In Residence: List Poem Workshop

May the Fourth be with you.

Star Wars poem from www.funnyand.com

I am spending the month with third grade poets at Northfield Elementary School. The annual poetry residency is sponsored by the school PTA's cultural arts committee, and by an Artist-in-Residence grant from the Maryland State Arts Council. Thank you!

We kicked off our month of poetry last week with a list poem workshop. You can read my initial plan for this lesson at Today's Little Ditty. The third grade teachers at Northfield fell in love with Naomi Shihab Nye's poem "Words in My Pillow," so we decided to use that for our model list poem.

Naomi Shihab Nye's poem
"Words in My Pillow"
is in the list-poem anthology
Falling Down the Page.

I wrote my own "Words in My ___ Poem" to close out our National Poetry Month series on poems about clothes. It was titled "Words in My Closet." You can read it at this post.

Because the model is really a poem about words and language, the third graders and I spent a lot of time talking about juicy words. A poem called "Words in My Dog" might include specific nouns (TREATS, WATER, TONGUE), descriptive adjectives and verbs (BARK, FLUFFY, FAST, LICK), but it might also have "states of being" -- things we can't really see (LOVE, COMFORT, KINDNESS).

Because this was our first lesson, I encouraged the students to stick as close to Naomi Shihab Nye's poem as they wanted to. I am SO excited for you all to see what the third graders did with their poems. They hit it out of the park with their list poems.

Words in My Pet Goldfish

by Rachel S.

Words live in my pet goldfish.

Words that are watery –

SLISHY

SLOSHY

SWISHY

No one, not even you can find them,

only me, but they wait for me, and

I know it. Just like the food swishing

around in the fishy’s bowl. Now one can see it, but

I know when it’s there—

WATER

PELLETS

SCALES

FLIPPER

FILTER

WAVES

TANK

Water stuff is in there.

A fishbowl is in there.

The words are doing the backstroke

in water, when I’m thinking

them.

WHISK

PADDLE

SWIM

WAVY!

is in my goldfish

My friends the words

Go to snooze before I

Go to sleep.

But they never swim

away, to practice the fishy stroke.

Don't call him "common," Wikipedia.
We love our goldfish.

Words in My Bed

by Alexis K.

I hide words in my bed,

words that like to sleep.

PILLOW

DREAMS

STUFFED ANIMALS

No one can see them, but I find them

waiting for me, like the inside of my head is hiding

inside my body. No one can see it,

but I know what’s in my head.

SLEEP

ZZZZ

YAWN

NIGHT

READ

The words are playing together

when I am saying them or thinking

them while I sleep

BLANKET

ENERGY

SLEEP

YAWN

are all in my head at night.

My friends are the words. They go to

sleep before me. But in the morning

I know they are there waiting for me.

The Sleeping Gypsy, by Henri Rousseau

Words in My Life

by Paige R.

I hide words in my life.

Words that are

my best friends.

VACATION

BLUE SKY

WARM

No one can see them, but I find them

waiting for me. Like the smarts

hiding inside me.

No one can see it, but I know what’s in there.

FUN

SCARY

EXCITING

SURPRISING

DISAPPOINTING

SILLY

Emotions are in there. Questions are in there.

The words are playing together

when I am saying or thinking them.

PLAYGROUND

KITE

SPORTS

FUN IN THE SUN

The words go to sleep before I do,

but when I  wake up they are ready to go!

Thank you to the Northfield ES community for inviting me back again this year. I appreciate having the permission to share the third graders' amazing work this month.

Readers, my third grade poets love hearing feedback from you. Please leave a comment about our list poems.