"I have always imagined that Paradise will be some kind of library." ~ Jorge Luis Borges

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Lemonade Style Squeezed Poems

I challenged my 4th grade students to create Squeezed Poetry based upon Bob Raczka's new book, Lemonade: and Other Poems Squeezed from a Single Word.  These are poems created from only the letters in a single word with the added dimension of the poem having to relate to the original word. 

I began by using the Elmo (document camera) to project a few of the Squeezed Poems.  I then showed the students only the poem without the original word and had them work together to figure out the theme and determine what the title or original word might be. presented like this, the poems are like puzzles to solve.   I then gave the students a template for creating a squeezed poem with the added difficulty of having the subject be Dewey Decimal System categories, i.e., generalities, language, literature, history.  The template I created had the students brainstorm words and then think about themes and finally put the words and themes together into a poem. 

The next time I do this activity I plan to create a group poem to model the process.  I think the word "astronomy" would be a great word to use for this activity. My attempt:

Astronomy
(star, moon, my, most, sat, a, as,an , on, no, try, any, room, mast, moor, roast, etc...)
Any
Moon

As
My 
Room

No
Star
As
My

Mast

Some student poems:
Folktales
Folks 
Tell
False 
Tales

Animals 
Sam
is
a
Man

 

...and a random word one group chose:
Strawberry
Rats
Eat
Raw
Berry
 

Here I play (it is so hard to resist):
Folktales
Feast
of
Tall
Talk 

Tells
a
Lot
of 
Fake
Fates

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