Creative Writing Class Summary 12/1/14

with Kim Rodgers and Jayne Besjak

Rhyme Time

We started off class by reading some poems from Shel Silverstein’s “Where the Sidewalk Ends.” Silverstein has a gift of creating hilarious poetry using rhymes and rhythms that are catchy and fun to read aloud. We chose two words to work with - “boat” and “stop” - and brainstormed words that rhyme with each using a chart of consonants and consonant blends to use with the endings “-oat” and “-op”. After creating a list for each we put together a poem using the AABBAA format.

As deep as a castle moat
Where the tarpin gloat
The bubbles come to the surface and pop 
Ducks and geese swim on top
Where they brag about their treasure note 
Because of all the fish they tote

We talked about how our poetry doesn’t always have to make sense. It can be silly or mysterious or exciting or sad...many different feelings can be evoked. The students broke up into pairs or on their own to create a poem using the words “back” and “light”. After some time of working they came back and shared what they had come up with. Some different patterns came up such as AAABBB. Towards the end of class they were sent off to come up with their own two words to create their very own poem. Students are to work on that poem this week and finish it up for our poetry reading on Monday.