Coffee House Poetry!

Program

I have mentioned in several of my previous blog posts about Coffee House Poetry and a few people asked me to tell them more!  So, here we go!  We did our Coffee House Poetry Celebration today and it was a hit!  I have to say that this in not an original idea it comes from Debbie Miller's wonderful book Reading with Meaning.  (She has since come out with a second edition that I haven't read yet, but it is on my wishlist!)  
As soon as we get back from Christmas vacation, we start our poetry writing unit.  This is crunch time!  We write, edit, revise and publish 11 different types of poems.  Cinquain, haiku, important, I am, mathematickle, free verse, color poem, silly rhyme, acrostic, synonym, and a concrete (or shape) poem.
When all of the poems are written and published, we create a cover.  We include a dedication page and an about the author page.  Then the covers are laminated and the poems are bound into their collections.  

You can see the cool effect
the best in this pic!

Next comes the fun part!  We have our Coffee House Poetry Day Celebration. Of course we invite our parents (grandparents, cousins, anyone who wants to come to share our poems!)  We have our celebration in the cafeteria.  The parents to supply all of the treats (Coffee, hot chocolate, juice, baked goods, etc...).  They also volunteer to set up and clean up afterwards (Thank you awesome parent helpers!)  The kiddos all wear black in "Groovy Beatnik" style.  We have the document camera set up so that it is aimed at the kiddos, which creates a really cool effect on the screen behind them (see pics).  Each kiddo gets to choose to read one or two poems.  They sit on the stool and read their poem into the microphone (GASP!  A real microphone!)  We give "Snaps" instead of clapping and we say things like "groovy", "Far-Out Man" "You are one cool cat!" They really get into it!  We do have a sound system in the cafeteria, so when the parents arrive they get to listen to some Miles Davis while they are waiting and afterwards while they are all eating!  

Yup!  That's me!  :)

It really is a very fun way to celebrate all of the kiddos hard work writing their poems!