Mirror, mirror on the wall....

This week, we read "Mirror" by Sylvia Plath. This poem was, by far, the most difficult we've had all year. However, the students were up for the task and I was so impressed with how thoughtfully they discussed this piece.

I had brought in a bag full of slips of paper. Each piece of paper had an object written on it. The students had to draw a slip from the bag and writer a poem from the persona of whatever object they chose. There were some really interesting and wonderful poems. See for yourself:

Ms. Servin's 4th Grade Class

Apple
Anthony C.

I am hungry
I got downstairs
I am hungry
But there is nothing to eat
I eat a little fruit
It is red.
I sometimes play with it.
I pretend it is a baseball.
I throw it up and catch it again.
I do not like this color red.

Flower
Victor S.

I am white and different colors.
I feel the breeze in my face.
People step on me and use me to smell.
I am a gift to give to people you love.
Something to go to your garden and shine everywhere.
I can feel people's hand taking some of the colors
from my head.

Faucet
Gilbert D.

I am gray and very hard.
I am sad, thanks to water.
The water goes around until there is none.
I see a glass thing, still not knowing
what it is. I have seen it many times with a feeling.
Doing this is my job. Pull my handle
and you'll find out what comes.

Ms. McDermott's 5th Grade Class

Empty Box
Ricky R.

I am brown and old.
Look at me. There is nothing to see.
Unfilled, unloved.
Hopefully I will be full one day.
They look at me and still nothing to see.
I am now free, no longer thinking.
My own world.
It is time for me to be filled.

Mountain
Marco L.

I am happy. I am big.
I am beautiful.
People step on me.
I am tall.
Sometimes, I get sad because
not a lot of people come.
And I get sick because of the wind.
I can be seen from miles away.
People climb me.

Puddle
Georgia M.

I might wet you.
I am scared of the sun.
Everyone steps on me, day after day.
I don't like it one bit.
In the winter, I freeze.
My friends are jealous of me,
but I don't know why.
I should be one of them.
I think I am lonely
and lonely forever.

Pile of Leaves
Vladimir J.

I am green and sometimes yellow.
I get raked every fall.
I get put in a bag and thrown away
and squashed by lots of creatures
that are unknown.
I am always in the sky.
Everytime the wind comes and goes.
I am taken to an unknown place
where a young person picks me up
and says, "I will miss you when you go away."

Mr. Herbeck's 5th Grade Class

Baseball Field
Lukasz K.

I am like a diamond.
Nice and smooth.
Baseball players run on me
like they're rubbing my back.
Something round always falls on me.
Like grapes falling from the sky.
I hear something like I am famous.

Lake
Omar G.

I see sun, I see clouds.
I see people, I see rain.
I see sand.
I am like a long mirror.
I cause joy.
I make people cold. When it snows,
people don't come, but go.
People learn how to travel but not to walk.
I am deep like a heart.
People see me as a mirror.

Clouds
David S.

I am write and I am big.
I am like cotton candy.
I am surrounded by blue.
I don't know what to do.
I feel like a pillow.
I turn grey when I get mad.
I shoot out lightning because I am sad.
When I eat too much, I get full and leat out rain or snow.
When I sleep, I make thundering sounds.
I only wish I could touch the ground.
When the sun shines, I am blocking its way.
Kids get mad that they don't have a sunny day.
Then I meet a friend,
and I like who I am.

Ms. Kane's 7th Grade Class

Book
Sandra V.

I am sometimes real or fake.
People open me when they are bored.
Lonely on a table in the day, but
existing at night.
Now I am on a shelf with all my friends.
Waiting to get a home, and become lonely again.

Pile of Leaves
Antonio P.

Colors everywhere: red, yellow, green.
I am unimportant. A lump on your yard.
Pieces of me are claimed by the wind.
People sometimes jump all up on me for fun.
It's not fun. Not for me.
I am always in pain. Either suffocating in a bag,
getting stabbed by metal objects. The closest
thing I have to a friend is the ground under me.

Now I am soil. Animals live inside me
but don't appreciate me. Sometimes I get
so mad I bury them in me. Seasons
coming and going. I hate winter the most.
Frozen and alone without friends.
Hate and no love, pain and anger.
I hate everyone and trust no one.

Old Truck
Jasper A.

I am worn down from the years of use.
I used to be a brilliant color,
but now I am darkened and chipped.
I sit here waiting to have a magical
spark of life once again.
But I've started to lose all hope.
Still not all is dreadful.
I have made many friends.
I would trade them all for my old one, though.
I know I'll never travel with him again.
I know I'll never feel the road under me.
So I give up.

Wind
Monica R.

I am not visible.
I toss objects back and forth.
There isn't a place I haven't been.
My very best friend is the tree.
Sometimes I cause disasters.
I absolutely love the fall.
As I pass by, things fall down.
I'd like to say sorry, but I pass too fast.

Now, I am an eagle flying so fast no
one can see me.
I don't care if I run out fo breath.
I just keep on going.

