Announcing the 2018 1st Grade Poetry Chat Contest Winners

Our Editor-in-Chief recently appeared before Valerie Satterwhite’s 1^st Grade class at the Patsy Sommer Elementary School in Austin, Texas via Skype as the special guest poet for a poetry teaching session https://www.txstemconnections.nepris.com/Sessions/session/detail/54983.  The session was facilitated by Nepris www.nepris.com.  With Dr. Gordon’s help, the children learned how to compose shape poems, acrostics, and traditional haiku, and learned a little about poetic devices.

Several of the first graders submitted poems to Songs of Eretz as part of a special poetry contest just for them.  Two young poets were deemed particularly worthy of recognition by Dr. Gordon and were offered five-dollar honoraria and publication in Songs of Eretz.  Please enjoy, “To Apple from Tree” by Belle Knox and, “Cats” by Sayee Junnare.

To         Apple

From        Tree

Little        Little        Apple

Do 

you 

like 

rain?

I do! 

Belle Knox

About the Poet:  Isabelle “Belle” Knox is seven years old. She likes to draw, bake, dance, and do gymnastics.

Poet’s Notes:  I wrote this poem because I really like apples. If we didn't have trees to take care of apples, we would not have apples. I did the shape of a tree because I thought it would be more fun.

Teacher’s Note:  It has been a pleasure to see Belle’s confidence grow this school year and her own personality shine.  She has really found a love for expressing herself through art and poetry. 

Editor’s Note:  I enjoy the way the poet uses personification here, which is giving something else properties that only people usually possess.  In this case, the tree (parent) is having a conversation (like a person) with its apples (or children, as apples are full of seeds which could grow into apple trees).  The poem is in the shape of a tree and has the word “apple” twice, making it an apple tree.  I took some editorial liberties with the colors of the words in the presentation and did not include a graphic--this poem is its own graphic.

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Cats

Sayee Junnare

Nice cats 

Mean cats

Hungry cats

Lazy cats 

Sweet cats 

Scratchy cats 

Thirsty cats 

Quick cats 

Cute cats 

Black cats 

Sneaky cats

Cool cats

About the Poet:  Sayee Junnare is six years old.  Her favorite subject is science, and her favorite color is gold. She enjoys roller-skating, drawing animals, writing poems, and training dogs.  She especially likes to swim and play with her dog, Ginger. 

Poet’s Notes:  I like animals so I chose to write about cats. Poems are fun to read. I like to make my own. 

Teacher’s Note:  Sayee is an incredible, kind individual who cares for all people and every living thing. She wants to be a veterinarian, and most of her academic topics revolve around animals, especially dogs and cats. She is extremely bright, hard-working, and a pleasure to teach! 

Editor’s Note:  This one reminds me a little of the work of one of my favorite poets--Dr. Seuss!  Our mascot, Lana the Poetry Dog, thought this one was so good that it almost made her like cats, too--almost!