Apparently Wednesdays are better than Tuesdays

Today there were lots of good things going on in my classes, so that is good. This morning we went over some things in teaching history to help with after-reading. Monday we did poems...
Cinquains and Bio-poems...

Here are mine:
(Cinquain)
Founding Father
Specticled, intelligent
Writing, fighting, caring
Poor Man's Almanac, freedom, liberty, family rift
Benjamin

(Bio Poem)
Abigail
Strong, intelligent, caring, passionate
John, John Quincy, Stillborn
Freedom, children, God
Lonely, proud, duty
Her children, her country, the British
Equal Rights, Patriot victory, more of her husband
Massachusetts
Adams


Hooray : )
Today we did Haikus as well. They're Japanese and follow the 5 -7-5 syllable pattern.
Here is mine for today...

Cold British Soldiers
Patriots provoking them
Some dead in Boston

Then, we read through Wallace Stevens' poem "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" and changed the words of the poem around...although nouns replace nouns, adjectives for adjectives, etc. I wrote two, and here they are

(from III.)
The general rode in the winter storms
He was a major part of the victory

and

(from XII.)
The British are coming
The man must be riding

Simple, yet highly effective I think.
In fact, so effective that after class in our one hour break, my three friends and I devised a whole new poem based on Wallace Stevens' poem.

Here it is...

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Slinky (by Liz, Kurtis, Katie, and Dylan)

I.
Among twenty steep stairs
The only bounding thing
was the coil of the Slinky

II.
I was of three minds
Like a Slinky
In which there are three kinks

III.
The Slinky danced in the child's hands
It was a small part of the laughter

IV.
A man and a Slinky
Are one.
A man and a Slinky and stairs
Are one.

V.
I do not know which to prefer
The beauty of silver
or the beauty of springs
The Slinky bouncing
Or just after

VI.
Children filled the long hallway
With ecstatic laughter
The spirals of the Slinky
Crossed it to and fro
The mood
Traced in the spirals
In inequaled happiness
VII.
O thin wire of Poof-Slinky
Why do you imagine Silly Putty?
Do you not see how the Slinky
Falls between the hands
of the people about you

VIII.
I know plastic dolls
And small, bumpy bricks
But I know, too,
That the Slinky is involved
In what I know

IX.
When the Slinky fell out of sight
It marked the edge
Of too many stairs

X.
At the sight of Slinkies
Rolling in fluorescent light
Even the strictest of parents
would cry out joyfully

XI.
He rode over oceans
In a cardboard box
Once a child held him
In that he understood
The meaning of his existance
As Slinky

XII.
The escalator is moving
The Slinky Must be crawling

XIII.
It was dark all day
It was raining
And it was going to rain
The Slinky sat
On the closet shelf


We did a simulation today.
In 465, and that was good, and fun.
I don't have time to really write about that now - but I want to remember that it happened.
I remember one we did in HS too, in Kipp's class.

Here is to Thursday being around the corner : )