Day 7 SoL Story Challenge: The 'Hello Box' Poem

Join nearly 200 teachers as we practice our own writing by sharing a story from our lives each day in the month of March!

It's only been one week, working on the March Slice of Life Story Challenge, and I've already learned so much!

I've been watching the way my colleague, Stacey, uses technology on her blog, Raise a Literate Human: Vines, Skitch, ThingLink, and other cool techno doodads pepper her blog. There's always something neat there.

I've been inspired and awed by the way some bloggers are approaching this challenge with so much bravery and courage, the way Kris Shrontz has been doing on her blog, I Survived Today. As I learned from my colleague Betsy's thoughtful post, this is Kris's first time participating in the challenge, so visit her and give her some love. Betsy's post in and of itself is an inspiration for this post-- why had I not thought about using my blog to recommend other blogs before? Thanks Betsy!

And I've been loving the way Kevin Hodgson has been commenting all over the blogosphere using poems! It's creative and thoughtful and lovely. So cool.

This morning, I discovered Margaret Simon hosting the Friday Poetry Roundup on her blog, Reflections on the Teche and this inspired me to ditch my original plans for this morning's post and write create a new one.

Little L. has poetry in her veins, I think. Watch her make one up on the spot:

Hello, hello.

I'm a Hello Box.

And I have a pet bunny saying boing boing boing

And a owl pet that says hoo hoo hoo

And a dinosaur pet that goes roar roar roar

And a bird pet that goes chirp chirp chirp

And a chipmunk pet that goes snk snk snk

And a mouse pet that goes squeak squeak squeak

And I let them say hello hello hello hello!

Whenever they want.

And I don't let you say hello hello hello hello

Everyone

Heeeello

Hello HELLO

Heeeello hello hello.

I just like it when my animals say hello

Hello. Hello lo lo. Hello.

And… the end.

Maybe Little L.'s poem will be inspiration or for some other tiny poets somewhere?

A few strategies I notice Little L. uses to create her poem:
* she pretends that the object is alive (metaphor)
* she organizes/structures her thoughts (a pattern, and "parts" of the poem, or verses)
* her poem has a clear beginning and ending, starting and and ending in similar ways (in the classroom I might call this a "sandwich structure" when the beginning and ending of a poem are similar, with the rest sandwiched between)
* she uses interesting word choices (precise animal sounds)
* she elaborates (not just one animal--lots!)
* repetition (lots of it)
* she's got rhythm (mostly)

Howd'ya like them apples, Common Core State Standards! (Just kidding. She's four years old. We're trying not to worry about that right now. I can't help thinking like a teacher… It's not like there's a switch to turn it off.)

Poetry Friday!