My students created the display. It's right outside one of the entrances to our school library. All I did was tell them the name and purpose of the project, and they figured out the rest. They asked a lot of questions about how to make the parts, but I let them find their own solutions. (They created paper leaves and distributed them to classmates with instructions to "Write a poem here!" ) On each leaf you will find a small verse. Just making the tree was a great lesson in problem solving.
I sent out an email to our faculty inviting them to have their students put poems on our poet-tree. (In a day, we've had about 10 more poems added.) Teachers are sending ME emails saying how much fun their students are having writing poems, and my own students get so excited when they see that someone else has added to it. We are also now checking it often to make sure it stays up.
Another wonderful side benefit of this tree is that my students want to add poems to it every day. Many of them bring the poems from home, while others write them in class. I would say that LOVE THAT DOG by Sharon Creech started it all.
This one little project is giving students an opportunity to connect as we celebrate language. Our dual language classes are writing poems in Spanish to display, too!
As I write this, I ask myself this question: How often DO our students collaborate with students from grade levels?
What are you doing for poetry month? Have you created a "Poet-Tree"?