We decided to welcome spring by reading Robin at Hickory Street.
The robin is our state bird and is also one of our first signs of
spring. The children enjoyed the pictures and began to collect
signs of spring in their writer’s notebooks.
Then we expanded our vocabulary by creating a class poem about a
robin following a diamante pattern. We used the
ReadWriteThink website during literacy centers (wonderful
interactive tool. They have other interactive activities such as
Acrostic poems for K-2).
As an extension the children all made their own diamante poems based
on a spring topic. Our art teacher, Mrs. Cox, showed us how to
create frames with colorful borders to display our poems.
After more experimentation with poetry, we decided that we wanted to
be even more colorful and created our class poem for this project
based on the language pattern in the book Somewhere by Jane
Baskwell. This is a wonderful book put out by Mondo Publishing that
contains rhythm, rhyme, pattern, and similes. We had a lot of fun
working collaboratively on this project.
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Colorful Spring
Somewhere in the garden
Orange marigolds sprout in the ground
Somewhere in the meadow
Green grass grows without a sound.
Somewhere in the field
Yellow dandelions spin like tops
Somewhere in the country
Red
strawberries taste like lollipops
Somewhere in the park
Children pedal purple bikes
Somewhere at the beach
The wind blows rainbow
kites.
Somewhere in the pond
Yellow ducklings tip like teapots
Somewhere in the sky
White clouds climb like robots.
Somewhere in Connecticut
Red
robins sing
Somewhere in a classroom
Children welcome colorful spring! |
Standards:
Language Arts:
Engage in a process of generating ideas, drafting, revising,
editing, publishing or presenting.
Use a variety of strategies to develop an extensive
vocabulary.
Recognize literary conventions and devices and understand
how they convey meaning.
Visual Arts:
Students will reflect upon, describe, analyze, interpret and
evaluate their one and other’s work.