Learning to See Through New Eyes for National Poetry Month

“What is poetry?” asked LS Instructional Coach Sarah Tiamiyu as the GDS 4th graders gathered on the second floor commons of the LMS building.

“It’s a form of expressing yourself with words,” said Frankie.

“It’s a way to say how you’re feeling,” added Raya.

“What is spring?” Sarah continued. “Think about it in a fresh, new way. We need you to come up with a word or a single phrase that answers this question: What is spring?” 

It was early April, and National Poetry Month. To celebrate, GDS Lower School students were embarking on a new creative project: making a collaborative poetry book.

Led by Sarah with the support of the LS teachers, the project invited each grade to participate in a shared process that combined careful observation, writing, visual art, and group reflection.

Detailed instructions for the project—along with descriptions of the creative process and book itself—were presented in the second floor commons. Each week, Sarah would reveal a new mystery object to inspire the students’ poetry. For their writing inspiration the first week, the Lower School’s familiar grasshopper figurines (the Hoppers) were on display. Though students had seen them countless times, they were now invited to look again and see them through fresh eyes. 

Students from every grade in the LS were invited to write a single line of poetry or descriptive word or phrase. As a class, they then collaborated to choose one line to represent their group. This final line was written on a sentence strip—a long piece of paper with large-font writing—and taped to the wall of the commons.

Later, student teams converted the sentence strips into final poems in the schoolwide book and paired them with original illustrations.Throughout the month of April, at each Friday assembly, different student teams shared the new poems with faculty and classmates. 

The result is a beautiful keepsake—an enduring piece of art that now lives at GDS as testament to the creativity and collaborative teamwork of the Lower School community. 

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April Showers

Purple, green, and in between

Brown, white, and especially bright

Pretty purple flowers bloom

Lilacy, purply, beautiful flowers

Brought by ongoing April showers

Purple fireworks on a stem are beautiful like butterflies

Spring brings colorful, beautiful flowers

Pretty purple flowers with lots of powers

Purple flowers are beautiful and pretty, and you see them in the garden

Purple and green beautiful flowers look shiny and smooth

Purple passion pretty flowers

Sweet blooming purple flowers

The whispering windy showers

Pretty purple flowers on a stem, smells so nice

Pretty purple flowers in the sun

Purple stars flying like crystal plums

Once was blooming, once wilted away

Too soon. Come out another day