Comparison Poems

Today at JFK I introduced poetic comparisons by reading several similes and metaphors by other children I've taught. After each one, I asked how it could be true. How is an egg like an alien's face? How is glitter like a dress with yellow stars and red hearts? After they seemed to understand how two unlike things could be similar, I held up a maraca and asked them to compare it to something outside of school. They said it was like a tree, a lollipop, a skinny guy with a big head. Then I told them to write a poem with a comparison in each line. Here are some examples:

The grass is green as a frog.
The ground is brown as a turkey.
The telephone is black as black hair.
The sun is yellow as a pencil.
-Daisyah

The turkey is as big as an elephant.
The pumpkin is as round as my head.
-Tristan

The grass is green
like a lily pad.
The vegetables are
tasty as candy.
The tiara is shiny
as a king's throne.
The moon is a shiny
silver ribbon.
-Rainbow

Lie Poems

I kicked off class by announcing that I came from the moon, stood seventy-two feet tall with curly purple hair, and ate elephants for breakfast. In near-perfect unison, several kids exclaimed, "No, you don't!"

"Oh, no?" I asked. "What's it called when I say things that aren't true?" After a few tries, they came up lie, just the word I was looking for. I asked them for the biggest, fattest lie they could think of: where they came from, what they looked like, what they ate for breakfast, anything. They happily spun tall tales for me, each taller than the one before, and once the room got too loud to hear individual voices, I shouted, "Okay, you're ready! Start writing them down!" A few of the quieter children really opened up this week, trying on alter-egos and creating strange new worlds. Here are just a few student responses:

I am from Uranus. I am very hairy and the only part of my body is my face and my face is the color brown. I eat Sasquatch for breakfast.
-Elijah

I am from Russia.
I look like Spanish people with blue hair.
I will rip the book and eat paper.
I wear stinky clothes.
I will go to stinky-stink school.
I am friends with a bathroom.
I was the President of the United States.
I was boss of the world.
I will be rich. I will be mean.
I will break the competitors.
I will break the school.
I will go in a book and eat all of the books.
I will hit the teacher.
The competitors will be mine in every school.
I will be the clock.
I will be the doors.
I will be the books.
-Hamara

I was a teacher when I was three months old.
Once I was a book.
My best friend is the boss of the world.
I'm from under the ground.
I look just like Mrs. Turnbaugh.
I beat up the principal.
-Sevda

Sound Poems

First class at JFK Elementary in Winooski. We played with noisy words (onomatopoeia) like squish, meow, and crumple. "What does this sound like?" I asked, stomping my feet on the floor. Some thought it sounded like thunder, others like a stampede. When asked what word it sounded like, they had lots of ideas: boom, doom, thump, thunk, dunk-a-dunk. I repeated these questions after crinkling a plastic bag and tapping a ruler, then introduced other ways to play with sound, like rhyme and alliteration.

I told them to write the noisiest poem that they could. They were free to wander the classroom with pen and paper, making noises with the materials around them. Jacob produced the class's favorite sound by smacking a hanging laminated pumpkin with his palm, a cartoonish noise he described as "bibble-bibble-bibble." After everyone was finished writing and sharing, we played acrostic games and "poetry telephone."

Here are two poems from class:

Prehistoric puppies
ripped my pants!
Eee! Eee! Eee!
I itch my iguana.
Opa-hopa octopus.
Needle cheese!
-Collaboration

The boom-box dances to
the boom-boom. My room
has some wind that goes
whir-whir. When I eat
my snack I go chew-chew.
When a chair falls
it goes BOOM!
-Rainbow

List Poems

I read the kids a few lists from The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon today and asked them to come up with a list of their own. I passed out a handout with suggestions, such as Things That Fall from the Sky, Things That Have Lost Their Power, Annoying Things, and Things Worth Seeing. Here are two poems from class:

Fancy Things
Shoes. Makeup.
Dresses at school.
Books. Bracelets.
Pencils. Skateboards.
-Hamara

Things that Make One's Heart Beat Faster
Weddings.
Going to another school.
Seeing my teachers.
Getting a present.
Doing a great job.
-Samira

Borrowed Lines

An easy, mellow class. I gave each student a list of lines from other poems and read a few examples. "Three thousand years ago" was a big hit, as well as "i was born with twelve fingers" and "We live in the night ocean wondering." I asked each of them to choose their favorite and use it as a first line for their own poem. Here is a sample:

3,000 years ago I was
the earth. Every time somebody
stepped on me I ached. In 3,000 years
I was a human. I had to get
a massage because my body ached.
And I'm still a human, and
I want to stay a human.
-Elijah

Sundays too my father got up early
because my dad works in recycling
and he never sleeps. It's hard to
not sleep.
-Samira

Years ago I lost a penny, a special penny. My dad's dad gave him it, he gave it to me, and I lost it when I was walking to school. That was a sad day.
-Paulina

Cloth from the moon. Cloth from
another planet. Cloth made out of super-
hero clothing.
-Fartun