Friends School of Minnesota Blog

by Brenna Winkelman

In a recent poetry unit, 1^st and 2^nd grade Jungle class student’s discovered how to see the world through poet’s eyes.  Students accomplished this in their poem about an object by turning their factual observations into original, fresh, new, and unique ways.  Within these poems students realized how their own personal views of an object engage their peers, because they had never seen the object in the way they had before.

Secondly, students found the music in poem. Students explored and found their own music within the given poem by taking the given poem and writing each word onto a note card.  They then organized the note cards into lines of a poem, adding line breaks to add emphasis and meaning to the words and/or phrases.

With this activity, students discovered that even though they all had the same words written on their note cards to begin with they all ended up having a different meaning to their poem, based on the music they had formed through line breaks.  From these lessons the students composed beautiful winter poems made into a class book including all of the students winter poems.

Snow
by Ezra

Snow
Giant Icicles
Winter
Ice Cream
Freezer
Blanket
Snow

Shooting Stars
by Beyen

Cold Snow
Falling Snowflakes
Night Star
Falling Icicles
Like a
Shooting Star

Snow
by Jackson

Snow
Like White Clumps
Of A
Freezer
It feels like
Winter
Snow looks like a sheet of paper

Fun in the Snow

by Tristan

Shovel Flattened
Snow
Clay Built Snow
Top of the Mountain
Down the Mountain
Crash
Caboom
Snow

Snow

by Tess

Soft smells
Feels crisp
Shines sweet
Bright star
Snow

Snow Falls Black and White
by Gabe

It feels like
a soft pillow
I can sleep on it
like its
my very own
pillow

And when the snow falls
it feels like a
soft blanket
I can crawl
under

I Can Find Where You Went
by Wade

Sparkling
Cold
White
Fun
You may find
mysterious footprints

Snow is Falling
by Eva

Snow
Is Falling
Just Like
Little Pieces of Ice Cream
Stick Out Your Tongue
Yummy!

Snow
by Sameer

Winter
Tastes Like
Huge
Huge
Mystery
Flavored
Ice Cream
Dribble
Dribble
Down Your
Throat

Winter with Polar Bear Ice Cream
by Willie

It
Tastes like
Super
Polar Bear Ice Cream
On a
BIG
Mountain
And then
You climb
To the
Top of
The Polar Bears
Head
To
Get
The most
FLAVOR

The Beauty of Winter
by Meadow

Snow shimmers
like glimmering gems
and light sun
and smells like
BBQ meatballs

Snow Falling
by Emma

Snow falling
Like ashes
Falling
after an eruption
When the snow
touches the ground
then it spreads
then it looks like
a soft blanket
The snow can fall fast
and slow
like leaves
falling down

Snow
by Abbey

Snow
Snow
Snow
As far
as I
can see
just like little white dogs
as far
as I
can see
A big cold blanket spread across the land
When snow falls
like little white stars
the blanket
seems
to grow

Snowman
by Henry

A snowman standing so still.
It has a great chill,
but that does not change its smile still.
It’s full of joy, and ready to have fun,
so…
What do you say?
Let’s play,
Let’s run!
Its nose is a refreezed garden food,
but that does not change
its dazzling mood.
Its spirit brightens the air,
it would not be the same
if old Frosty weren’t there.

Hot Chocolate
by Calden

Hot chocolate
feels
like
a big present
too great
like
Christmas
a better taste!

A Snowing Poem
by Elizabeth 

Winter looks like
a bed for a giant
the coldness of a fan
like somebody turned on the air conditioning
and the snowflakes are like
someone threw a party
and the snowflakes
are
the confetti

Ava’s Winter Story
by Ava 

In the winter
I like to go sledding
in the winter
and I like
to drink hot cocoa
with my family
in the winter

Snow
By Ruby

Snow is like
A big white fluffy pillow
It is cold
and wet
It tastes like
a popsicle
without the flavor
It looks like
vanilla frosting
It feels like
your stuck in a refrigerator
with big doll houses stuck inside it
and it’s like there’s big fake trees
that magically
grow bigger everyday

– Brenna Winkelman, 1st-2nd grade student teacher