Seeing+the+Schoolyard+Through+Poet's+Eyes

"Splash: Poems of Our Watery World" Other poetry books Chart Paper Items for observing Paper Pencils Clipboards
 * Materials:**


 * Sequence of Events:**

Prior to the lesson, type up the poem "Soap Bubbles" from "Splash: Poems of Our Watery World" so that it can be projected onto the screen.

Hook: Read the students __Turtle Says__ from "Splash: Poems of Our Watery World" and ask the students to listen for the types of words the poet uses. 1. Tell the students that the poet used poet's eyes to describe a sea turtle. While they could have just said it was green, has a hard shell and swims in the water, the poet used fresh language such as: mud soldier, swooper, glider, homemade helmet, and ballet dancer in my green tutu. 2. Ask students to think about soap bubbles. How would you describe them? Then read the poem //Soap Bubbles// off of the screen. After you read the poem we will look at the poem and highlight words or phrases that shows how the poet described something in a different way. 3. Read a couple more poems to the students to show the idea of poet's eyes (using describing words to paint a picture in the reader's head). 4. Ask the students to look at the sink with poet's eyes and tell a neighbor how you would describe it. 5. Then tell the students that you are going to put objects at each set. They are to pick one thing, make a sketch of it, and then write down observations that they've made about their object. 6. If you notice that the students are writing down lots of different observations, stop them and tell them that you want them to slow down and really describe the object. For example, if they were looking at a pine cone and wrote that it's a little tree, instead of writing a bunch of other observations I want them to think about //how// it's like a little tree? What color is it?, etc. 7. The students will continue to work on their observations for the remainder of the time. Then the students will share some of their observations. If I notice that their notes seem more of that of a scientist (more literal) then I will show the students how they can turn those notes into those of a poet. (ex. instead of saying a pine cone is three inches long, you can say, it's like a tree for a village of snails.) 8. Have each student get a clipboard, a piece of paper, and a pencil. Explain to them that they are going to be going out into the schoolyard and observe something in nature through poet's eyes. Tell the students that they can either write down observation notes, or start writing a poem as they observe. Explain that these notes will be used to write a poem later on. 9. Encourage the students to make their observations using "poet's eyes". When I did this lesson I chose one area of the schoolyard to focus on and the students had to find something to observe in that area. 10. If the students need additional time to make observations/write their poems, you can take the students out a second time to observe their object. 11. The students can then publish these poems. The poems can be published in a variety of ways. One student chose to observe a tree and therefore wrote her poem in the shape of a tree.