Writing Haiku

After listening and discussing some the poems we hit out notebooks and looked at some of our lists from observing a nest.  Using nest as a topic we started with constructing Haikus.  We began with some good words and building words around them and counting syllables.  At the end of the session we agreed we would all play around with haiku and try to write as many as we could until next Tuesday.  We plan on making a book of our poems during April - National Poetry month.

Writing Haiku

This week we looked at a new structure.  However, this structure uses words as materials and forms them into a structure known as Haiku. 

To understand Haiku, Mrs. March shared some of her favorite Haiku poems.  First she read Least Things.  The poems were written by Jane Yolen and the photographs were taken by her son.  Like traditional forms of Haiku they were about nature.  Some were like riddles and we had to figure out what she was writing about. 

The following is what Jane Yolen had to say about writing Haiku's and her book Least Things

 LEAST THINGS began when I read the quote, “Nature excels in her least things.” I told my photographer son Jason and he began taking photos of nature’s smallest things–jingle shells, tiny crabs, butterflies, bees, hummingbirds, etc. Slowly he gathered his photographs but I had an enormous amount of trouble writing the poems. The first two I tried were for the shells and the crab, and they were dreadful–and twice as long as the objects he had photographed! And then one day I sat up in bed and said, “Of course, haiku!” Why it took me so long to realize that haiku were the perfect form for the book, I don’t know. But once I had that figured out, I could sit down and finally really focus on the book.

After listening and discussing some the poems we hit out notebooks and looked at some of our lists from observing a nest.  Using nest as a topic we started with constructing Haikus.  We began with some good words and building words around them and counting syllables.  At the end of the session we agreed we would all play around with haiku and try to write as many as we could until next Tuesday.  We plan on making a book of our poems during April - National Poetry month.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is an excellent video ( does have an ad though you might want to advance)

Animals A to Z: nests


This next video is an hour long but worth watching.  Especially as a family.  There is a bar for each episode on the bottom of the video. So beautiful

PBS: Nature, Nests


This video is of a robin building her nest.  It is only 6 minutes and very informative
Robin building a nest

I love this one of a hummingbird building a nestHummingbrid building a nest

Homework

My Nest 

By Nathan March

Grade 6

Read the 3 other postings before this assignment.  

You need your notebook and a pencil.

Go to your nest.

Review what you wrote about your nest and look at the shape you drew in your notebook.

Now, add  words and sketchings that describe: what it looks like, what makes you want to be there, how do you feel when you are there.  Remember you are describing your nest!  

Go back to the list of words you wrote when you listened to A Nest Is Noisy  and try to find the best and most interesting words to describe the details.

Have fun!

A Popover is a Nest for Strawberry Jam

Write your own poem about how a popover is a nest for strawberry Jam.

When you do you can send it to me by e-mail.

A Nest is Noisy

Written by Dianna Hutts Aston 

Illustrated by Sylvia Long

Today we worked on the concept of structures by looking at a nest and writing about it.  We started by thinking about what we new about structures and that a structure is the shape and form of something.  

I asked everyone to write why a nest was a structure and then we wrote 1 for the class

A nest is a structure because it has a shape and a form.

 

We discussed what architects and engineers do and how they work together.  We discussed how they work together:  Gathering the best materials, process of thinking how to build, what type of structure to build and where.

 

Next, we observed a small nest and started writing the details about what we observed.  The shape was round, had somewhat of a spiral pattern, it was build in layers and mostly with the same materials.  We observed it was built in two distinct parts and we started thinking about the function of those parts:  temperatures, protection, and sort of a net.  From our observation we made a list.

 

Finally, we did a sketch of the shape and small small details that gave it some form and purpose. 

 

Our next activity was to listen and to THINK about the way the author described the different nests and how the illustrator used painting to add to the detail of the words.

 

Each of you made a list of what you thought were the best words: noisy, enormous welcoming, papery, bubbly, assemble a cradle, knitting together leaves, braid a new bed of strong branches, stretchy silk, slithering snakes.  

 

Our net gathered many good words to best describe different kinds of nests.  

 

What a great day and many good questions.  I want to thank you all for working harder and improving on your writing and observation skills.  

 

 

Here we are starting a new spring semester.

Let's review:

Last year we learned how nature has beautiful patterns that give objects their shape.  Once the object exist it is made up of parts and all those parts have a function (job).

This fall we learned about the mathematics of structures.  Particularly about geometry  ( study of shapes).  We found that geometry helps to understand how objects are formed and exist in the world.  It also gave us vocabulary for describing patterns, structures, and parts. ( lines, segments, angles, intersecting, etc.)

Now, we understand the background of structures we are going to take are understanding a step further.  We are going to become better observers, writers, and listeners.

How We Observe




 

1 Pay attention by slowing down and noticing things more carefully. Looks like, reminds me of.
 Listening also gives us something think about and to consider new vocabulary or a different way of looking at something.

2. Capture words by using our senses( see,  hear, feel, hear, taste depending on the situation)

3. We create pictures or images by drawing, sketching, photographs, painting.

4. We use a notebook to capture the right words and using resources to enrich our vocabulary.
Our notebooks also display our drawings, sketches, paintings.  They also include our wonderings.

 Capturing New Words

1. Listening to stories.

2. Reading a lot of poetry and compare how poets write about same object or experience.

3. Pondering your own observations.

4. Be open to thinking about things in a new way.

5. Make a thesaurus your friend.