Poetry slam

Aaron's class concluded their poetry unit this week with a Poetry Slam. The kids read original poems and recited memorized works by favorite poets. They all wore black, with berets if they had them, and performed with a microphone. The classroom was transformed into a beatnik cafe: dim lighting, white tablecloths, electric candles, flowers in little jars. Parents were invited to snap their fingers for applause, rather than clapping. It was absolutely fantastic. Here are Aaron's original poems:

Fern 

Your Green
Quills
Protect you
From the army of
Weeds
Thank you
For using
Your medicine
Sword Fern

(Aaron explained that this has to do with using sword fern to treat poison ivy, which is something he apparently learned at camp.) 

Tiger 

You brazen thing!
You meany!
You fierce cat!
You trick the animals
and you steal Indians' food!

"Brazen!" I love it. His readings were excellent. He is wonderfully expressive and his delivery is really very good. While he was practicing his poems at home, he and I watched a video of Taylor Mali, who includes movement in his performance of his poems; I think this helped inspire Aaron to add meaningful movement (instead moving in just an antsy way). Please check him out. The lighting is terrible, as in all beatnik cafes, but if you stick with it you can see his beret when he models the endless rows of gumdrops.