2021 Post #14 -- Memories of Home

by Suzanne Dailey

Stories are hidden in the nooks and crannies of our home. Oftentimes, these stories happen when we are doing ordinary things.

I remember my family room growing up. Brown carpet with designs pressed into the surface, covering an original wood floor from the 1800s and dark paneling from the 1970s. And the little space near the downstairs closet that was the p-e-r-f-e-c-t hiding spot for jumping out at someone and scaring my brother – especially when he was carrying something in his hands!

My favorite room was our kitchen tucked in the back of the house. Yellow linoleum floor, cream colored stove, and cabinets that never fully shut, especially in the winter. Yellow linoleum floor, cream colored stove, and cabinets that never fully shut, especially in winter. It’s where I smelled apple pie in autumn, assembled gingerbread houses in winter, dyed Easter eggs in spring, and snuck popsicles in summer.

We spend a lot of time at home making memories that stay in our hearts forever. Some fill our hearts, and some break them.

What are the emotions or memories that live in your home? Maybe it’s a moment of love or a rainy day or the sound of music or a time you heard lifechanging news. Some of these emotions or memories may come to you easily, while some of you may need help accessing the stories in your minds and hearts.

As a class, read the poem "Daily" by Naomi Shihab Nye.

After sharing the poem, I might say to students, "Try drawing your house and jot down some of the memories you’ve created in the space you call home. Then find a story that’s hidden in the nooks and crannies of your home. Some memories may be seemingly insignificant at first glance, like my memory of sneaking popsicles in the kitchen each summer. But if you get still and really think about it, there are stories there."

I remember enjoying that popsicle sitting under our “snowball tree” dressed in terrycloth shorts, grass-stained bare feet, and a blue t-shirt from my Grandpa that said, I’m a Georgia Peach! Some of my favorite memories from home are in my backyard as a young kid. It’s why I find so much peace in nature as an adult.

Draw your home, get still, and find the stories hidden in the nooks and crannies. Your heart will thank you.

Using a document camera/blank document, model drawing a part of your home, and as you draw, naturally tell a summarized story that “lives” in those areas.

Set a timer for about 5-7 minutes, so students can draw their home. As they are drawing, create a quick write for one of the stories you shared earlier using the format of "Daily": 

These meals we eat
gathered around the garage sale refinished table

These games we play and play until there’s a winner
Tattered boxes with missing pieces in the living room


After students have drawn their home, share your quick write and invite them to do a 3-4 minute quick write as well. As they are writing, choose another story from your home and do an additional quick write.

Invite students to share their quick write, asking classmates share a question or compliment. Invite students to do an additional quick write for another space at their home (inside or outside!) to see if there is a possible story hidden in their home.

Further Reading: 

Suzanne Dailey is a staff developer in the Central Bucks School District.  You can learn more about her work at www.suzannedailey.com and check out her Teach Happier podcast.  

2021 Post #3 -- Small Kindnesses

by Elizabeth Jones

One thing I love about teaching middle and high school is the unique ability to watch my students forming their own world views, as they encounter the good, the bad, and the ugly of everyday life. These past few years, we’ve seen too little of the good: families pulled apart by political upset, gun violence and hate crimes on the rise, and the entire world devastated by an enemy virus. Now, more than ever, I worry about the world view our children are forming and what role we play in that.

Our weekly gratitude practice is an attempt to help students see the good in their lives. We watch short videos or read poetry that carries a positive message. Danusha Lameris's poem, "Small Kindnesses" is a perfect example. In the poem, Lameris speaks of the everyday nice things people do, usually without thinking - saying “bless you” and “thank you,’’ holding a door, or smiling at someone – good things.

Some lines are particularly effective in moving students to think. Lameris writes: Mostly, we don’t want to harm each other. “Is this true?” I ask.

Much more thought provoking, are the lines:

We have so little of each other now. So far
from tribe and fire. Only these brief moments of exchange.

"Tribe and fire" . . . These words conjure images of ancient people gathering for safety, warmth, and fellowship. The discussion that follows involves how we connect to others, how we still long for that sense of fellowship. Students then have three options for writing topics:

• small kindnesses they’ve experienced that week - perhaps unnoticed,
• connections in their own ‘tribes’ that provide safety and/or fellowship, or
• goodness/kindness that exists in humans (mostly).

“Small Kindnesses” is a poem of encouragement that shines a light on human kindness.


