We have a famous person coming to our school. She is a writer. She writes poetry and stories. She wrote a story about visiting her Grandmother in Palestine. Palestine is a land near our Play Partners in Cairo. They speak Arabic. We learned words in Arabic.
There is fighting in some places in the world. Listen to Naomi Shahib Nye read a poem she wrote about the fighting.
Naomi Shahib Nye is imagining the letters the bosses who make the rules could write to people who have been hurt. There are lots of feelings when there’s fighting.
What is a poem?
“A lot of things”
“It sounded like a Prayer to me”
“Sometimes they rhyme”
“A little bit story and a little bit song“
How do you feel when you have a fight with a friend? What does hurt feel like? What are some kind words you can say to help people feel better? Can you write a poem about how it feels when you are hurt or when there is fighting? Can you write a funny poem? Try it!
The Treehouse 
Hello Cozy Chamomile Class,
Thank you for inspiring me with your questions asking, “What is a poem?”
You also inspired me by having a video clip of Naomi Shihab Nye in your post. One of my favourite books is a collection of poetry that Ms Nye selected from the Middle East. It is called “The Space Between our Footsteps” and it has always had a special place in my heart. It was the poetry book I chose to use with my grade 4, 5 and 6 students. My blog, last year, was called “The Space Between” for a lot of reasons, but in part because of the title of her book.
…And I love “Habibi.”
…And I love “This Same Sky.”
…And I will keep reading
The writing and poetry collections of Ms Nye.
That is my poem for you. I didn’t need to make it rhyme, but it sounded fine to me.
We would love to have a Skype call with you again so you can share your spirit bear art. We will let you know when we get a new bulb for our projector…and we won’t be at school for a few days this coming week.
Sincerely,
Ms Clayton
Oh my Gosh!! This is so neat! I am tearing up- so sweet and so neat about the connection w Naomi Shahib Nye’s poetry. We will be making her a present too! A shawl! Woven! Am very excited to create this with the kids!
And YES! We would LOVE to skype again!! This week if possible! We will be on break after that for two weeks!
Hello Kindergarten123,
Did you see my mistake in spelling Cozy as Cosy? I am sorry, but I forgot about the spelling differences and really, z in Cozy is more common and I should be using Z!
We can try for Thursday and I can have my laptop or iPad in the room in case we don’t get a new bulb by then. ; ‘)
Sincerely,
Ms Clayton
It’s fixed!! Wow! I didn’t know you could do that! Thank you for teaching me!
[…] reading us her book “Sitti’s Secrets”: Naomi Shihab Nye also writes poetry. We learned about poetry. Sometimes it rhymes, sometimes it doesn’t. We learned poetry from a long, long, long, long, […]