Choral Poetry

After sharing poems that each member brought to our meeting, we tried out some choral poetry using Paul Fleischman's Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices (1988). My favorite poem from the collection is called "Chrysalis Diary." It chronicles the thoughts and sensations of a caterpillar's transformation inside its chrysalis. The students enjoyed the challenge of performing the poems together. It is harder than one might think to keep the pace of a poem going when reading it and overlapping words with another person. Two of the students also added movement to their poetry reading.

Leaf Exploring and Creating

brushing a leaf with acrylic paint for printing

first graders proudly show off their leaf collages

leaves that had been stencilled with oil pastels

a collage made by a second grade student

The leaves we gathered and pressed in old library books were ready for our artwork on Monday morning. We compared the leaves that had been pressed with the leaves that were just left in a paper bag for the week to see how they dried differently. We took our pressed leaves and made mixed-media collages with crayon rubbings of leaves, acrylic paint leaf prints and stencils, and oil pastel stencilling. The idea and inspiration for this lesson came from a recent workshop that I attended led by artist Robin Whitfield.

One child noticed that we could smell the leaves better after rubbing them with crayons underneath our paper. We speculated that this was probably because some of the leaf cells were being "smashed-up" to release small particles into the air. Another child observed that using a black oil pastel during stenciling a leaf on the paper helped to reveal the tiny veins on the actual leaf. Several children noticed that some leaves worked better than others for printing and rubbing and that some leaves had more interesting shapes for stencilling.

Learning to Read

The first graders are taking off with their reading skills! What a joyful moment-- when the letters on the page start to come together to form words. It is miraculous, really. They all wanted to read to me, so I was witness to many small miracles in the library on Thursday.

Leaf Exploring

I took all lower grade classes outside on Monday to explore the trees and falling leaves in our school yard. The sky was overcast and the wind was breezy. Hurricane Ida was moving closer to the coast.

We concentrated on looking at the different shapes, textures, and colors of the leaves. I quieted classes underneath trees to listen to the wind rustling through the leaves. Students noticed other bits of nature like small purple flowers underneath some dried leaves, seed pods, berries, ants, and caterpillars.

When we went back into the library, we spilled our leaves out on the floor, sorted them, and chose some to press in old library books -- I knew I was keeping those books for some reason! Maybe by next Monday, the leaves will be nice and pressed for a future project. I have in mind to try some of local artist Robin Whitfield's techniques that I learned about over the weekend.

Mrs. T. and I have been working with the lower grades through music, art, and literature connection classes to learn about fall, leaves, and trees. Our walk was a wonderful way to experience some of what we have been studying in the classroom.

Below is a slide-show of photos I took during our leaf field explorations:

Reading Freedom

I often remind my students that their library time is some of the greatest freedom they have in school. They don't have to take a test (unless they want to try a Reading Counts test), they don't have to fill out a worksheet, and they don't have to listen to a lecture. They can choose what book they want to read, read that book, and enter characters, places, and situations that far outreach the classroom or the schoolyard. That is freedom.

On Thursday, the fourth graders arrived in the library ready for their freedom. I was proud of their choices to take full advantage of their 40 minutes to read. The silence of eyes moving across the page was only interrupted by pages turning and a few giggles here and there.

Spooky Poetry Club

The Poetry Club met on Thursday, October 29, 2009, for some spooky fun. Several students brought Halloween-themed poetry to share. We focused on Edgar Allan Poe and his famous poem, "The Raven."



This site helps dissect the poetic language and difficult vocabulary.

We finished by exploring a website that has instant forms for poetry starters. Give it a try!

School Yard Field Study

First grade students carefully gather prey snails and look for other creatures that live underneath the wood such as ants, spiders, roly-polys, and termites.

This is a small garden snail. Wolfsnails eat these and small slugs.

This small wolfsnail was wedged in the rim of a discarded bottle cap along with two garden snails. One first grade girl found 3 very small wolfsails during our field study on Thursday.

Students watch the snails after our snail-gathering adventure.

First graders at St. Therese Catholic School have been helping me care for and learn more about wolfsnails. I brought a large wolfsnail to school last week after my children found one at home. I knew that all of our students would want to see a live one because Sarah Campbell had visited our school last year to share her book Wolfsnail: A Backyard Predator with students during an author visit.

This time, we were able to read the book and watch a live wolfsnail in action. On Tuesday, the wolfsnail was busy hunting and eating small, garden snails for most of the day. I didn't have many more garden snails left, so I took the first grade class outside to look for some in the school yard. We looked under rubber tires on the playground, old planks up against the back of the gym, cement blocks in the grass, and a few rocks--no snails! Finally, we found a huge colony of snails under a wood pile behind the cafeteria. Wow! There were so many there that we gathered a handful.

The bright and keen eyes of two first graders found another, small wolfsnail and an empty wolfsnail shell. They are keeping the small wolfsnail in their classroom for study and observation. On Thursday, we went back out to the wood pile for more prey snails and found 3 more small wolfsnails. I wonder what other amazing creatures and plants surround our school and exist side by side with us as we learn each day?

While all students at St. Therese have recently visited the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science, last week's wolfsnail study was a perfect reminder that there are many opportunities to learn about nature, ecosystems, and the environment around our own school yard. This experience has me thinking about some future possibilities to do just that. Stay tuned!