Young Fives Classroom

Learning through play

Dramatic play and table toys

Messy Mondays with painting, gluing, glitter, glitter, and more glitter!

Choice time, quiet time, fun time.

Fine motor and gross motor

Playdough, tongs, chop sticks, spray bottles, sponges, stamps.

Blocks, games, balls

Stories and PB&J partners

Read Aloud, Mystery Reader, Shared Reading, Reading Buddies

Singing, poetry, finger play

Hands on Top Everybody Stop

I’m looking for a friend

How is your engine running?

Tigger, Yoga, Pooh

Make new friends but keep the old

Chit chat, snack, chit chat sharing, chit chat line up

We keep our promises to each other

Frozen color, Frozen hair, Frozen party, Frozen, Frozen, Frozen

Bubbles, wonder, smiles, giggles and more glitter.

a girl named Pamela

She doesn’t look like a Michelle, my mother said

the day I was born.

Broad-shouldered baby.

Eight pound eleven ounce baby.

Jet black overgrown butch hairstyle baby

sticking straight up.

Bruised from a difficult forceps birth baby.

Here’s a football player

the doctor assured her.

I know what a Pamela looks like.

What does a Michelle look like?

The Lie

My birth certificate says

I was born at Fort Campbell, Ky

February 24, 1964

Mother: Beverly Ann Beck

Father: Charles Elwin Witherspoon

But part of this is not true.

Charles Elwin Witherspoon had never been to Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

I have. That is part of my history.

The other party of my history had been erased.

As though it doesn’t matter.

As though it’s okay to make up someone’s history.

It’s my word against the piece of paper. When I am gone, the piece of paper will remain.

And it’s a lie.

This is Just to Say, an emulation poem

This is just to say

I have taken

my leap

off the cliff

of comfort

delving

into the unknown

to try

a writerly life

Forgive me

my emulation

you were great

mentors.

With apologies to both WC Williams and Mayawoodall whose poems follow:

With apologies to WC Williams by  Mayawoodall

This is just to say

I have written

my slice
for today
to be done

ready
for grading
and for posting
to end this quarter.

Forgive me
WC Williams
your poem

is now mine.

The original W. C. Williams poem:

This is Just to Say

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold