Poetry project expands horizons for 1st-5th graders
Cienega Union Elementary School social studies teacher Heather
Brouwer has one class assignment up her sleeve that gets her
elementary school students thinking about their community
– a poem writing assignment that incorporates thoughts about
their favorite places in San Benito County.
Poetry project expands horizons for 1st-5th graders
Cienega Union Elementary School social studies teacher Heather Brouwer has one class assignment up her sleeve that gets her elementary school students thinking about their community – a poem writing assignment that incorporates thoughts about their favorite places in San Benito County.
“They made an idea web,” Brouwer said. “They each chose their own favorite place in the community and put all their ideas of what they think of when they think of that place.”
She said the kids chose places such as their homes, their favorite restaurants, their churches or parks.
“The poem itself is a conglomeration of each student’s favorite place,” she said.
The poetry project is one Brouwer does about every five years since she has a multi-grade class with students from kindergarten to fifth grade, and she wants to keep the assignments fresh for them each year. Kids in first through fifth grade participated in the project.
“The kids in the class now, this is not something they’ve done before,” she said.
While Brouwer helped get the students started, the writing comes straight from them. She put up a white sticky note on the board with all the ideas the kids shared, and they decided they wanted their poem to rhyme. They spent a week working out the 42 lines of the poem, more than two lines each for the 19 first-through fifth-graders in the class.
The class project fits in well with the third-grade curriculum, which incorporates a unit on the community.
“I think they got a deeper sense of how much bigger their community is than they realize,” Brouwer said. “They all chose different things they really like.”
The Things We Love About Our Community
By Heather Brouwer’s 2009-10 first – fifth grade social studies class at Cienega School
At home families work together
to build houses on hills forever.
Ranches of 8,000 acres or more,
have busy workers galore!
Families show their caring
by playing and sharing.
Mommies’ perfumes
Fill houses like blooms
Daddies’ cool tools
Help us build pools.
Don’t be a fool,
because our school is cool.
If you’re smart and it’s hot,
you will drink water a lot.
On the playground we see a squirrel
We think we’ll teach him how to twirl.
If we play with the honey bees’ nest,
we will be in a goodly mess.
Having fun in the sun.
Through the park we run.
We eat Popsicles in the park.
We hope we stay ’til after dark.
Sleeping on the grass is awesome,
until you’re discovered by a opossum.
Our favorite store has cocoa
that tastes so good, we go loco.
The Farmers’ Market has watermelon and spices
at great local prices.
At our churches we can sing songs,
even when our feet are wearing thongs.
The churches are so exciting.
We find them very inviting.
If we have smarts,
we learn to use our good hearts.
We hope the waitress is hasty,
because the food in our town is so tasty.
We were so hungry, we had a dream
We were eating French fries and ice cream,
And watching pizzas flipping,
While yummy cheese was dripping.
We are having so much fun!
We wish our poem was never done!
