Cover of Cat Goes Fiddle-i-fee

Grade level: Kindergarten – 1^st

Genre: various

Objectives: To involve the students in listen to a story read aloud

Primary sources: Cat Goes Fiddle-i-fee by Paul Galdone

Materials: a basket with small stuffed animal characters from the book Cat Goes Fiddle-i-fee

Contributors: Brooke Brown, Linda Draper

This story basket activity ensures the active participation of all students in listening to a book read aloud. Originally used with Cat Goes Fiddle-i-fee, it can easily be adapted to any book by printing and laminating images of the story’s characters. Additionally, the students could make representations of the characters in the book as a pre-reading, art project.

Have the students sit in a circle on the floor with the “story basket” in the center which contains characters and farm animals from the book. The students should each take one animal from the story basket as the book is read aloud, listen for the appropriate time to place their character back in the basket.

Image by peasap via Flickr

The great thing
is not having a
mind. You know
I do not
have a mouth, but
the truth is, I
am speaking now.
Do you
ever permit yourself
to swim in my water?
If you like
to swim in me,
the pond,
I would like
to talk with you.
I like to see bugs
because
I like frogs.
They like to hop over me
to eat
on lilypads.
I smell food sometimes
because human beings
like to camp
all around me,
and I get to talk
with all of them;
whisper all the time

when they come.

by Katherine, 4th grade

Image by Umpqua via Flickr

I have never met my grandparents before, but my mom told me about them. She told me that my grandpa got milk from the cow and made it into cheese then sold it. She told me that they had lots of animals, like cows, pigs, horses, dogs, sheep, and goats. When my mom was little, my grandpa gave her a horse for her birthday. Her name was Star. My mom told me once there was a fox that was trying to get in the chicken pen and eat a chicken, but my grandpa saw it and scared it away. My mom looked in our closet to find a picture of Mexico that they took with the animals and my grandparents and my mom when she was little. First I saw a picture of a pig named Gordita, and she had piglets that he sold. Whenever there were baby chicks, cows, horses or goats, my grandpa would sell them. My grandma took a picture of the dog playing with the chicken. There was some stuff in the box with the pictures. There was a sombrero and a little statue of a Chihuahua dancing the Mexican hat dance. She put the box away and started thinking about going to Mexico. It’s a gateway to a lifetime.

by Christian, 4th grade

Peace Poem Contest Rules
http://www.creducation.org/cre/crday/poetrycontest/

1. Eligibility. The contest is open to all students in grades 3 – 12.
2. Submission Period. Entries will be accepted between September 1, 2010 and November 1, 2010,11:59 PM Eastern (10:59 PM Central; 9:59 PM Mountain; 8:59 PM Pacific; 5:59 PM Hawaii).
3. To Enter. Write a poem that describes “Peace in My Community”. Please write a title for your poem. Limit your poem to 20 lines. Poems must be in English. Limit: 1 poem per student, 20 per school. Please do not put your name or school on the poem (for fairness in judging).
ALL POEMS SUBMITTED MUST BE THE STUDENT’S OWN, ORIGINAL WORK, AND NOT PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED.
4. Prizes. Prizes will be awarded in three categories: Grades 3-5; 6-8; and 9-12. First Place: $100. Second Place: $75. (prizes are in U.S. dollars)
5. Announcement of Winners. Winners will be contacted by December 1, 2010.
6. Sponsor. The Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR) is a professional organization dedicated to enhancing the practice and public understanding of conflict resolution. This contest is being sponsored as an activity for ACR’s Conflict Resolution Day. For information about ACR and Conflict Resolution Day, go to www.acrnet.org/crday
7. General Conditions.
Poems will not be returned. Entrants should keep a copy of their submissions.
Association for Conflict Resolution assumes no responsibility for entries that are lost, incomplete, misdirected, illegible, or late, or for failed computer transmissions or technical failures.
Association for Conflict Resolution reserves the right, in its discretion, to reject entries that it believes are unlawful, libelous, or would be detrimental to the reputation of Conflict Resolution Day or the Association for Conflict Resolution.
Poems with profanity, obscenity, vulgarity, or anything else which overrides the general norms of civility will not be eligible for prizes.
Entry must comply with all contest rules to be eligible for a prize. The Association for Conflict Resolution reserves the right not to award any prizes.
Selected entries (including those that were not awarded prizes) may be displayed at the ACR National Conference and may be compiled in a poetry book or other form (including electronically) as may be determined by the Association for Conflict Resolution.
Winning students will have the opportunity to submit a digital tape recording of their poem, which the Association for Conflict Resolution may link to its website.
Winners will be selected by a panel of judges named by the Association for Conflict Resolution. The judges will evaluate the entries using the following criteria: exploration of theme, impact on reader, originality, literacy, message. Judges’ decisions are final.

The WITS approach to teaching creative writing often springs from the inspiring writing and art that we love. Here is a lesson–although not originally ours–that exemplifies our work with young children.

Grade level: 1^st – 3^rd
Genre: poetry
Objectives: To make discussion about brainstorming, symbolism and revision accessible to young students
Primary sources: My Map Book by Sara Fanelli
Materials: paper, markers
Contributors: Cissy Gully, Tria Wood

Many times, students forgo planning and brainstorming activities and immediately begin writing. This lesson utilizes a preliminary art project as a method of getting the students to brainstorm without realizing it. During the poetry writing portion of the lesson, reading an example poem and discussing the symbolism used in it is an important step in encouraging the students to use symbolism in their own poetry. Finally, sharing their poetry aloud with the class prompts revision in the friendliest and most comfortable of ways.

Begin by showing Sara Fanelli’s My Map Book to the class. Pass out a blank sheet of paper to the class and instruct them to draw pictures of things that are in their heart similar to the maps they saw in Fanelli’s book. After fifteen minutes of drawing, stop them and reveal that they all just engaged in brainstorming.

Share an example poem with the class. It is important for the students to see an example of how the words in a poem such as this one convey more than just their literal meaning. Discuss the symbolic meaning of each line of the poem, asking for student input with each new symbol.

“My Heart”

Tria Wood, WITS writer

My heart is made of rubies, antique buttons, and pencil stubs.
My heart is a piñata filled with clementines and caramels.
My heart is a tiny white finch singing in her nest of thorns.
My heart is a silver snowflake melting on your tongue.

When students begin to write their own poems, challenge them to use their words to symbolically describe what is in their heart, rather than writing a list of all the things they drew on the map of their heart.

After fifteen minutes of working independently on their poems, pick volunteers to share their poems with the class and then let those volunteers choose two students to say one thing they liked about their poem and one thing they wondered. The readers should take the feedback from their classmates and use it to revise their poems. Allow all the students who did not share with the class to pair up, read their poem to their partner, and get feedback to use for revision.

EXAMPLE

“My Heart”

Julia D., 2^nd Grade

My heart is a giant stack of
books that won’t ever stop.
My heart is
a gray morning in rain.
My heart is filled with sweet chocolate.
My heart is filled with strawberries that I love
and daisies blossoming
in the Spring.
My heart is filled with snowy afternoons in Italy.
My heart is sprayed with fun
and laughter and happiness.

If you try this exercise with your students or if you do it on your own, feel free to share the results with us.