We had more wonderful poetry readings today. We also had guests tuning in from India, Seattle, Chicago, Belvidere, Florida, North Carolina, and a media center in Lexington, KY. The students loved extending their listening audience and hearing their warm comments. You can listen to today’s archives at the links below:
Today, 14 classes came to our poetry cafe to read their original and favorite poems. Many people attended via Adobe Connect: parents, grandparents, other Barrow classrooms, and more. If you missed the day or want to relive it, you can view the archives below.
Our 3 top winners
Almost 90 students entered our 2nd annual poetry contest. It was once again very tough to decide, but ultimately one overall winner was chosen for PreK-1st grade, 2nd-3rd grade, and 4th-5th grade. Other winners were chosen in a variety of categories based on the elements of poetry and various forms of poetry. Some of these awards included list poetry, rhyming poetry, acrostic poetry, descriptive poetry, story poetry, and unique poetry.
The winning Prek-1st poem from Diana:
The winning 2nd-3rd poem from Eli:
The winning 4th-5th poem from Emma:
Here’s a gallery of our other fantastic winners!
Our all-girl 5th grade team competed today in the Clarke County Battle of the Books. It was a tough competition with many outstanding teams. Although our team did not win this year, we are extremely proud of their hard work and dedication to reading. Congratulations to Hanna, Ana, Avery, Molly, and Caroline for representing Barrow well. We also would like to congratulate Alps Road Elementary who won this year’s battle. I had the opportunity to hear their team compete, and they were very impressive. Their all-boy team knew the books forward and backward and could locate info in a book in a matter of seconds. I was very proud of the level of reading in our district that was represented at Clarke Central High School today. Bravo Clarke County students for your achievements.
Today Mrs. Yawn’s 2nd grade class made book spine poems. This is a project that I started with classes a couple of years ago, but over time it has developed. I’ve learned more about crafting book spine poems that make more sense than randomly pulling books off the shelf. One tip that I give students is to look for book titles that don’t have character name in them. I also suggest looking for one book title that speaks to you in some way and building upon that. For example, the book I know Here refers to a place, so you might look for other books that refer to place to make a strong poem. Here are the results of today.
On Thursday April 12th & Friday April 13th, we invite you and your family members to tune in to our live poetry broadcast from the Barrow Media Center. Every class will visit the media center to read original and favorite poetry into our open microphone. You can view these readings via Adobe Connect online where you will see and hear the students and also type comments for the students. To access the webcast, follow these instructions:
We hope to “see” many of you (and your family members) at our live webcast. It means so much to the students to know there is an audience listening and commenting on their work. Mr. Plemmons will share any comments you leave with the students.
Schedule for Thursday April 12th
| Time | Class |
| 8:20 | Sheppard-2nd |
| 8:40 | Hart-1st |
| 9:00 | Wyatt-1st |
| 9:20 | Em-K |
| 9:40 | Li-K |
| 10:00 | Watson-1st |
| 10:20 | Stuckey-1st |
| 10:40 | Shealey-3rd |
| 12:20 | Brink-2nd |
| 12:40 | Brewer-2nd |
| 1:00 | Yawn-2nd |
| 1:20 | O’Prey 5th |
| 1:40 | Boyle-K |
| 2:00 | Vertus-K |
Schedule for Friday April 13
| Time | Class |
| 8:00 | Slongo-5th |
| 8:20 | Cross-5th |
| 8:40 | Carney-K |
| 9:00 | Hocking-Prek |
| 9:20 | Spurgeon-3rd |
| 9:40 | McCannon-3rd |
| 10:00 | Griffith-3rd |
| 10:20 | Clarke-PreK |
| 10:40 | Olin-4th |
| 11:00 | Freeman-4th |
| 11:20 | Selleck-4th |
We’ve once again been busy in the media center preparing for our annual “Poem in My Pocket” day. We have stretched the event across 2 days, April 12 & 13 to create a 20 minute space for each class to come to the library and read their original and favorite poems into our open mic at a poetry cafe. We will once again broadcast the event live via Adobe Connect. You are welcome to attend virtually on those 2 days (schedule will be posted soon) by visiting http://clarkecounty.adobeconnect.com/barrowmediacenter
Some of our poetry lesson ideas can be found by visiting http://technopoetry.wikispaces.com/.
This year, I’ve been using Poll Everywhere a lot to craft list poems with whole classes. After looking at several mentor texts, the students each create one line in a list poem about “Things in Our Desks”. The idea is to choose one item in your desk and add some describing words in front of the noun to make the line sound more poetic. Using the iPads, the students submit their line for the poem. All lines appear on the smart board, and we read the poem together and talk about revisions we might make if we were to finalize the poem. I’ve also been using Poll Everywhere to create shape poems. Students submit their description of a cat. Then, I copy all of their lines and paste them into Tagxedo and put them into a cat shape. Before the class leaves, I print a copy of the poem for them to take with them.
Our 5th graders have been working on a collaborative project between the media center and art. Students are taking digital photographs of themselves, altering the photos in Picnik (before it disappears), and writing an autobiographical poem inspired by their photograph.
Our 5th graders have also been learning about many elements of poetry such as rhyme scheme, alliteration, personification, similes, metaphor, hyperbole, and more. After looking at each element and hearing multiple poems that showcase different structures of poetry, the students have a poetry scavenger hunt through stacks and stacks of poetry books in order to find each of the elements that we discussed.
We are also hosting our 2nd annual poetry contest. Students have been busy submitting their poems for judging on Monday April 9th. We hope to have all poems judged prior to Poem in Your Pocket Day.
Expect the Miraculous 