choice was made, the children created a list of words and/or images that came to mind surrounding their chosen topic. It could be one word or sentences, anything that would trigger their memory of the incident. The more extensive the list, the more the child will have to work with later on. I encouraged them to write down everything that popped into their heads; they could always choose to discard ideas in the actual construction of the poem. After the students compiled their lists, we had a guided discussion in which we wrote a poem as a class using the methods they would be employing independently. We discussed different ways of constructing poetry. I encouraged the children to use a more narrative/free verse form, but the ultimate decision was theirs to make. They had been studying different poetic styles all year, such as quatrain, cinquain, Haiku, sonnets, etc., so they had a working knowledge of the choices that were available to them. Experimentation can be part of the fun! |
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The following are poems selected by the children in the third grade at Bradford Elementary School. These poems are a sample of the many forms of poetry that were studied and written during the spring term of 1998. Some of them are a result of the memory exercise described on the previous "Kid’s Poetry" page. Others are favorites selected from different lessons on a variety of poetic forms, such as acrostics, cinquains, diamantés, frames, and lyric poems. |