Let the Poetry Jams Begin!

(May 12, 2008--Riverhead, NY) APRIL showers bring May flowers AND Poetry Jams. April is National Poetry Month and the students in the Riverhead Central School District worked very hard in April reading poems, learning new words, studying the elements of poetry, working with published poet Brod Baggert to learn more about the process of writing poetry and finally writing their own poems. NOW it's time for them to share their poetry with a wider audience via Publishing Parties and Poetry Jams.

Some of the district's youngest poets held one of the first Poetry Jams. Keri Stromski's kindergarteners at the Aquebogue Elementary School shared their poetry with their classmates, their parents, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Diane B. Scricca, and Aquebogue Principal Phil Kent.

“Poetry is all around us, in the things we do, see, taste, hear and smell,” Mrs. Stromski told the assembled audience. “But finding the words and writing them down can be tricky for anyone, let alone five and six year olds! I was apprehensive to tackle such a unit in Kindergarten. I could not have been more wrong! Your children blossomed this spring like the flowers in our class garden during this unit. They dove headfirst into the ‘Poetry Pond,’ and came up with wonderful writing pieces. It was not an immediate accomplishment, but rather a slow and gentle process, like a caterpillar spinning a cocoon and becoming a butterfly. We used many poems as our mentor texts, wrote poems about our school during shared writing, read poems during Reading Workshop and finally wrote poems on our own.”

One little poet, Jagger, dressed adorably in a suit, made a play in public for his mother’s permission to get a pet hamster. As Mrs. Stromski held a stuffed hamster aloft, Jagger read,

 

Hamster
By Jagger

I want a hamster.
I really want a hamster.
I would feed it.
I would clean it.
I would love it.
But mom said
NO!
I still want a hamster.

Another young man, Luke, with an engaging grin and wearing a stuffed snake around his neck, read his poem entitled “Snakes."

Snakes
By Luke

Snakes hiss.
Snakes slither.
Snakes can bite you.
Snakes eat bats.
Snakes eat anything
They can catch.

 

Alexandra looked over at her dad and grinned—he beamed back—then she read her poem entitled “Hot Tub.”

Hot Tub
By Alexandra

Me and my dad
Talk underwater.
It is silent underwater.
Me and my dad
see bubbles
Me and my dad
have underwater tea parties.
We laugh underwater.
Me and my dad
love the hot tub!
Me and my dad
pretend we are sharks.
We are so sweaty!
But we don’t care because . . .
WE LOVE THE HOT TUB!

“Next, we’ll hear from Danny,” said Mrs. Stromski. “Listen very carefully. Danny’s poem appears to be about one subject but is really about another.”

Movie Theatres
By Danny

I am going to the
movie theatre.
I got popcorn
and chocolate
and gummy worms
and gummy bears.
I love the movie theatre.

The Jam ended with an opportunity to speak to the poets individually about their poems and to ask them for their autograph in the anthology of poems that everyone received.

Priceless.

# # # #