The first and second grade students at PS 316 worked on uncovering the many themes in the works we’ve been learning such as generosity, community, elegance, wonder, love, humor, nature. They made long lists of these Ideas & Feelings which they used in learning how to write metaphors using their senses. i.e. Music is the road to a family party with dancing…” The students used the metaphors they created to make a “Poetry Tree”.
The teaching artists brought in an Appalachian Dulcimer to accompany the Poetry Tree construction.
This exercise allowed the teaching artists to help the students capture the ever changing and subtle details of their imaginations as authors and artists.
This lesson connected to CWP’s Student Outcomes (Critical Thinking, Creative Thinking, Literacy, Citizenship and Emotional Intelligence in every way. All of the ideas mentioned above are based upon the ability to decipher meaning through logic and nuance.
This work is creative, fanciful and useful in that it allows the students to discover what is important to them and their communities.
Programming at this school is made possible in part by The New York Community Trust.
