March Musings 3: Snow Poetry

Winter is a delightful time of year for little ones who live in snowy venues. They look forward to winter fun as soon as the first, soft flake falls. Bundled in snow gear, children roll in the snow creating winter white snow angels, snow forts, and snowmen while parents shovel walkways. In their classrooms, students' imaginations recreate outdoor pleasures. 

Imagine my surprise when not just one but two classes of kindergarten students accepted my invitation to create snow poetry for my upcoming winter gallery, Winter Wonder 17. 

Christie Wyman's class in Massachusetts, Wyman's Wonders, joined a Kindergarten class in Ohio under the guidance of Char Shyrock, Director of Curriculum and Instruction for Bay Village Schools, to create winter magic on paper. Proving that even the youngest grade school children can become aspiring poets, two educators who did not know each other, set out to brainstorm winter as a focal point. Twitter handles were exchanged and collaboration began in two separate locations. What follows is the outcome of this joint venture that I was excited to spearhead. 

Snow Poetry from Massachusetts

Teacher Christie Wyman provided her kinders with a template 

to use for creating snow poetry.

Teacher and students noticed and wondered about snow on their day walk.

Their poems were compiled into an Adobe Spark short video.

Click here to view the snow poems.

Hailey's snow poem has a delightful image that she sketched.

Snow Poetry from Ohio

Administrator, Char Shyrock, collaborated with a Kindergarten class in her district to have kinders brainstorm different aspects of winter snow.

Sensory charts were the starting points for exploring snow.

Wonderful thoughts emerged from the conversation.

Char sent me a message that the children brainstormed winter words by senses. She has more to share. Finalized poems will be shared with their new friends from Massachusetts and me.

You will be able to view the kindergarten students poems at the upcoming Winter Wonder 17 Gallery of Artistic Expressions. Offerings are still coming in from around the globe so stay tuned for messages about the grand unveiling. 

Just for fun, I am posting a video read aloud of one of Billy Collins' wonderful poems, Snow Day, a fitting one for this post. Perhaps, teachers will share this with their students to visualize what Billy portrays and create their own snow day poems. 

This post is the third in a series titled March Musings 

for Two Writing Teachers' 

March Slice of Life Challenge. 

Venture over to Heidi Mordhorst's site. Heidi is the host for Poetry Friday this week. She is celebrating Billy Collins' birthday month with a video of a 3 year old reciting one of Collins' poems. This is one that you will not want to miss seeing.