Poems in our Pockets

I started to begin this post with "last Thursday" until I realized it was actually the Thursday before that. Oh my - time certainly does fly.  I admit it's been a crazy couple of weeks since returning from Spring Break.  I've managed to take some pictures and video of some of the fun things we've been doing, but the time keeps slipping away from me. So...let me take you back.

Two Thursdays ago we celebrated "Poem in Your Pocket Day" as part of National Poetry Month.  Our goal was to have each of the dragons choose a poem that they could write on an index card that fit nicely into their back pockets. Poems could be short, sweet, about any topic, and come in any form.  It was so great to see the kids come in with poems in their pockets. It was an excellent experience in literacy.  Many of the kids wrote their poems, and all of them could read their poems. Still, another handful had their poems memorized - which only encouraged the remainder of the class to memorize theirs as well.  I encouraged our teachers to pull any of  the dragons aside and have them read their poems. I've never seen them so excited to share. At the end of the day we lined up to read them to the fourth and fifth grade classes. They were so encouraged and amazed by our bravery to speak publicly in front of the "big kids".

The highlight of our day was our Skype visit with Mrs. Caplin's fifth grade students in Ohio.  I met Mrs. Caplin at the NCFL 20th Annual Family Literacy Conference in Kentucky only a week before and we agreed to have our students meet via Skype.  What a great experience for the dragons to see other students also celebrating poetry. We took turns reading original poems, silly poems, and beautiful poems.  We laughed and applauded, cheered and "wowed' each others poems. We were so thankful that our fifth grade friends in Ohio had their audience (us kindergarteners) in mind when they selected their poems.  They read us poems that we could understand and enjoy.

We had such a great time. Thank you Mrs. Caplin and your students for sharing and learning with us! Here are a few quick video clips of some of our dragons practicing our poems, and a few of our fifth grade friends sharing their poems with us via Skype. Enjoy!