It’s almost the end of the school holidays here in my part of the world. For two weeks kids, including my own, have had a beak from school – but come Monday, they’ll be heading back.
So, I thought for Poetry Friday I’d share a school poem, which I wrote a few years ago as part of a set of teaching notes. First, here’s the poem:
Here’s me, trying to get a poem to appear by some sort of magic 🙂
Writing a Poem
Kids crying
kids sighing
kids chewing pens
or writing.
Giggling
and wriggling
and impatiently jiggling.
Passing notes
scrumpling and crumpling pieces of paper
as the clock tick tock ticks
and Miss Imms paces the room
waiting for our poems to appear.
(Copyright Sally Murphy)
This poem was written to demonstrate a simple way to write a poem – in this case, the poem started with a list of observations. The notes, including the poem, are freely available online here.
Hi, Sally. This is a great description of what happens when kids are settling down to write. I see it in the classroom all the time. Then something magical does happen. The room gets quiet and the students are actively writing. Maybe they need that in-between time.
Thanks Laura. Yes, I think the in-between time is a version of what happens to most writers when they sit down to write.