Well, this April has been pretty good, poetry-wise. I will finish this series by telling you about a poetry month initiative I run in my school. The idea was shared with me by a colleague and I’ve modified it a bit. I wouldn’t be surprised if other schools do it too. It’s called Poem in my Pocket and my version is simple:
To participate in Poem in my Pocket students must
- find a poem they like (in a book, online, on a bus, anywhere!), or write one of their own
- copy that poem onto a piece of paper.
- carry that piece of paper in their pocket a while.
- bring the poem to me and read it aloud to me.
- repeat.
I then take their poem and post it on my “poetry wall” until the end of the month, at which time I put all the poems in a bin and draw a winner for a poetry-related prize. Students may carry/read/enter as many poems as they like. This year I have a grade three student who has entered approximately twelve poems–she shows up every few days with two or three new ones to read to me; a few years ago I had a student who entered between 20-30 poems, all authored by her. I love how this ‘event’ brings out the poetry bugs in my students.
This year the prize is two tickets to the Poetry in Voice finals. I thought it would be the perfect prize to go hear older students reciting poetry when that’s what these students have been doing for me.
Thank you for celebrating Poetry Month with us here at BCTELA.
I will leave you with a simile one of my grade five students wrote today:
The apple blossoms sway like swings carrying the wind.