Poem Inspires First Grade Poets

April is National Poetry Month and poetry is alive in first grade! Students have been writing poetry all year but with the signs of spring and the sophistication of writing skills, our first graders arefeeling inspired in both their listening to poems and to the writing of their own poems. One way writers can feel that creative spirit to write is to read poetry and respond to a particular poem. 

This spring students are also listening to fairy tales and comparing different versions of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Little Red Riding Hood and The Three Little Pigs. We are researching the animals featured in these fairy tales. The first animal we are currently researching is the black bear. 

Connecting with our current reading project and our focus on poetry, students listened to, read and responded to the poem Sleep With a Bear by Yana Nicole. The following is a link to the poem- http://allpoetry.com/poem/11760970-Sleep-With-A-Bear-by-Yana-Nicole. Yana Nicole wrote this poem when she was six and the site says that she is currently seven. Students listened to this poem read aloud twice, envisioning (picturing) a scene from the poem. They then shared their envisionment, discussing the scene they pictured in detail with a partner. Students echo read the poem, reading the descriptive lines with expression. 

Long vowel sounds is the current phonics skill being studied by first grade students. The first three lines were written on chart paper and students had the opportunity to highlight words that contained long vowels. After this look at phonics, the poem was then read expressively again by the class. The next step was for students to read the poem with a partner, focusing on expression. Each student then chose a line to write and illustrate the scene that they envisioned from the poem. 

We will be revisiting this poem to analyze more lines for long vowels, and for students to be inspired to write their own poems. Students will in fact be writing various kinds of poems this spring as they feel inspired by nature, books, animals, and other poets.