four&twenty

Writing Chocolate Cake

Teaching a child to write and to value their imagination go hand in hand. Writing for real begins when children believe that their ideas are important enough to do the work of shaping words on a page that will communicate that idea.

You could begin to teach a child to write like this:

“A paragraph consists of one or more sentences focusing on a single idea within a specific structure that enables a reader to understand the idea.”

Or, you could begin like this:

“Let’s write a chocolate cake!”

In my experience, the second option is nearly groan free.

Set out paper and pencil for later. Begin with discovery. You might bake a cake from scratch or assemble a cake with pre-baked cakes, pre-made frosting, and a variety of decorations. You might try several chocolate cake recipes and have a taste test. Either way, as you are exploring chocolate cake, discuss the process of discovery along the way. Once the discovery session is complete, encourage your writer to pick up their paper and pencil to begin the process of communicating what they discovered to someone else. Remind them that their writing is a gift twice as delicious as chocolate cake.

Walking writers through the process of crafting a paragraph about chocolate cake is easy as 1, 2, 3… I promise!

1.  Hook: The first sentence in a paragraph outlines the idea that will be presented. But more importantly, this is the sentence that grabs the reader’s attention, first impressions matter. This sentence can be a statement, a command, a question, or even an exclamation. The goal is simply to entice the reader to read on. Honestly, once writers have crafted the Hook, words flow until they hit the Clincher.

Ask the writer, “For our paragraph about chocolate cake do we want a flavorless, bland topic sentence like this…?”

I am now going to tell you about chocolate cake.

Of course the resounding response will be, “NO!”

At this point remind them that the bland sentence is not wrong, but it’s not original, not creative, and it certainly will not inspire the reader. Now, together try playing with the sentence to make it grab the reader’s attention.

Craft a small sentence in collaboration and focus on finding just the right adjective to describe chocolate cake. Here “mouthwatering” can be exchanged with a variety of great words and phrases: tasty, lip smacking, scrumptious. Begin the list making until the writer come up with their own words to fill in the blank. Add the word and the hook is their own.

Chocolate cake is a mouthwatering treat.

Or...

Provide a few facts about chocolate and encourage them to choose one that they find amazing and then, encourage them to write it in their own words.

Did you know that a long time ago, chocolate cake wasn’t chocolate, but a spiced cake more like gingerbread made to eat with a cup of hot chocolate?

Or...

Have them begin narrative style, “Tell a story that includes chocolate cake facts in a make-believe story.”

It all began on a dark and stormy night when I decided to bake a chocolate cake. 

2.  Body Sentences: This is the part of the paragraph that presents the details, facts, and examples that support the main idea. With reluctant writers, three sentences is a good place to begin, “Now write three more sentences that tell the reader something you discovered about chocolate cake.” As writers become more confident, not only will sentence count increase, but more specific details and more interesting language will begin to emerge. 

3. Twist: This last sentence of the paragraph should not only summarize the main idea of the paragraph but it should leave the reader with something to think about.

Ask the writers again, “For our paragraph about chocolate cake do we want to end with a flavorless, bland topic sentence like this…?”

That is all I know about chocolate cake.

And, again, the resounding response will be, “NO way!”

Remind them, “Bland sentences are not original, not creative, and certainly will not inspire the reader.” I begin by modeling ideas, allow them to use a phrase from my twist, and soon enough the writers come up with some pretty fantastic ideas of their own.

Chocolate cake reminds my taste buds to blast off!

Chocolate cake, even the smallest silken-spun morsel is just right any old time.             

Chocolate cake, like a well-crafted paragraph, is worth every single bite.

Gathering Descriptive Words

Taking notes is a foundational skill that will accompany your student throughout their entire educational journey, and beyond. Even though there is no “right” way of taking notes, it is important to learn how to extract relevant and pertinent information from a text in a neatly organized, concise manner. This takes practice. When students are encouraged to practice note taking, and engage in the work of capturing the most important facts from their reading, they will begin to recognize how all the parts of a story fit into a larger picture. Learning to take notes helps to lay the foundation for rich, clear, and organized writing.

