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On my way to school this morning I stopped to pull over because these words were cycling and I was afraid they might ride away!
Morning Greeting
Through the haze
Dancing on the evaporated frost
Flickering past my gaze.
You temp the budding leaves
A blinding teasing dare
The tall growing greens
Calm and standing there.
I had an amazing experience at school today. My kindergarten students took their notebooks outside and jotted down some notes, pictures, lists, etc of what they noticed. It was fun, we listened, touched and wrote. There was a moment I asked everyone to be silent for one minute. I had been snapping photos the whole time as they worked up to this point. When everyone was still and quiet, it was a beautiful moment. I could not wait to capture it on camera, to my horror "check battery" came up on the screen. An internal scream of NOOOOOO accompanied my tense posture. I could not believe I wouldn't be able to capture this. Then I realized I could write about it, so for one minute I did. Then I shared it with my class and told them that this was a great example of writing being something to treasure, like a photo, it captures moments. It was a great day! Here is the poem.
I can't wait to post what they did next week as we continue on our poetry adventures in kindergarten.
I can't wait to post what they did next week as we continue on our poetry adventures in kindergarten.
One Minute
One minute of silence
All of you so still
Some kneeling standing sitting down
among the floral woods.
I wish I could have captured you
that moment of concentration
beauty before me.
The camera in my mind pausing time.
Just for a moment.
Awesome. What a powerful experience for your students! Can't wait to hear more!
ReplyDeleteI love the power of silence. This actually reminded me of a Pablo Neruda poem that I also read to my graduate students a week ago: Keeping Quiet. Have you heard of it? Not really for children, but it's good if you like the notion of silence. :)
ReplyDeleteWonderful to seize this moment, Betsy. I love that you thought of it & wrote immediately in order to share. What a powerful model you are for your students. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteSo true! Capturing the moment in words is often even better than in a photo, for me.
ReplyDeleteIt was a blessing in disguise that your camera ran out of batteries. Lovely! If you and your students would like to share your work at The Poem Farm...I welcome you! (You will see the Classroom Peeks in the sidebar to know what I mean.) I adore that you bring them outside to write and look forward to hearing more. Silence is so powerful.
ReplyDeleteHooray! Will you please send me an e-mail with your e-mail address? Mine is amy at amylv dot com So excited!
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful that your camera battery went dead! And that you got past the frustration fast enough to use pencil and paper...showing your students how WRITING can capture moments, too!
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