Poetry Jams are a "Happening"

April is National Poetry Month and the nation celebrates its poets and their poetry. Connor, Fabiola, Ronshique, Mieko Anne, Anthony, Tyhasiah are all the names of published poets. Their publishers are their teachers, Mrs. Kent and Ms. LoMagno, and the poets are in second grade, but their poetry is as fun and inspirational as the poets they emulate. Check out this one by Connor Frederico entitled “The Hungry Little Shark”.

Today a little shark woke up,
It was very, very hungry.
It ate and ate and ate,
Until the sea was empty,
Except for a very BIG whale!
“Hey,” said the whale!
Did you save some for me?
No.
Oh well,
Gulp!

Poets write their poetry to be read and have had a long tradition of reading their poetry to others. Four second grade classes at the Roanoke Avenue School hosted “Poetry Jams” for their parents. They published their illustrated poems in books and made programs, decorated their rooms in coffee house style and then stepped up to the mic to share their creations. Mieko Anne’s poem “red hair” stands out:

red hair is as bright as fire
red hair red red hair
red hair is so so rare
red hair is like a fruit bowl
full of bananas and grapes
and . . .
only one apple.

In Ms. LoMagno’s classroom battery powered lights sit atop desk-designed coffee house tables. She’s all in black wearing a beret and beaming at each of her pint-sized poets. When they enjoy a particular poem, every one in the room clicks their fingers enthusiastically. A lot of the poets in this room wrote poems about their dogs. Here’s one by Anthony, who says, “Poetry is like singing”. His poem is entitled, “My Dog”.

My dog feels as jiggly as jello and smells as bad
As a dead rat she tastes as bad as left over fish
She hears as good as a wolverine and sees as
good as a bat.

Tyhasiah celebrates reading in her poem, “Reading”.

I like to read it is
Really cool I like
Like to read with
Mrs. LoMagno in school
I love June B. Jones and Amber Brown
Read everyone and you will never frown!

In Mrs. Kent’s Poetry Jam, the students had some fun acting out their favorite poems for their audience. A fun one was entitled “The Barber” by Bill Grossman.

THE BARBER
She was cutting his hair,
But he slipped in his chair,
And she lopped off his ears as she cut.
She shouted, “My shears
Have lopped off your ears!”
And he looked up and said to her, “What?”

Mr. Grossman was once a second grader.