When readers observe character development, trace a setting, and watch a plot thicken, they are learning more than just the skill of recording facts, they are actually beginning to realize the potential of storytelling. Teaching students to dig into a story, to do the “work” of reading for meaning, enables them to discover how language has the power to communicate significance.

Consider what is gained as students learn to infer abstract traits and values from literal details embedded in great stories.

curious, wise, boastful
shy, witty
arrogant, reliable,
courageous
devout, outlandish
stable, tricky, vain

List poem?

No! This list is a portion of the lexicon that develops over time as readers dig into the work of thinking deeply about fictional characters.

As students reach for just the right descriptive adjective to assign to a character's unique personality they simultaneously expand their vocabulary, recognize the profound specificity of language, engage with the story at hand on a deeper level, and  gain deep understanding of abstract real-life concepts from a make-believe situations.

The sample page above is student work in response to Leo Lionni's It's Mine, a simple fable about the blessings of sharing. Our Earlybird literature guides provide your youngest students with the opportunity to share classic read-alouds with you, while exploring simple literary concepts like characterization and plot. Find all of our Earlybird guides here!

At the Intersection of Math and Writing

I began the writing workshop with Cuisinare rods and colored pencils. My writers looked puzzled.

“Today you're going to make a Cuisinaire construction and then describe how you made the construction with words on paper so that a reader will be able to navigate through the paragraph to create an identical construction.”

This is my idea of a hands-on How To paragraph.

“Just like math, when writing instructions you have to show all your steps.”

Young writers need to practice working through the process of crafting words. It's challenging teaching young writers that words need to be wisely chosen and crafted carefully to accurately communicate a specific idea to an audience of readers. This is challenging because the task is a process that involves tremendous effort on the part of the writer and young writers want to skip steps. Participating in this work over time sets a foundation for the rhythm of the writer's routine to be established.

Before beginning, I  challenged my writers to keep in mind the cardinal rule of our writing workshop:
“Words are scribbled on paper for a reader to read... your words are a gift.”

The young writers eagerly spent an hour an a half contentedly drafting rough drafts paragraph that they took home to self-conference and craft to final draft.

“Next week we will exchange final drafts and see if readers can make the construction.” 

Begin all writing experiences by breaking the task at hand into steps. Remind writers that writing is a process. Getting young writers to engage in process is a tricky business that takes time to root, but truth be told, process alone takes the daunting out of writing.

We broke this specific project down as follows:

What's your big idea?
Make a construction with Cuisinaire rods. Map the construction on graph paper with colored pencils.

Write it down...!
Begin by use a topic wheel to outline each step involved in the construction. Craft a paragraph following the topic wheel outline. Be sure to introduce the topic with a sentence that hooks the reader into the big idea. The supporting sentences should include specific details that will allow the reader to navigate through the Cuisinaire construction without a hitch. Craft a single sentence at the end of the paragraph that will conclude the exercise and add an interesting clincher that makes idea of the paragraph echo in the mind of the reader.

Conference with yourself and someone else...
Now, re-read what you wrote and decide, as a reader, if you are accurately communicating your big idea. Use a red pen to make changes. Ask someone else to read your work and to add red marks when they find confusing areas, holes, or dead ends in your “How To” paragraph.
 
Revise
Make a final sweep with the red pen for common errors—spelling, punctuation, capitalization, tense, and so on.

Final Draft
Use your best handwriting or type up a final draft!

Lexicon for Advent

This year we are collecting words.

My high school literature workshop began with an eight-week close reading and explored a kaleidoscope of Shakespeare’s words.

This past Monday, as the curtain closed on The Tempest, and culminating essays were handed in, I had an idea, “Open your lexicons, I have a word for you.” We pulled out the dictionaries (old school and iTouch) and raced for the definition.

ADVENT
L. adentus "arrival"
The coming or arrival, especially of something important.

One thing led to another, and by the end of the spontaneous lexicon activity, “wait” and “anticipate” and “expect” and “hope” all led to another idea.

As we wait, anticipate, expect, and hope during the month of December, we’ll create a collaborative collection, one word and one image per day. In January we’ll craft a poem from the verbal and visual advent lexicon as a reminder that waiting, anticipating, expecting, and hoping remind us to marvel in joy, in peace.

We’ll be posting what we gather on our Facebook page. We’d love for you to join us!

Crafting a Poem of Thanksgiving

I shrink in the company of Sarcasm. I’m admittedly deficient, two steps behind when it comes to her volley of shrill phrases. When she enters the building, I chuckle a bit but rarely participate. I acknowledge that, on edge of her spectrum, chatter is light-hearted, friendly. Still, try as I might, I can’t quite squeak a giggle in the midst of her raucous presence.

Recently two students in my guild moved on to explore new education paths. Both students had been part of the guild for many years. My idea was to provide an opportunity for closure by challenging writers to craft a farewell phrase. I decided to incorporate this exercise into our regular writing workshop. What better way to put my “writing is a gift” motto into action?

So we began, “Let’s craft kind words to encourage our friends as they set out on a new adventure.” Sounds simple, right?

As I watched the card I provided move from writer to writer, I anticipated reading the messages before posting them the old fashioned way. But later that day, when I sat down with a cup of tea excited to read the phrases inscribed on the card, my heart sank. There she was, Sarcasm, smirking in all her glory, “Have fun wandering the halls,” and “Happy Easter (jk),” and “Yeah, whatever, thanks for leaving me behind,” and “Life is good (not),” …not a single kind word. There were careless spelling, capitalization, and punctuation errors.

Decibels peaking, Sarcasm crossing over to the caustic zone, I wanted to shrink. At one point in the reading, I wanted to cry. Our guild is not a typical classroom where children come and go annually, most of these children have been learning together for many years. These children are respectful of and grateful for friendship. Still, not a single phrase in the card was crafted vulnerably. What in the world? I knew that this group would really miss their friends who had moved on. I knew this must be something else. Maybe they did not know how to craft vulnerable words.

Da Vinci Summer II: Creative Writing and The Periodic Table

A few days ago Søren shared an idea, “am going to write a story using all the letters on the periodic table.”

What in the world? After a summer of focusing on the garden—tilling earth, planting seeds, and harvesting fruit—the periodic table of the elements? But in the end, I realized that Søren's idea has everything to do with the garden.

Last year I taught chemistry in my guild to a handful of high school students. We read The Periodic Kingdom, and “journeyed through the land of chemical elements” with P.W. Atkins. We watched the periodic table. Yes, watched. This was mad science in action. Chemists from the University of Nottingham have created a short video about each of the 118 elements. Stoichiometry, polarity, and biochemistry entered our discussion, and we concocted reactions in our little make-shift lab, extracted DNA from a variety of sources. But our explorations of the table itself was most amazing. And where was Søren? The little hovering bird was gathering seeds, of course. 

So this morning, I woke up, hobbled sleepily into the kitchen to make a cup of tea, and saw our favorite coffee table acquisition from the chemistry class: The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe, on the table along with a writer's toolkit—pen, paper, dictionary. 

Søren had an idea and was brave enough to engage the work, even during the last week of summer.

Thanks Leonardo.

Wonder & Delight - Language Arts

I am so excited for fall! It's true, I am actually excited for the first day of school! While I love teaching all subjects. Language arts is near and dear to my heart.

When our children are young, we teach them to decode (read) and to encode (write) language. This work, in fact, is a complicated task that spans at least three years of our child’s education.

We teach the child that letters—abstract strokes on a page—represent sounds. String those sounds together and you get words. Place words in just the right order on that same page and, well, now you’re talking.

From here the child learns to define, punctuate, to structurally order words on the page according to the rules of grammar. The child might not be able to define exactly why, but soon will discover that words strung together just right are delightful!

Remember Mother Goose?

Blow, wind, blow! And go, mill, go!
That the miller may grind his corn;
That the baker may take it,
And into rolls make it,
And send us some hot in the morn.

And Robert Loius Stevenson’s A Child’s Garden of Verses?

When I was down beside the sea
A wooden spade they gave to me
To dig the sandy shore. 

My holes were empty like a cup.
In every hole the sea came up, 
Till it could come no more.

Remember when syntax was a wonder before it was a chore? We crush wonder when we belabor rules at the expense of discovery. Reading and writing is so much more than decoding and encoding.

How do we encourage our children to care about the work of reading?

How do we encourage our children to care about the work writing?

We encourage them to be curious. We encourage them to care about their ideas.

Many years ago, curiouser and curiouser, I had an idea.

How could I teach my children the valuable “HOW TOs” of reading while simultaneously encouraging their curiosity? How could I teach them the valuable “HOW TOs” of writing while simultaneously allowing them to shape their big ideas?

This quest has developed into an extended family passion—Blackbird & Company Educational Press!

I have found that books are terrific mentors, but I have a support team too. Following are some of them:

For phonics I use Explode the Code and a fun new online version.

With my older children I use, Vocabulary from the Classical Roots.

I love Easy Grammar (have used it for dozens of years).

When we teach our children that reading and writing is not a chore but an opportunity, we empower our children to delight.

Salon des Artistes

The most inspiring and fun-filled day of the whole school year is our annual Salon des Artistes. Reveling in all that been created throughout the year we celebrating and affirm the work of each young poet, filmmaker, artist, and writer. AMAZING!!

 

The Poetry of Words

Writing begins with words.

Enacting poetry is a great way to get excited about words.

Rainy days were bittersweet when I was in elementary school. While the playground was sorely missed, watching the rain run like a waterfall down the side of our classroom that was mostly made of glass was poetic. And of course, there were the rainy day games to brighten the atmosphere. I remember one teacher in particular who introduced us to the best rainy day game of all: Dictionary. She would choose a word that none of us had ever heard and then have us write our made-up definition for the word on a slip of paper. We dropped the definitions into a basket, then she randomly read them out loud and we voted for our favorite. When she read the real definition from the dictionary, she planted, seed by seed, an appreciation for words that has not left me these many years later.

Once, while teaching poetry on a rainy day, I remembered that teacher and the classroom with the glass wall, and with a dictionary in hand, began my own lesson. We were reading a poem by William Wordsworth, I began by having my students think of the poet’s last name as a really great compound word. I went on to share my rainy day memory and began exploring vocabulary from “Composed Upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802,” Wordsworth’s famous sonnet.

We were about to embark on a game of Dictionary with a twist. I would attempt to take my students on a field trip across that bridge, enable them to compose their very own poem. When I gave them the first word to tackle, their definitions were non-specific, close to the real thing, but not precise. I opened the dictionary, flipped then ran my finger down a page, “Infuse, to fill; pervade.” I read the second definition, “To release flavor or healing properties while being soaked,” and then I infused tea in a glass mug of steaming water. The students liked this so much that we experimented. We infused darkness with light by closing blinds to slits and watching light stream in, by lighting candles in dark corners.

After our little game of Dictionary we took a few steps across the bridge, time for the real lesson to begin. I had them close their eyes and listen to the word infuse, encouraged them to let sounds seep into their ears, “The sounds of words matter, so does the shape.”

Now the students in my workshop were curious, “Shape?”

“Yes, shape.” Writers of all ages often forget the vital connection between words and image.

I led them into another room, to a table laden with jars of glitter, paint and brushes, drawing pencils, chalk pastels, scissors, glue sticks, stacks of newspaper and magazines, and a basket of Dymo label makers. It was time for my students to “find” poetry and in the process discover the power of words.

I showed the students how to begin with a random block, “Rip out a chunk of words from a page of newspaper or magazine.” I instructed them to read the block of words out of the context of the article, “Now the poet must think about the specific meaning of the words being read to discover a new, personalized, context to place the words into.” I showed them how to paint out certain words to make their new context emerge and to move from there to an original poem. Then I set them free to explore the supplies on the table. They didn’t need much instruction beyond, “Create a poetic collage.”

I am devoted to connecting writers to words by teaching them to crave what all good writers crave: Specificity.

Taking time to consider words is an undervalued skill, is often considered a tedious task. Taking the “boring” out of something ultimately involves changing the attitude about the task. Exploring words is an adventure. Learning to use a dictionary, the kind that you hold in your hands, is the skill that over time will allow young writers to infuse the worth of words into the world.

– Kim

The Book as Mentor

If we dig deep enough into the heart of a story, dig to its very core, I believe we will always spark curiosity. And when we press into that curiosity, we often discover a treasure to inform our own life. A good mentor leads us by the hand on an exploration of discovery that will make us a richer person.

As I am passing out the books and discovery guides, I introduce them to the story, “Allegra Leah Shapiro has been selected as a finalist in a prestigious violin competition and this stirs up all sorts of inner conflict.” 

Why does summer have to be so hectic? 

What does it mean to be half Jewish and half gentile? 

Why is soprano, Diedre, crying?

How can I be a twelve-year-old a violinist and have time to be a friend?

Why is my brother so annoying?

How has Mr. Trouble lost his song?

What is this gift from Bubbe Raisa?

And what of this great-grandmother I’ve been named after?

Will I be able to dig deep enough for Mozart?

Can I undo what has been done?

“The Mozart Season,” I tell them, “is a quiet story, one filled with resounding music that just might change your life.” I leave it there, hand them the book and tell them I am looking forward to what will unfold.

Five months later, I gather my group together to congratulate our writing and visual art students who were recognized regionally by Scholastic Alliance for Young Artists & Writers this year, plus two high school students who had work published in an international online literary journal.          

As I am handing out the awards, it dawns on me that four of the award winning projects began with the writers and artists responding to The Mozart Season and blossomed into something imaginatively original.

A great book can be a mentor.

Here you can view a short film inspired by the book as well as a beautiful piece of writing by a 6th grade student.

 

Gurgle gurgle, trickle trickle, swish swish swish, everything is music. The bubbling fountain sings a heart shattering song while the wind hums a chilling melody. Rain jolts in, dancing on its stony stage.  He stares into the shame of another day, where bold shapes of towering buildings blot out the rising sun. Glass windows taunt the morning dew. The dense noise of honking horns and blaring radios submerge as the day grows old, life in the city. It’s all a blur--work, school, play, eat, sleep--never ending cycle. Those who can’t keep up are thrown to the side. There are no second chances in the city. Money is what matters, money money money. Without money you can’t survive, no need for creativity in the city. So he has no purpose, The man, his music, and a violin.

ead the entire story by clickng here: Download The Green Violinist

Want to inspire your students to dig deeper? Consider exploring The Mozart Season (grades 5-8) using our Blackbird & Company Literature Discovery Guide.

Spring Into Poetry

This time in the school year can be particularly difficult—a sort of doldrums. Everyone has been working hard for many months and summer still feels quite a ways off. You're starting to feel the pressure of all that you haven't accomplished...or wanted to. Standardized testing may be looming. The weather around Southern California becomes a confusing mix of sweater days and t-shirt days and at least for me, the urge to purge kicks in strong with garage sale season right around the corner.

With April being National Poetry Month, why not infuse your last weeks of school with a focus on the wonder of words. Poetry is at the same time economical and extravagant. It has the power to unlock a child's voice and encourage writing skills in ways that prose and essay writing simply cannot. My own daughter has a stunning gift for poetry that would never have been unearthed had we not delved into reading and writing poems at a young age. Don't be intimidated, jump in, be creative and have fun. Try to incorporate a little something into everyday.

• Revisit past four&twenty posts for some ideas. A personal favorite uses chocolate bars as inspiration for writing poems about place and taste!   

• Participate in Poem In Your Pocket Day on April 14. I love the idea of having a poem on hand to sponatneously share with family and friends throughout the day.

• Great Poems to Teach lists important poems, some with audio readings. Poetry 180 also has a compiled list of poems geared towards high school students—one for every day of the school year. Both are helpful for getting to know famous poets and various forms.

• Start a book club with friends using our poetry-focused, litertaure discovery guides. Younger students can explore animal poetry with our Douglas Florian guide while Love That Dog and Locomotion both tell profound stories through the use of verse.

• Use technology to share poetry with the world! Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, PowerPoint, Flickr, iMovie, digital cameras....the possibilities are endless.

• Here are some really creative ideas for word play from The Crafty Crow. Click through to Austin Kleon's inventive newspaper blackout poems. What a great exercise in eliminating words to find the poem that was hiding there all along.

• Embark on our Exploring Poetry unit. Read about it here from a blogger-mom who did!

• For a creative lesson idea, read The Poetry of Words recently written by Kim for Heart of the Matter.

• Plant a PoeTree.

Most of all, enjoy learning, exploring, discovering, and creating with words!

– Tracey

Researching Famous Women

Did you know that March is Women's History Month?

I stumbled upon one of my prized possessions the other day, paper and pencil in hand, a writer looking for creative inspiration. As I unfolded the mass of faded-yellow legal pad and saw Sara’s profuse notes staring back at me, I felt the smile stretch from ear to ear and was taken back to the summer of 1997. Who needs a time machine?  

Detail of Amelia Earhart project - pen, watercolor, corrugated cardboard, oil pastels

For the coming school year our desire was to continue to provide opportunities for directed year-long research. The intrinsic reward of this type of activity is that children discover over time to value work that is not instantaneous. Beyond that, the objective is to develop the muscle necessary for independent discovery, which will have a direct connection to critical thinking. But there’s always a twist.

Back in time, Sara and I are in my kitchen. Where else? Chattering away we are brainstorming. We want to inspire our young girls (then first and third graders) to follow the thread of perseverance to its logical conclusion. What if they engage in research of famous women from history who will model the skill? What if we use great picture books and incorporate sophisticated art materials? Yes! And of course it will be great fun! And, think about it, I mean, we will be exploring literature, and this is history too, right? Ah, the glory of cross-curricular activities!

So, with a baby on my hip stirring up dinner in a pot on the stove, I imagined with Sara, her legal pad in hand chock full of bibliographic lists of famous women biographies she had researched to get our girls started, we constructed a series of research questions that the girls would use to guide them in their research and developed a presentation format. We decided that, for each book read, our girls would write a report and craft a creative project depicting the famous woman.

Detail from Amelia and Eleanor Go For a Ride by Pam Munoz Ryan

Looking back, the trick to this kind of research is to be prepared. Because we had a plan, we were able to sit with our girls, take turns reading aloud with them, and guide them as they developed the skill gathering just the right tidbits about the famous woman’s life to include in their simple research paper. We had time to help them explore art materials such as paint and canvas, chalk pastels, and textiles. We were able to encourage them as they endeavored to craft a creative project that would not only celebrate each famous woman, but also would propel them into the process of seeing a creative work from the start to the finish line.

Set as a two hour per week activity, generally speaking, we read and wrote about one book per week unless the book was long, in which case this leg of the activity could take a couple weeks or more (the “there is no hurry” truth applies here), and we completed the artistic activity in two or three weeks. From there, it’s all, well, history.

Only looking back do I see the great pay-off, our girls, all grown now, Hannah is 21 and Evelyn is 19, are women that turn heads not only because they are lovely, but because they are busy following the thread of perseverance to its logical conclusion and are consequently girls who dare to dream.

– Kim

Detail of Faith Ringgold project - fabric wall hanging

Spread from Dinner at Aunt Connie's House by Faith Ringgold

Detail of Eleanor Roosevelt project - acrylic on canvas

Eleanor by Barbara Cooney


Detail of Wilma Rudolf project - colored pencil, pen, acrylic, collage 

Coinage is Not Small Change

“Neo” from the Greek is new.

“Logos” from the Greek is word.

Put them together and what do you get?

neologism

A new word.

So what better place to end our month of celebrating words. Yes, that’s right, we made up words… such fun!

I began the lesson introducing the group to three suffixes and some common examples:

» cosm
[From Greek kosmos, order, universe.]
Universe; world
microcosm, macrocosm

» esque
[F., fr. It. -isco. Cf. –ish.]
An adjective suffix indicating manner or style
Arabesque, Romanesque

» ism
[Greek -ismos, -isma noun suffix]
A suffix used to form action nouns from verbs, distinctive doctrine, system, or theory
skepticism, truism

…and then I set them free. Here are some of my favorites:

appleism                       
buttonism                      
TVism                                  
s-e-e-ism                       
explosionism                       
snickerism           

pencilesque
tablesque
windesque
awesomesque
wafflesque
bubblesque

ballooncosm
bordomcosm
battlecosm
bouncehousecosm
writercosm
lollycosm 

Lewis Caroll had the right idea. Words are Jabberwocky.

Count the neologisms.

– Kim

Valentines & Vocabulary

Blake has been in a student in my writing workshop for 9 years. His hand goes up like clockwork each spring, "When can we have a spelling bee?"

My response in the past has been a nod and a smile, but this year something sparked.

Our group dedicated the month of February to words. Twenty students ranging from Kindergarten to 8th grade are collecting words. At the end of the month each student will offer their ten favorite words from their very own lexicon, just enough for a culminating mini spelling bee. 

We are having a blast.

I'm so glad for Blake's persistence.

Then when Tracey stumbled upon this recipe for handmade conversation hearts, we had the perfect activity for a valentine and vocabulary celebration. After all, one of our favorite books, The Boy Who Loved Words, teaches us that words are a gift! And what better gift than a sweet one.

Let our pictures tell the story of how much fun we had!

A "heartfelt" thanks to the fabulous Crafty Crow blog for connecting us to this inspiring and super-fun Love Day craft!

Delicious Poetry

I didn’t really need anything from the market that day. What I really needed was a diversion from my work. Sad but true, Trader Joe’s did the trick.

All was going according to plan until I noticed a display near the frozen aisle. There, right before my eyes were stacks and stacks of enormous chocolate bars imported from all over the globe.

A normal middle-aged woman might have responded, “C-h-o-c-o-l-a-t-e! Yes!” She might have cracked open a bar and taken a big bite. But not me, no, I’m a teacher. So I grabbed a handful of the luscious bars and got in line, while simultaneously crafting a lesson for the next day.

This would be a cross-curricular writing lesson. I would begin with a session of chocolate taste testing, gathering sense words and phrases with the group along the way. Then, after my students chose their favorite variety from the tasting, I would direct them to a mass of geography books, the ones I was on my way to pluck from the shelves of my local library on my way home from the trip to Trader Joe’s (the trip that was supposed to divert me from my work). My students would then research the country from which their favorite chocolate originated. After they gathered some notes, they would craft a poem of place and taste! By the time I pulled into my driveway a thought crossed my oddly refreshed brain, “Tomorrow will be grand!”

– Kim

The result of that lesson is delicious:

Swiss Chocolate (Taylor, age 14)

It melts in my mouth

            silky,

like velvety Swiss hills

gleaming in the morning sun.

 

Sweet milk awakes my

            taste buds

like the cry of an alpha

horn in the alps.

 

But it doesn't last long,

            no,

like a fiery sunset

it melts away

revealing a moony relish.