Tag Archives: poetry comics

How to Write a Poem: NPM24 Day 30

All this month I have challenged myself to write a poem and post it here…AND I have been working with my young students, creating opportunities for them to write poems in lots of different ways. I’ve been inspired by poets at #verselove who have offered daily prompts and thoughtful feedback to my mostly first draft poems. So on day 30, what would I offer my students…and myself as impetus for composing?

Today we headed back to Grant Snider and his book Poetry Comics. (You can read a mini book review here and a bit about Haikomics here). I read them the four “how to Write a Poem” pieces from the book and we talked about what advice we might give aspiring poets. Grant recently wrote a blog post teaching his readers how to make a poetry comic. When I read his post, working my way all the way down to the end I found my own students’ Haikomics featured there! So after reading Grant’s blog post and showing my students all the ideas he shared about how to create a poetry comic–I also showed them that some of their poems were a part of his post! (That definitely created a lot of excitement!)

With all of that as inspiration, I invited students to write their own poetry comics–maybe even a “how to write a poem” poem. And they are off and running! Unfortunately, creating a poetry comic takes a bit more time…I’m hoping we can get them finished tomorrow.

Of course I wrote with my students…and I, too, need more time to get the comic bit completed. But I did take some time to revise my poem when I got home today…and will share the words that hopefully will become a poetry comic with some work with my students tomorrow.

How to Write a Poem (with first graders)

Dip into lots and lots of poems

swim in the language

play in the wonder of words

Notice the pitter patter of ideas

tap dancing like raindrops on the roof

like dew drops slipping off the leaves

Soaking into childhood’s wild fresh colors

unleashing a sky full of rainbows

Settle in the moment

and wait…

poets will bloom

Haiku + Comic = Haikomic: NPM24 Day 17

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I’ve been inspired by Grant Snider’s comics for a while now and was super excited when I learned about his book Poetry Comics published at the end of March. (I wrote a mini review here). I knew I would be doing something inspired by his poetry comics with my first grade students this month. When I saw he had done a Haiku comic style, I knew this would be a perfect format for my students.

We’ve written Haiku this year–well, mostly 3-line poems without much attention to the syllable count. So when we took a look at Grant’s Haikomic this morning, students immediately understood (and recognized the metaphorical thinking in his last line).

I’ve learned when teaching first graders that sometimes a novel paper use can propel young writers forward, somehow tricking that treacherous writer’s block into disappearing. So instead of writing in their notebooks or on lined paper, I handed each student a 3″ square post-it note to draft their Haiku. It didn’t take long for students to have their Haiku ready to be transformed by the comic making process.

I distributed the comic paper–in this case, a page with three horizontal rectangular panels. Students wrote one line of their Haiku in each panel and added their comic drawing with colored pencil. As a final last step, they traced over the writing with a Sharpie marker.

Here are a few examples:

V can never help writing about violets!

M is obsessed with basketball!

In her piece, “I” decided to add speech bubbles.

And O celebrated flowers and springtime

While I wrote my Haiku about egrets with my students and drew along with them, later this afternoon with a group of Writing Project colleagues we crafted our Haikomics using photos instead of drawing (mostly due to severe time constraints). I then used Canva to write my Haiku directly onto my photo.

Maybe you’ll want to try your hand at a Haikomic too. I’d love to see what you come up with!

Poetry Comics: SOL24 Day 26

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Another book review? Is it even allowable to write three slices that double as book reviews?

But I simply couldn’t resist. I’ve been following Grant Snider for a while on Instagram/X and I am constantly inspired by his comic writing (for lack of a better term). Somehow he has a knack for simplifying complex ideas into 4 panels or 9 panels where the combination of images and words slices through and hits me right in the heart.

I preordered Poetry Comics, knowing that I needed to have this book not on my Kindle, not from the library, but right in my hands. Ironically, my school librarian got a copy last week and put it in my box a week before my preorder arrived today. I’ve been savoring each page, connecting both as an adult and as a teacher.

I know I will be having my students study a few of these poems and try their own hand at crafting their own poetry comic. There are so many great choices it’s making it hard for me to choose. Here’s one I am considering.

I can’t wait to see what my students will create as they explore poetry comics! How about you? Will you try to craft a poetry comic as we head into National Poetry Month?

Even if you don’t, I highly recommend Grant Snider’s Poetry Comics. There’s plenty to love in this deceptively simple volume.