Bentley before....                                               Bentley after and more patriotic!

Have you heard of Fun Poetry Monday's? 

It was an idea that Meghan had for sharing poems over the loudspeaker of our school each Monday after announcements. She quickly had three other students get on board with her idea: Trevor, Arriyanna, and Taylor. They planned and practiced. First, they decided on a theme-poems about famous people. Then they worked on the roles each one of them would have in the group. The group met daily and wrote the opening and closing "jingle", decided on the poem to be read the following Monday, and then practiced the announcement. It was so exciting to see a student-driven project like this come out of a student's love of poetry! I was the facilitator and would check in with the group periodically throughout the week to provide guidance and make suggestions. The group performed 3 Fun Poetry Monday's during the month of June! I am so proud of them for their creativity, collaboration, and ability to apply those 21st Century critical thinking skills on this real-life project! These students got to share their love of poetry and their project idea with Mrs. VanDerwater when she visited! They were SO excited! 

My class had the privilege of meeting an amazing author/educator/published author on June 17th. Her name is Amy Ludwig VanDerwater. She had done professional development for our district in the past and collaborates with Lucy Calkins. Amy also has an awesome blog called The Poem Farm that my class has been blogging with her on this year. Check it out! And she just published the children's book Forest Has a Song.

 Best day ever !!

Bentley loves the deck and...eating my flowers.