Today my students went to the Media Center and created book spine poems. We had a ball! They were really unsure and a little leery of playing around with the titles at first. Once they got started though they really got into it! Once they realized they were free to use their imaginations (and that there were no grades involved) they explored so many options and actually had some fun with it! Here are a few examples--I have 100 students and I took pictures of all of them, but I only have a few on my phone to upload here.The media assistant felt sorry for me having to use my phone to take pictures so she swiped one of the cameras reserved for the yearbook and let me use it to take more pictures. I couldn't bring the camera home to download more pictures of the book spine poems so I've only included three here. I will try to put a few more of my best ones up tomorrow.
It was awesome fun for both the kids and me!
What a clever way to involve students in poetry. I love the idea and know my 5th graders would too, but alas I'm not sure it would be my librarians cup of tea. Re-shelving all those books. Perhaps I'll try it with my classroom library.
ReplyDeleteI made sure I explained what I wanted to do ahead of time and asked permission. Today after school I stayed to help reshelve the books. The media specialist and assistant are extremely supportive and had a great time reading all the poems. Loads of fun!
DeleteThese are awesome. I particularly like the second one. I think because I like to think of learning disabilities being "Gone With The Wind"
ReplyDeleteI liked the second one a lot too, Deb. It was put together by one of the boys in my 1st Block. He's very creative and helped a couple other guys in my class think of ideas and try to find books to make their poems. He's a great kid!
DeleteTracy - what fun for your students! I love it! I love that the students don't have to come up with their own words, they can just play with the words and titles. I was wondering the same thing about my library and about reshelving all the books . . . not sure the librarians would go for it, but I'm so glad that yours were so supportive!
ReplyDeleteThey are wonderful, Michelle! Nothing beats a great crew in the library when it comes to being a resource for me in the classroom as far as I'm concerned!
DeleteThanks for reminding me about this way to "find" poems. I loved playing around with book spine poems on my own...now I too want to let my students try. May wait until after our TESTING. It could really serve a dual purpose as our classroom library could stand to be spiffed up with some reorganizing.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great idea for getting your classroom library organized! It would also be a great creative stress reliever for after testing.
DeleteThese are great! What a fun time for kids to explore titles. Maybe some found something they might want to read later.
ReplyDeleteIt did cause quite a few kids to check out bookst they found interesting because of their searches! It was a great activity!
DeleteThe kids created fun poems. I wonder if they will try it again when they go to the library. MaryHelen
ReplyDeleteI hope so, Mary Helen! They really enjoyed it.
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