poetry

My holiday gift to you: the insanity that was teaching my kids poetry.

It's not often that you get asked how many syllables are in the word butt. I answered without missing a beat, but then stopped, shook my head, and said, "Wow. As an English teacher you catch yourself answering a lot of questions you never thought you'd have to answer."

Here is a poem written by one of my kids. We worked really hard on similes and metaphors. I don't think she quite got it, and I gave her some of these lines, but it worked out.

My ELA Teacher

Ms. A has red hair like an apple.
She always want to be fair.
Ms. A is not skinny and not fat.
She is taller than a midget and shorter than a basketball player.

I wish I could show you the illustrations that accompanied it. Really, quite lovely.

Also, as a side note, on the cover of another kid's booklet, she proudly colored in the word "Petry." Yep, I'm not sure why I even tried to teach the past few weeks.

Happy New Year's all. I get to go back to this madhouse on Monday. :)