Fourth Grade Reveals Heart & Soul Through Poetry

“Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.” – William Wordsworth

Fourth grade recently spent time learning and practicing the creative process of writing poetry.  We began straightforwardly with the introduction of list poems, and gradually introduced more complicated techniques and styles such as Haiku, soul poems, origin poems and poems inspired by artwork. Students brought open hearts and minds to the process and the resulting poems reveal the student’s vulnerability and developing maturity.

Recently retired AFS middle school English teacher Jane McVeigh-Schultz visited our class as a special guest to demonstrate combining visual art and writing. Presenting the class with artwork by Marc Chagall and others, McVeigh-Schulz illustrated how to allow images in art to illicit thoughts and feelings that, when recorded, create interesting poems.

Here is a small sampling of some of the wonderful poems that fourth graders created:

 My Soul

My soul is two dirty bare feet and crazy, unbrushed hair

My soul is an excuse to play with the hose

My soul is finding something fun to do in the summer besides complaining about being baked

-Kaitlyn

The Dream

Oh Mama of mine I had the strangest dream last night

In the dream I flew away on a Pegasus horse

A veil like snow trailed behind me

The smell of flowers filled my body with happiness

But soon it died and the sound of pain and suffering filled the air with violence.

Oh my dearest girl, what in the world made you think that our world is filled with peace and joy?

That was only the first part, Mama

Then I saw myself in a snow-white dress

With a gold locket around my neck.

-Maura

I Sit, I Wait, I Think, I Stare                          

I sit, I wait, I think, I stare.

My tea is cold just standing there.

I sit, I wait, I think I stare.

The air is cold, too cold out there.

I sit, I wait, I think, I stare.

If only someone were sitting there.

I sit, I wait, I think I stare.

My tea is cold just sitting there.

-Matthias

The Escape

Escape, escape from the uneasy planet

never settled

always in war

We start the swim in the murky water of our imagination

 gods gazing upon the galaxy

 always being hit with the cold hard action of leaving a place

 but being wrapped in the warm blanket of beginning in a new one.

 I will miss the little bubbles that you can pop with your finger

 I will miss this old place.

-Drew

While the poetry unit lasted just several weeks, the theme of poetry has permeated our entire year. Each morning begins with a poem of the day that students are invited to ponder and comment about. The poems created by each student will be turned into small chapbooks for students to bring home and refer back to as they grow. 

 

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