January Chalk-a-bration and Poem Love

Today is January 31st.  Do you know what that means???  It's Chalk-a-bration day!!



 





I have linked up with Betsy at Teaching Young Writers to share a little chalk love.

Yesterday, my students were fortunate to have a visit from the amazing Betsy!  She came to share a little poetry love with my students.  They read poetry, shared ideas and chalked a poem with Betsy and it turned out just amazing!  I was very proud of my little kinder sweeties.  They were completely engaged in the poetry, their work, their thoughts.  In fact, when it was time for Betsy to leave, the kids wanted to keep working on poetry!  Score! 

The poem they wrote in partners and small groups was assembled into a larger class poem.  You can see it here on Betsy's blog.  It starts..."In Kindergarten, you get to..." and is a compilation of what they can do as kindergarteners.  It's really quite amazing for their first ever written poetry!

As the rest of the day unfolded, I kept thinking about how excited my students were to try this new thing and how the most easily frustrated students in my room were excited and quick to grab a chalk bit and get started.  This isn't always the case for those little ones when it's writing workshop time.  They are the sweeties to drag their feet, need to find a pencil, "accidently" spill the contents of their writing folders, etc., but none of those kids even thought about it.  They grabbed chalk and joined in with the rest of their peers like writing is the easiest thing in the world for them.  It gave me a lot to think about.  I have found an "in" with those little ones!  I have all kinds of poetry ideas beginning to swirl in my head for the future...beginning with a groundhog poem...assuming we can actually go to school on Monday (so many SNOW DAYS around here!). 

It wasn't just the kids that Betsy had thinking, though.  All afternoon, something kept working in the back of my mind.  I kept thinking about how much the kids had enjoyed sharing ideas about what they do in kindergarten, but we hadn't given any thought to what the teacher gets to do in kindergarten, and that is where my own poem began.  Since I'm not as brave as Betsy, I chalked it on my iPad rather than venturing out into the snow with my chalk.

 

In kindergarten we get to:

watch eyes light up faces

see grins ear to ear

listen to storytellers

watch readers take hold

see writers unfold

listen to happy songs sung

watch scientists bloom

see math minds grow

listen to problems being solved

watch crayons stay inside lines

see hugs between friends

listen to the wonder

 

 

Be sure to head on over to Betsy's blog Teaching Young Writers and check out more chalk today!  To read even more about Betsy's chalk-poetry work, check out her other blog ithinkinpoems today too!