Writing

We started our poetry/song unit this week! This is a *new* unit for first grade and I am SUPER excited for it! Already on day one the students were anxious to jump right in and start writing poems and songs! I told them this would be a learning experience for myself as well!

Across this unit children will learn to experiment with powerful language, to use line breaks, metaphor, and comparison to convey feeling. By the end of the unit writers will enjoy using both precise and extravagant language to capture what they see and feel. To begin this unit we are beginning to immerse the students in the rhythm, sounds, and ideas of poetry. Students are already noticing how poetry is different than the text they're used to reading and from the writing they typically do. Poets use white space and line breaks to tell how the poems should be read. Students were surprised to learn that not all poems rhyme. Some tell stories, others are lists. We will also sing a number of simple songs (i.e. twinkle, twinkle, happy birthday, the wheels on the bus, etc.), so that they have tunes in their heads that they can rely upon as they venture into song writing.