I love using poetry in the classroom, but sometimes it feels like there isn't enough time! I started by giving each student a poetry journal for their book bag:
Each week we cut out our poem, color it in and then glue it in our notebooks.
We would practice the poem when I handed it out and that would be it. The students could read the poems during Independent Reading.
This year, I decided that wasn't enough. I am going to create a poster for each poem and we now recite the poem together during Morning Meeting.
On a random note, I decided to clean out underneath my kids cubbies. They haven't been cleaned since I moved into the classroom 4 1/2 years ago. Talk about wasted space! And talk about your dusty materials - eww!
Here's the before picture:
And the after:
I was prompted to do this when my students were trying to put away their
Fun Friday materials above the cubbies (and wayy above their heads). I was so impressed and proud of them for taking care of their materials! But I was a little nervous that the game boxes were going to pop open and rain down on their heads. Right then, I decided I wanted to dedicate the bottom of these cubbies to materials that they can use during this free time:
So much better! Way cleaner and much easier for my students to reach.
