More Poetry Pockets

My third graders at Norwood Elementary had a great time creating their poetry pockets yesterday and today.

Our model poem is "Eliza's Jacket" by Calef Brown. We borrow the first two lines of Brown's poem, then let our imaginations take flight.

Cherie Lurz's morning class came up with this group poem:

I have a jacket,

a jacket made of pockets.

In pocket #29, I have snowy days.

I take one out

when I'm getting hot,

so I can get cold

and play in the snow.

I take one out

whenever I'm bored,

so I can have a snowball fight

or make a snowman,

or sled down a hill.

I take one out

whenever I want a day off

from school,

to curl up by the fire

with hot cocoa

and read a book.

(The last stanza suggested by an under-the-weather Ms. Lurz!)

Julia Kerner's class has had dinosaurs on the brain since I gave them a dino "Grow-Creature" to be their poetry mascot. (It is pink. Its name is Waffles the Dinosaur.)

Here is their group effort:

I have a jacket,

a jacket made of pockets.

In pocket 26 I have a dinosaur egg.

It cracks open

and a triceratops comes out.

I collect fruit for it to eat,

so when it grows it can give me

rides around town.

The neighbors would pass out!

Miss Flanigan's class was hungry:

In pocket 32,

I have my own McDonald's.

I'd get chocolate milk shakes

and salty fries and a Big Mac

whenever I wanted.

I would smell delicious.

And a handful of Ms. Lurz's students sat down with me today to compose this wildly imaginative poem:

I have a jacket,

a jacket made of pockets.

In pocket 5,000,003

I have an elephant,

so I can take showers

instead of baths.

In pocket 100,

I have a monster

with a green face,

purple hair and black teeth,

and a furry body,

to help me

scare away bullies.

The monster and the elephant fight

because the elephant tries

to spray the monster's teeth

to clean them,

so in pocket #506

I have a brick wall

to separate them all.

I love how this last poem begins to veer into narrative.

Hope your students had fun with their pocket poems, too. Again, if you'd like full instructions on the lesson and craft, visit http://www.mrspoems.com/.

Tomorrow, I'll be in a celebratory mood -- working on Odes with students at Ellicott City, MD's Bonnie Branch Middle.