Further Reading:




Elizabeth Jones is an English teacher in the Central Bucks School District in Doylestown, Pennsylvania.

2020 Post #12 -- In This Together

by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong

Teachers and administrators are doing heroic things on a daily basis to help families in their learning communities. Families are stepping up to comfort and educate children. But kids are still feeling a jumbled mix of emotions—joy over being able to sleep late, boredom due to social distancing, and anxiety over the uncertainties of the COVID-19 situation.

How can poetry provide relief?

By filling us with empathy.

By reminding us that there are helpers everywhere, people who can offer support.

By pointing to the good things, no matter how small.

By making us laugh.

And by doing all of the above, in most cases, in just a minute.

This is a perfect time to catch up on reading. But reading, in the traditional sense of placing eyes on words, can be very difficult right now. It’s just so hard to focus. Listening is slightly easier; this is one reason that many authors are offering read-alouds via social media. Author Kate Messner has gathered many author, illustrator, and poet read-alouds here. Also check out the resources of #OperationReadAloud on Facebook. And Audible is offering access to free audiobooks while schools are closed.

But fifteen minutes of quiet concentration, even if it’s passive listening, can still be hard. So here are some poems that take only 30 seconds each (on average), offered both as written text and also in video format. Some of the video offerings are “poem movies” featuring a montage of images; others are simply video readings. 

Step 1: listen to a few poems.
Step 2: if you like what you hear, read the text.
Step 3: if you really like the poem, use it as a writing prompt; put your own ideas down on paper.

Give it a try. If one of these poems brings you some hope, please spread the word. We are #inthistogether.

“Blue Bucket” by Naomi Shihab Nye (from HERE WE GO: A Poetry Friday Power Book by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong)

Poem Movie

Poem Text


“Look for the Helpers” by Michelle Heidenrich Barnes

Poem Movie

Video Reading (along with two other poems: “Bear” by Janet Wong and “Look for Birds” by Janet Wong)

Poem Text


Further Reading:





Sylvia Vardell is Professor in the School of Library and Information Studies at Texas Woman’s University; her current work focuses on poetry for children, including the nationally recognized blog, PoetryforChildren http://poetryforchildren.blogspot.com. Janet Wong janetwong.com is the author of more than thirty books for children and teens on a wide variety of subjects, including identity (A Suitcase of Seaweed & MORE). Together, Vardell and Wong are the forces behind the Poetry Friday books published by Pomelo Books. PomeloBooks.com

2019 Post #1 -- Deleted Scenes from "Famous"

by Brett Vogelsinger

Welcome back teachers, poets, writers, and students to our first post of the 2019 National Poetry Month season!  Subscribe now via email so you can catch every post and add new selections to your repertoire of poems to share with students.  On this site, you will also find engaging methods, questions, and media to provoke powerful thinking in your classroom.

Naomi Shihab Nye is a familiar name to many teachers who share poetry in their classrooms. Her poems are accessible and profound. They balance provocative, relevant commentary on our world with a sense of joy and possibility that children need to hear in their reading at school.

Her poem "Famous" is one of her best-known poems, but the title is slyly misleading. Instead of celebrating fame in the red-carpet sense of the word, it turns an eye on commonplace things "like a pulley . . . or a buttonhole . . . because it never forgot what it could do."

After reading the poem with students, discuss this question: "What is she doing here with the title and the concept of fame?"  Then, in their notebooks, invite students to create an imaginary "deleted scene" from this poem that fits the spirit of the original.  They might begin with her refrain "The _______ is famous to the ________" to shine a light on a different sort of fame. The opening lines of the last two stanzas also work well for this prompt: "I want to be famous to _______" or "I want to be famous in the way ________." My students wrote about the "fame" of jeeps, staples, touchscreens, pen caps, and tree trunks in their notebooks, to name a few.

When you visit the link to today's poem, be sure to watch the film adaptation of Nye's poem at the bottom of the page.  The creative pairing of video imagery with lines from the poem could spark a discussion all of its own.  In a later post, we will look at another video from the Poetry Foundation's Poem Movie collection.

Further Reading:

Brett Vogelsinger is a ninth-grade English teacher at Holicong Middle School in Bucks County, PA.  He has been starting class with a poem each day for the past ten years. He is the creator of the Go Poems blog and the author of Poetry Pauses: Teaching With Poems to Elevate Writing in All Genres.   Find him on Twitter @theVogelman.