Poetry Unfolding
Poetry Unfolding is an eco-art and poetry project for middle schoolers. We go outdoors and engage the five senses through a series of simple mindfulness exercises. The students jot responses in journals, do a drawing exercise, and assemble material for a poem. I provide a grid to simplify crafting the interconnected parts of the "fortune teller" or "cootie catcher" poem.
Then I give a quick lesson in paper folding and how to make a cootie catcher. Students can decorate, draw, paint on the paper before or after folding it, and write their finished poems onto the flaps to create a haiku-like series of 16 different poems based in concrete responses to an outdoor setting and their direct perceptions. Click here to see some of my published cootie catcher poems.
Then I give a quick lesson in paper folding and how to make a cootie catcher. Students can decorate, draw, paint on the paper before or after folding it, and write their finished poems onto the flaps to create a haiku-like series of 16 different poems based in concrete responses to an outdoor setting and their direct perceptions. Click here to see some of my published cootie catcher poems.
