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.