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Materials Making Garden and Nature Poems
A. To prepare your class for writing their own poems, read a few aloud. First, practice alone or with another teacher so you can get a feel for each poem's cadence -- defined by Webster's as "rhythmic sequence or flow of sounds in language." Sometimes cadence does not follow the line breaks. Reading aloud demonstrates that cadence, like punctuation in sentences, clarifies the meaning of the phrases. B. After
each one, explore some of these questions together. C. In anticipation of Part 2 of this project, have a brief class discussion about the difference between observations and feelings. Ask your students, What does it mean to observe something? (It means to study something with all of your senses). How are observations different from feelings and reactions? (Observations are made from external stimuli, and reactions and feelings come from inside of us.) Reread one of the poems. Ask, What do you think the poet is observing in the poem? What are the poet's reactions/feelings? Literacy standards addressed: uses personal expression Even if your garden is put to bed for the season, your students can still harvest ideas and words for making poems. A. Distribute Word Harvest Worksheet, which has a column each for Observations and Feelings/Reactions. B. Explain that in the garden they'll take a few minutes (5 to 10 minutes) to quietly observe one thing that captures their attention -- a puddle, for instance. Have them record what they sense about it (e.g., wet, shiny, shallow, chilly) in the Observations column, and their feelings and reactions to it (my dog would drink that; splashing with galoshes; makes me shiver) in the right column. If it's not possible for them to use all their senses (tasting the water in the puddle is out of the question!), suggest that they imagine what it tastes like. If going outside isn't an option, ask students to take a stroll through the garden in their memories, and pick one thing they remember strongly: perhaps tasting freshly picked strawberries, or pulling weeds. Have them take a few minutes to imagine using all their senses, even the unlikely (What does a strawberry sound like?), to observe the object or activity, recording these and resulting feelings that arise.
Literacy standards addressed: use of personal expression; creation of stories; use of complex sentences; figurative language; use of dictionary and thesaurus; parts of speech; applies rules of grammar; characters, settings, events; uses the writing process; uses a variety of sentence structures; evaluates own writing against specific criteria, revises for clarity; makes oral presentation. With the "raw materials" -- their recorded phrases and ideas -- kids can fashion first drafts of poems. A. Here are some tips you can share to get them started:
If there are students who need more structure to get started, they can try composing simple haiku, a traditional Japanese poetry form based on or inspired by nature. The least rigid of the modern haiku formats requires that the poet use words totaling 17 syllables within two or three lines. (For more poetry structures to experiment with, see our Resources Section.) B. Rewriting is a way a poet refines their words so they come closer to conveying the subject, image, or feelings in an accurate way. Here are some suggestions you can offer them. Read your poem over silently several times.
After rewriting, read your poem aloud a few times to yourself, and then to a friend. How does it sound? Does it need any adjustment?
Use some of the questions from Part 1.B to bring the exercise full circle. Let your young poets know that their works are as valid as those of the poets you introduced them to at this beginning of the lesson! If your students are eager to share their works with others, they can host a reading in the garden (if weather permits) and invite other classrooms, parents, and community members. Or, they can publish an illustrated booklet for display in the library. See Curriculum Connections for more ideas on blending poetry into the curriculum to inspire your gardeners and naturalists!
As
of January 2005, we'll be combining our two educator
e-newsletters into a single mailing!
Kids Garden News is free, while Classroom Projects News has been available only to those who have paid a membership fee. We are dedicated to providing all of you with high-quality, plant-based education materials that support your needs, so we're going to give you the best of both e-newsletters in a single, FREE Kids Garden News mailing! This means less e-mail, but more valuable information to use with your students. And the good news
continues. In March 2005, we'll launch a FREE,
quarterly, 8-page print newsletter, Growing Ideas. Many of
you may be
familiar with this name from years past, when NGA published
Growing
Ideas: A Journal of Garden-Based Learning. The new version
of Growing If you are currently a member of NGA, you will continue to receive free access to online gardening courses, free Q & A service, and a 10% discount at our online stores throughout the duration of your current membership cycle. Starting in January 2005, these benefits will be available to NGA Supporters for an annual donation of $30. Membership, which includes access to our e-mail and print newsletters, will be free. As we finalize the subscription details, we'll keep you up to date via Kids Garden News, but please e-mail our editor with any questions or suggestions you have. We'd love to hear from you!
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Contents
Page
1: Classroom Project Rapping
Up a Unit
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Part
2.
Harvest your own words. 
Part
3. Cook up some poetry! 
C. Share
poems aloud. Before students read their poems to the class,
suggest that
they imagine themselves in the garden sensing the thing that
inspired them. Prompt practice of good communication and public
speaking skills by advising them to: