Friday, June 3, 2016

SPARK Camp - Celebrate #12


Each week Ruth Ayres extends an invitation to share and celebrate events, big or small, from our week. 


This week I had the privilege of working with K-5 students at our SPARK (Super Powered Activities to Recharge Kids) camp for high ability kids.  I always teach poetry which I LOVE because many times the creative side of writing is smothered (and sometimes eliminated!) by the gotta-get-em-ready-for-the-test writing.  


This camp is an outlet for those creative students.  My session is hard to compete against drones, Spheros, Ollies, 3D printers, 3Doodlers, and Augmented Reality.  But on the first day when others had technical difficulties, my group "charged" on with good ole paper and pencil!  No, my kids did not fly drones through hula hoops or have races with Ollies and Spheros.  Instead, they created beautiful poems that can be shared with the world.  That is a celebration.

My first session was K-2nd grade, and this was the first year I had kindergartners.  I have to admit, I was a little nervous.  I was not sure what kind of writing to expect from them.  I ended up enjoying this session most of all.  We wrote list poems, color poems, and diamante and then created a gallery in Google slides.  Here is a link if you would like to view the entire gallery.
  



My second session was with 3rd-5th graders, and several of them were kids I had last summer.  I started out teaching poems which were number related such as haiku, zip ode, fibonacci poetry, and cinquain.  But many of them remembered the word play poems we did last year, and that ended up being what they wanted to write.  Friday we culminated our week with a Skype visit with Laura Purdie Salas. Here is the link to their gallery.






Today I celebrate paper and pencils and poetry!

14 comments:

  1. Leigh Anne, Your students exude talent. I cannot get over the K-2 selections. They are little wordsmiths.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you Bernadette! I was completely blown away by their work. This is a four day camp for students in our district. Since I am 6th grade teacher, this camp gives me the opportunity to work with these younger kiddos. Lucky me!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow! What poets!!! I love the idea of this camp and it sounds like so much fun!! These students wrote amazing poetry! I, too, "...celebrate paper and pencils and poetry!" Can't wait to see you in a few weeks!!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Awe! I love these. How neat you were able to work with so many different grade levels. Super cool way to see progressions! I also chuckled with the drones and 3D printers you had to "compete" with. Isn't that the truth? But, nothing beats a healthy balance of pencil and paper, too ;)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Wow! It's always so encouraging to see what kids can do and write when we just give them the time and space to express themselves. I love these poems, and it's going to motivate me going into the next school year. Thanks so much for sharing these.

    ReplyDelete
  6. What a fun camp for you and the kids! Love the galleries of their work!

    ReplyDelete
  7. A poetry filled week - an awesome celebration. I admire that you had the energy and will to create poetry with kids of different ages. Thank you for your comment on my photos only post.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Oh Leigh Anne! I just love this work. How fun! Even though we only have a few days left I'm going to share the slides with my kiddos, just to show them what's possible. Maybe they will share some fun stuff over the summer! Love it!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Poetry is so fun. I've done it before with kindergarten in my library classes, but it was challenging. You and your students did a great job. The poems are truly beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I love that you are offering a poetry class! I have no doubt that you could teach me so many things. Thanks for sharing some of their work, I love seeing it!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Looks like your week went well. I can't believe it already came and went. Sounds like your students had a great time with poetry.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Love the poems your kids wrote from the summer camp. I've been busy weeding out my poetry files and ran across your poem...A Day in the Life (6-26-13). It's a keeper! I'll keep you posted about the new book. Happy summer, Leigh Ann!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Yes, celebrate poetry and learning, Leigh Anne. I am featuring some of your writers in my spring gallery and summer gallery. (Would you like to submit an #imagepoem as well for Spring's Seeds? Please tell these children their poems have been chosen to represent student voice:
    Spring Gallery: Nathan
    Summer Gallery: Naomi M.-Can Addilyn R. change her poem to have just summer featured?, kelsey

    ReplyDelete
  14. Wow an inspiring post. Great poems. Thanks for linking. I came over from the party. Enjoy your summer.

    ReplyDelete