Five poems, five Crackers, and an orange or three.

Trees sway and bow

In the gusty windy day

Branches in swordfight.

Ted Andrews, 5th grade

Today I painted a digital ink-and-watercolor using a Skillshare class. No water spilled. No brush dipped in the coffee.

I have kept a box of poems that my students have penned over the three plus decades I taught. I love their work, and I think you will, too. This month is a good month to highlight some, including the one in the header. Most of these students were 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders. I was able to work a lot more creative writing into the curriculum near the front end of my career; later, other curriculum necessities pushed much of it out, although I tried to work it whenever I could. (Lots of science poems lie in the box.) I really do believe that children are instinctively creative. And P.S. - all of these kids are grown-ups, some with grown children and perhaps even grandchildren. (A personal frightening thought.) Maybe even a reader? Wouldn’t that be awesome!

For those you may want a refresher course, Haiku is a short poem, often nature-based, with 3 lines, 5 syllables, 7 syllables, and 5 syllables. Here are a few of my favorite springy ones.

Blooming one by one,

Establishing a circle,

Covering the tree.

Freddie Luna

In sweet meadow grass

And in a huge, green oak tree,

Animals are gay.

Deanna Goins

The sun is shining

It warms my soul and my heart,

It fills me with love.

Dixie Jackson