Mrs. Weiland's 4th Grade Class

Old Truck
Mia R.

I have four doors.
It slams like a volcano
rumbling as loud as it can be.
I wish I could see the world.
I am write as snow falling from the sky.
The house is my friend.
I get sad when I am alone with no one to talk to.
When I am asleep, I think i am a person
walking down the street.
I love when people are around me.
And sometimes I am as dirty as can be!
I keep my owners warm.

Sun
Christian G.

I am bright and on fire.
I see all the planets in the solar system.
My favorite friend is Mercury.
My enemy is Pluto.
I wish I was half hot and half cold.
My purpose is to let people see
where they are going.
I also wish I could see more planets.

Clouds
Yasmin M.

I am fluffy and white.
I live in the sky.
I am there all night.
I am there all day.
I see people all day and night.
I love to move.
I feel sad that I cannot walk.

Mrs. Villa's 6th Grade Class

Clouds
(Forgot name!)

I am fluffy and big
high in the sky
cold and full
up in the atmosphere
people see me.

I wish to see the people
hear the cars
smell the fresh air
touch the ground.

Then fear grew
just when I shrunk
shrunk all until nothing.

Door Knob
Sylvia R.

I am cold. I turn warm when people touch me.
I can be made out of steel
or whatever you desire.
I feel like running away
so no one can touch me.
I wish I had legs to move around
and to feel the cold ground.
My fear is hands, filthy.
My purpose is to help you get into a room.

Fire
Daniel P.

There is no way to say sorry
I keep on going and hating
I fear the water, nothing else
Nothing but red hate in me
I wish I would stay forever
My purpose is to destroy and kill

It's snowing!!!

Since December is here and seems to have finally brought winter along with it, we wrote Winter Poems at Pasteur this week. I took in Nikki Giovanni's "Winter Poem" to kick-off this exercise. Along with discussing the wonderfulness that is this poem, we also discussed how Giovanni puts alliteration to use a great deal in this short piece. We talked about what alliteration is, how you use it, why you use it and offered several alliterative example sentences in class.

I asked the students to write their own Winter Poem. I told them to try and choose one consonant to be alliterative with in their writing, practice ommitting punctuation like Giovanni and I also said that these particular Winter Poems couldn't have any mention of the holidays! Also, we talked about how the most interesting books, movies and poems usually surprise us in the end--so, I asked them to end with an unexpected twist. As usual, they were wintry and wonderful:

Mrs. Villa's 6th Grade Class

Winter Poem
Jessica J.

my house is the
winter of the
earth it is
cold as the
outside porch
the bed as
cold as the inside
of the freezer
as amazing as my dream
world of winterland


Winter Poem
Isacc L.

It is snowing
all the plants are frozen and dead
I am freezing
I turn and see a leftover green leaf
on a tree
I close my eyes for 10 seconds
and when I open it is back
to spring


Winter Poem
Ismael S.

As the snow falls the cars and humans
step on it stop the cars go
lights stay on trees up kids
sleeping the sights are bright snowmen
sitting in the cold as life keeps
going on as everyone is sleeping
in the end it just stops


Mrs. Weiland's 4th Grade Class

Winter Poem
Alexis E.

When you see snow it feels like
a squirt of small water
stores are closed in winter
people are iceskating and kids
are playing snowball fights and making
forts after playing kids and adults
go to their houses and they start
drinking hot cocoas and sit in the
fireplace


Winter Poem
John B.

Once a horizon went
over a hill I
followed the horizon and
I got lost
when it was dark and winter
and soon it was spring


Winter Poem
Amy M.

Once a snow fell in my hair
I saw the snowflake shaped
like a star
I felt a could wind in my face
I was drinking hot cocoa and
when I went outside my cocoa
would freeze
then I felt like a snowflake falling
from the sky


Mrs. Servin's 5th Grade Class

Winter Poem
Julia R.

First I went outside
I felt the snow falling on my body
It felt very cold
I was feeling like a dead flower
The summer has left me
I definitely think I am not ready
for the freezing winter


Winter Poem
Victor S.

I came outside in the cold
winter I wanted to visit my cousins
but then a blizzard hit
I ran inside the house
and looked in each window
a white cold snowflake
falling down
my mother gave me hot chocolate
still I watched as the cool breeze
blew outside and as I watched
I felt as if i could be
a cold white snowflake too


Winter Poem
Christopher G.

