On Wednesday we had an assembly, the Crabgrass Theater performed short poems for us using puppets. The children were very entertained and inspired! I had chosen the "Apology Poetry" activity purposely as a follow up to cash in on the inspiration of the assembly and to connect Marie's art for the day, leaf rubbings. The children did an incredible job on both the art and the poem. They really connected their feelings from the poem to what Marie had them doing, leaf rubbings. It was a perfect storm!
The leftover paper from the rubbings was so pretty, Marie suggested the kids somehow use it, so we put their final edited poem (only some spelling errors) onto the paper and hung it in the hall. The kids felt incredibly successful!
I had to give them a lesson on the format of the poem beforehand, at the beginning of the lesson. Marie and I had the kids brainstorm what people do to leaves, and had the kids pretend they were leaves being separated from the only home they ever knew, the tree. We all physically acted out this separation and it created profound empathy for the leaf. We acted out how we love the sound of a cruching leaf, and pretended to jump into a big pile of crunchy leaves. This role-playing made the poems even more touching and heartfelt!
Friday, the kids worked on embroidering their leaves. It was the perfect way to end the busy week. They needed some downtime, Marie and I floated around the room helping with threading and knotting, and the leaves came out beautifully!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.