Friday, February 28, 2014

Chalk-A-Bration February 2014

It's here again! Chalk-A-Bration DAY! So glad you stopped by to visit and I hope you find somewhere and some way to chalk a little something today. I can hardly wait for spring chalking!


Just last weekend I had the pleasure of visiting Dublin, OH for the Dublin Literacy Conference. I got to see old friends and even made some new ones too! While I was there I did a presentation on using poetry in the classroom. You might remember last month's chalk where I did a multi-leveled lesson and had the kids build a poem. Well, we did the same thing using a mentor text from George Ella Lyon and chalked our own Where I'm From poem.


If you haven't heard George Ella Lyon read Where I'm From, it is worth a listen and very inspiring. Below I have a video with Lyon doing the reading. It is quite unique.





Now onto the chalk! We started by talking literally about where we were from. Then we dug a little deeper. After listening to George Ella Lyon read where she is from, we were inspired. Those present wrote their own, Where I'm From, poem and chose their favorite line. 
Here, Tony Keefer, a new poetry friend, tapes his line onto the poem that the group built together.


Below is the completed chalk poem. 


Thankful for sadness,
mistakes and rebirth.
I'm from loving arms
I am from the connections of
friends and long stretches of
solitude.
I am from playing with
neighbors-kick-the-can
in the evening hours.
I am from warm hugs
and licking the
batter off the spoon
I am from green
meadows
I am from pizza
Friday and summer camp.



Dublin was an amazing place to visit and have the experience of chalking together. I hope you will visit the other chalkers in the comments as well as all the Poetry Friday peeps!
Poetry Friday is hosted by Anastasia at Poet! Poet!

Quick addition:
I have a question for you, do you want to order a Chalk-A-Bration t-shirt? I am in the process of trying to decide if there is enough interest for ordering. Here is a view of what the t-shirt would look like if you would like to order one online. The downfall of this is there would be a limited time to order and the cost would be $30 (no profit). The other alternative is for me to make a shirt that is less expensive but could be ordered through me, shipped to you or sold when I get the chance to meet you at a conference. Let me know your thoughts on the idea!
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