Kara Barten’s 1st grade 2019 class at RMP Berkeley was full of brilliant poets! Last year, the class studied Langston Hughes’ poem April Rain Song during April’s National Poetry Month and then constructed their own beautiful versions.
Ms. Barten shared, “My students and I love nature and being outside. This was a pretty great access point for them when reading poetry. We read a few works about the seasons and the environment. This poem by Langston Hughes, April Rain Song, uses conventions that they are familiar with such as repetition and the use of sensory words which help the reader understand the poem and visualize it. For this assignment, we read April Rain Song and discussed how these two conventions enhance the lines of the poem. The students were then asked to create a poem of their own about the sun, using sensory words and sentence stems. I love poetry and I think that my genuine excitement translates to them in the classroom. They are always very invested and eager to create when we practice our poetry skills. They were very proud of their work for this assignment and asked if I could laminate them so they could keep them forever. So sweet!”
April Rain Song by Langston Hughes
"Sunshine" by Jasmine
"The Sun is Great" by Eduardo
"April Sun" by Aberiella
"Sun" by Adrian
"Let the Sun Sine" by Jake
"Sun" by Josh