This month Heritage Elementary School, your Glendale charter school, is holding its Celebration for the Arts on Thursday, January 28. This event will include the Talent Show, Art Showcase, Art Auction, and a dinner. Tickets are available in the office for $5 before the event, and cost $8 at the door.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
January will also feature our Poetry Contest. The guidelines and entry packets will be distributed the week students return to school from winter break. Winning poems will be framed and displayed in the front office, as well as featured in the school yearbook. Students who win will celebrate with a special pizza lunch (parents are invited to join them). We invite all students to set pen to page or tap away on the keyboard to capture their own thoughts, feelings, stories, and ideas in free verse or form.<\/p>\n
To inspire your budding poet, you\u2019ll find here a mix of children\u2019s poems in different styles and veins, as well as encouraging quotations from poets.<\/p>\n
Invitation<\/strong><\/p>\n By Shel Silverstein<\/em><\/p>\n If you are a dreamer, come in, <\/p>\n \u201cChildren spend their whole lives talking, listening, reading, and dreaming in one language (or more, if they are lucky), so why not encourage them to do all those things in the most pleasurable possible way\u2014with poetry. Great poetry is a circus for the brain. It\u2019s ten pounds of excitement in a nine-pound bag. But children won\u2019t know what that means unless we offer them the best. Soon, they\u2019ll be asking for second and third helpings. Even though few children will become poets, poetry helps them realize that one of the most phenomenal gifts humans get free of charge is the English language. And there is nothing in any language more beautiful, more inspiring and thought-provoking than poetry.\u201d \u2013 J. Patrick Lewis, 2011 Children\u2019s Poet Laureate<\/em><\/p>\n Zoophabet: Ants to Zorillas<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n By Avis Harley<\/em><\/p>\n Ants use antennae to seek out their tracks,<\/p>\n Beavers gnaw trees for their lodge,<\/p>\n Camels store food in the humps on their backs,<\/p>\n Dragonflies dazzle and dodge,<\/p>\n Elephant trunks furnish watery flings,<\/p>\n Flamingoes eat shrimp to keep pink;<\/p>\n Grasshoppers’ ears appear under their wings,<\/p>\n Hummingbirds hover to drink,<\/p>\n Inchworms advance with a rear-ended loop,<\/p>\n Jellyfish sometimes can sting,<\/p>\n Kestrels catch lunch with a lightning-like swoop,<\/p>\n Larks love to warble and sing,<\/p>\n Moles tunnel intricate malls underground,<\/p>\n Newts thrive in ponds filled with weed,<\/p>\n Owls like to swivel their heads right around,<\/p>\n People can learn how to read,<\/p>\n Quetzals are gorgeous in feathery dress,<\/p>\n Rats have acquired a bad label,<\/p>\n Seahorse appears like a figure in chess,<\/p>\n Tortoise found fame in a fable,<\/p>\n Umber-birds thrive in the African wild,<\/p>\n Vipers can poison their prey,<\/p>\n Worms turn the soil when the climate is mild,<\/p>\n Xylophage chews wood all day,<\/p>\n Yaks grow in horns that are gracefully curled,<\/p>\n Zorillas are striped black and white;<\/p>\n each zooabet creature is part of this world:<\/p>\n unique, with its own copyright!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cPoems come from your more secret mind. A poem will want to ask deeper questions, higher questions, more puzzling questions and often too more satisfying questions than the everyday obvious questions than the story of your life would tell.\u201d \u2013 James Berry, distinguished children\u2019s poet<\/em><\/p>\n Jack<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n By Jane Yolen<\/em><\/p>\n Jack was quite nimble,<\/p>\n Jack was quite quick,<\/p>\n Jack gave the beanstalk<\/p>\n A mighty big kick.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Down came the giant\u2014<\/p>\n GIGANTIC fall\u2014<\/p>\n Bottoms up in a crater,<\/p>\n Thus ending it all.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cPoetry is important because it manages to say in words things that you can’t otherwise say, often, it manages to express people’s love, people’s grief, people’s loss and intense moments of their lives and poetry somehow captures these moments that people go through, that we all go through, in various different ways in our lives and expresses for us what usually cannot be articulated. Poetry gives a voice to the voiceless…really.\u201d \u2013 Jackie Kay, award-winning writer of fiction, poetry, and plays<\/em><\/p>\n Taking One for the Team<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n By Sara Holbrook<\/em><\/p>\n We practiced together,<\/p>\n sweat and stained.<\/p>\n We pummeled each other<\/p>\n and laughed off pain.<\/p>\n Teams may disagree,<\/p>\n may tease,<\/p>\n may blame.<\/p>\n Teams may bicker and whine,<\/p>\n but get down for the game.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n You had my back.<\/p>\n We fought the fight.<\/p>\n And though our score<\/p>\n was less last night,<\/p>\n we’re walking tall.<\/p>\n Our team came through<\/p>\n and stuck together like Crazy Glue.<\/p>\n I’m proud to say<\/p>\n I lost with you.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cGood children\u2019s poetry can distill an idea or an emotion into a short and memorable \u201cpackage\u201d that can broaden a child\u2019s perspective on the world. Poetry is perhaps the most playful of all exercises for building children\u2019s growing brains and minds.\u201d \u2013 Kenn Nesbit, Children\u2019s Poet Laureate<\/em><\/p>\n Spanglish<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n By Tato Laviera<\/em><\/p>\n pues estoy creando spanglish<\/p>\n bi-cultural systems<\/p>\n scientific lexicographical<\/p>\n inter-textual integrations<\/p>\n two expressions<\/p>\n existentially wired<\/p>\n two dominant languages<\/p>\n continentally abraz\u00e1ndose<\/p>\n en colloquial combate<\/p>\n en las aceras del soil<\/p>\n imperio spanglish emerges<\/p>\n control pandillaje<\/p>\n sobre territorio bi-lingual<\/p>\n las novelas mexicanas<\/p>\n mixing with radiorocknroll<\/p>\n condimented cocina lore<\/p>\n immigrant\/migrant<\/p>\n nasal mispronouncements<\/p>\n baraja chismeteos social club<\/p>\n hip-hop prieto street salsa<\/p>\n corner soul enmixturando<\/p>\n spanish pop far\u00e1ndula<\/p>\n standard english classroom<\/p>\n with computer technicalities<\/p>\n spanglish is literally perfect<\/p>\n spanglish is ethnically snobbish<\/p>\n spanglish is cara-holy inteligencia<\/p>\n which u.s. slang do you speak?<\/p>\n Useful Links<\/strong><\/p>\n Poetry Foundation<\/a>: This independent literary organization seeks to discover and celebrate poetry and share it with the largest audience possible. They have poems, articles, biographies about poets, and a section dedicated to children\u2019s poetry<\/a>.<\/p>\n Children\u2019s Poetry Archive<\/a>: A project of the Arts Council of England. It includes interviews with poets, some of which include readings of their work, and a poetry archive.<\/p>\n Poetry for Children<\/a>: A blog dedicated to sharing poetry with children and young people. The site includes poems for various age groups and articles.<\/p>\n
\nIf you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar,
\nA hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer\u2026
\nIf you\u2019re a pretender, come sit by my fire
\nFor we have some flax-golden tales to spin.
\nCome in!
\nCome in!<\/p>\n