I love small poems. Those deceptively simple compositions that are packed with possibilities of layered meaning. I also love that they invite my young students into their mystery.

Today we read 16 Words William Carlos Williams & “The Red Wheelbarrow” by Lisa Rogers & Chuck Groenink and learned about this well-known poet and his famous short poem. We studied The Red Wheelbarrow and students were ready with their noticings. They counted those words carefully–yes there were 16 (at least the way it was written). They noticed the four stanzas and that each stanza had four words. They noticed the color words and felt that the line “glazed with rain water” was a bit metaphorical. (It also brought to mind donuts–got to love the literal interpretations from first graders!)

I handed out post it notes–it worked last week–small paper for small poems. And they set off with a mere five minutes before they needed to head off to their reading groups. We came back to our poems after lunch. Some students wrote several (I have plenty of post-its!) and all wrote at least one.

Here’s the one inspired by donuts

a sweet donut

with raining sprinkles

is waiting for someone

to pick it up

chomp

Many of my students continued to be inspired by sports

balls flying

like blue birds

flying in

the air

flies into a brown

kids glove

And the one I fell in love with (I’m sure I didn’t write like this when I was in first grade!)

little bits

of sky fall

down on my

face giving

it a small

cool nature shower

And my own poem is trying to conjure spring. There are hints here and there, but the pervasive marine layer is back–something that brings out the complaining in us Southern Californians!

spring wildflowers pop

yellow

when the sun

shines

after many rainy

days

my heart sings

joyfully