I walk out a frozen
cool winter black clouds
shooting lightning wind
blowing I found a brown cat
stuck
car was coming
I didn't want him to die
I helped but not in time
blue mountains as I died


Winter Poem
Brenda H.

my cat crawls under my
bed i catch him with my
blanket but he runs
away outside he
catches a flower and scratches
it and follows me
the snow catches
him and he crawls for help
my cake is warm and good
but my cat crawls and
eats it my head catches a
cold and i catch my cat outside
with scratches
i wish she would understand
i can't catch her tonight


Ms. Kane's 7th Grade Class

suddenly the snowman stared
at me faceless
i snatched the stones and he started
to smile
as i added his clothes he was
surprisingly snug
but as the snow keeps falling
and the sun grew bigger
i found out
the snowman was me


Winter Poem
Giovanni D.

i am outside
the snow is falling
i am making snow angels
the home is toasty
the air is cold
the leaves are falling
i see a deer
it tells me to go inside
the deer gets attacked
by a snow leopard


Mr. Herbeck's 5th Grade Class

Winter Poem
(forgot her name!)

the dark days are not very delightful
the trees are dim they shadow me
these deer appear they are gentle
there are drops on my face
i'm cold
the summer is dead
these days are a bore


Winter Poem
Carlos A.

when a tree is white
you know it is winter
now it is time to consider forever
what you did this winter
why you ask to remember
forever
so i'll wonder off


Winter Poem
Weronika C.

once a snowflake fell
it got so cold everywhere
shivering and covered with a blanket
snuggling by the fireplace
drinking warm tea
turning myself warm


Ms. McDermott's 5th Grade Class


Winter Poem
Ricky R.

winter morning wakes me up and
mom is boiling milk for hot chocolate
marshmellows floating on the top
and melting and not making
a mess and when it is time
before bed i look out the window
and see the moon
before i go to bed
gazing marshmellows spread
instead of snow
and moonlight glistens
and in a instant i am a
marshmellow


Winter Surprise
Sophia

i felt the freezing ice melt
with the heat from my hand
then covered it with the fading snow
i leave it out for the night
i woke feeling happy to see
a flower all firey red


Winter Poem
Brittany

as the snow falls
the winter comes
the people play snowball fights
some go out and sled
down the hill
like a star shooting by the sky

Haiku!!!

I wasn't at Pasteur last week (they had vacation) and I won't be at Pasteur next week (Thanksgiving), but THIS week we made up for it by writing a whole month's work of HAIKU!

I took in a selection of several haiku written by Basho and Issa. We discussed the basic form of haiku: 3 lines, 5-7-5 syllabic count and then read through the poems. Afterwards, I asked the students if they noticed a common theme in all of the haiku we read, "These poems are about nature!" they shouted. Indeed--they were! We talked about the strong images in the poem. I equated the haiku to a snapshot. What was seen? Heard?

For their assignment, I had them divide their paper into three sections. I told them they'd be writing THREE poems today: a nature haiku, a city haiku and a classroom haiku. They were really intrigued by this prompt. I told them to make their haiku three lines long, but don't worry about the syllablic count. In the past, I've found that students will spend SO much time and energy making sure a poem has 17 syllables that they forget to consider content. The results were fabulous --- as usual! Here are some poems from both my 4th grade class and my 6th grade class.

Ms. Sirven's 4th Grade Class:

Classroom Haiku
Victor S.

The teacher
talking about
the ocean's life


Nature Haiku
Diego S.

A tiger is growling
doesn't know what to do
he's a shiney sun bursting


Nature Haiku
Brenda H.

Tiger runs through
forest and makes
shivering winds at light moon


Nature Haiku
Christopher

There were flies
a wolf feasting
on a dear


City Haiku
Christopher

A train on top of me
the train rumbling
so loud

Ms. Villa's 6th Grade Class:


City Haiku
Daniel P.

Spinners spinning
Gunshots going
People running


City Haiku
Isaac L.

Hearing car horns
People shouting at each other
The sound of a car crashing


Classroom Haiku
Natalia

Clock ticking, no one listening
Kids are reading
No one is hearing


Nature Haiku
Pablo V.

A mother bear
roaring like a savage
to protect her cubs

Morning Poems

This past week at Pasteur, my students wrote "Morning" poems based off of Mary Oliver's poem of the same title. This is only my second week with this bunch and I can't believe how great their poems are already! We focused on descriptive, interesting language... seems to have really paid off!

Here are a few poems from Ms. Servin's 4th grade class:

Morning
by Victor

I wake up in the morning from my
red bed. I see my bed shining in the sun.

Then I saw the glass bowl with the cereal
in it shining in the morning.

I go outside and play in the most
wonderful grass with my yellow truck.

I thought what to draw. I drew a red
velvet ribbon gazing in the sunshine.

I thought what to draw. I drew a bird
with sliding gold feathers and a blue
feather too.


Morning
by Brenda

In the morning I see a bright yellow light.
I smell the warm brownies cooked by the sun.
Then my cover flows on top of my body.
I jump out of my cotton bed.
I hear the robins sing by day.
Each time I eat, I swirl into my food.
Each time I feel like I am on the cotton clouds.


Morning
by Crystal

In the morning the flowers shine up to the sky
when I wake up. And I hear the birds sing.
I smell the fresh air when I wake up.
I smile to myself and my beautiful family.
I see the sky shine.
When I drink a glass of water, the water
sparkles like the silver river.

breaking in the blog!

I am so excited to finally have a place to display all of the fabulous poems that come from the Pasteur Elementary students! Look for poems to appear very soon...