WHChaikujunior:
Primos Elementary School Workshop
Primos,
Pennsylvania, US
WHC
Education and Regional Director, Paul Conneally, encourages our members to
conduct regional and local haiku workshops, ginkos and other events in addition
to the internet. Member, Peigi Ann Swayhoover recently took up the challenge,
and reported back her excitement and enthusiasm and shares the budding young
poets' haiku with us. Hats off to WHC member, Peigi, elementary school-teacher,
Marjie Mroz and her 2nd grade students from Primos Elementary School! We know
you'll enjoy reading the haiku, which incidentally, were selected by the
children, themselves. Each poet wrote three haiku. The poems were displayed on
construction-paper flowers along the hallways of their school.
We
hope that Peigi's report and the Primos student's haiku will inspire WHC members
and readers to hold a local haiku event, perhaps just such a workshop with any
age group. Our WHChaikujunior list is available for those members who have
children and/or students, themselves. We encourage you to subscribe to
WHChaikujunior and with your children, post their poetry for other children
around the world to share, just as the adult poets do on WHChaikuforumworkshop.
By the way, Peigi calls to our attention that Primos Elementary School seems to
have a wonderfully cosmopolitan group of children with names reflecting an
international heritage. Welcome to the wide-wide world of haiku!
From
Peigi:
At the
invitation of my daughter, Marjie, and her 2nd grade students at Primos
Elementary School in Primos, Pennsylvania, US., I gave a 20 minute introduction
to the 2nd graders briefly sharing what Haiku is, telling them I was sure that
all of them could create a picture with words which readers would understand and
enjoy. They were asked to write a haiku from an experience they might have had
in their young lives regarding nature; seasons, animals, the wind, sky etc. I
used an overhead projector and wrote each child a haiku from me for examples,
and as a personal touch -- to let them know they COULD DO IT.
The Upper Darby School District is having a District-wide poetry contest
commencing in April. Although the curriculum for teaching Haiku is 5th grade
level, Marjie and I decided to try and motivate the 2nd graders to write Haiku
poems and present them to the District contest.
Note the children's names. Some of the students do not speak much English.
Imagine that!!!! An international group of 7 & 8 year old school children in
America writing Japanese Haiku! Let's root for these children. America (in my
opinion) needs more culture in its society.
Small beginnings...heh? And wouldn't it be just wonderful if one of them won the
poetry contest?? Thank you for supporting this "miraculous" (my word)
endeavor, dear members.
-- peigi
Poetry
by Marjie Mroz's 2nd Grade Class
Primos Elementary School, Primos, Pennsylvania, US
Comments
by DeVar Dahl, Editor
Magrath, Canada
pandas
barking
in the woods
poachers coming
Kirthi Shanmugam |
jellyfish
floating
coming towards me
swim away
Alex DiMarco
|
| ...Kirthi
has captured an exciting and dangerous moment in this haiku. Will the pandas be
safe or will the poachers find them? [DD]
|
...Alex
shows that the smartest thing to do when faced with a jellyfish is to get out of
the way. [DD] |
green
grass
frogs hop
ants in my pants
Jaleelah Ahmed-Ali
|
white
clouds
cotton balls
it's just spilt milk
Sarah Lanshe
|
| ...Ah,
Jaleelah has created quite a surprise. We are expecting some peaceful scene
to go with the green grass and frogs. Then we find Jaleelah has had the
unfortunate experience of sitting on an ant colony and is in big trouble.
[DD]
|
...Sarah’s
haiku shows a nice comparison of clouds, cotton balls and spilt milk. Maybe
spilt milk is really something we don’t have to cry about. [DD]
|
birds
chirping
frogs croaking
my mom singing
Stephanie Kay
|
dogs
bark
clouds in sky
just my shadow
Irene Philip
|
| ...Stephanie
makes me smile with her haiku. Her mom’s singing is in good company with the
birds and the frogs. [DD]
|
...Irene
show us that she is very aware of what is going on around her. Good haiku come
from looking at and thinking about everyday things. [DD] |
bunny
hops
all around
just a dream
Brian Roam |
the
fish is bright
swimming in ocean
jumps out of water
P.J. Bianculli
|
| ...Brian
shows us that many good haiku can come from our dreams. A dream where a bunny
hops about seems like a very peaceful and enjoyable experience. [DD]
|
...P.J.
has captured that split second when a jumping fish clears the water. It is
exciting and challenging to try to notice as many details as we can when this
happens. [DD]
|
sky
is blue
birds fly by
leaving feathers
JaeEun So
|
scary
dinosaurs
might eat you up
extinct
Rod Flores
|
| ...JaeEun
shows us that exciting experience of finding birds’ feathers. What are their
colors. Are they blue like the sky? [DD]
|
...Rod
makes us wonder what it would be like to be around dinosaurs. Would they try to
eat us? Then what a relief. We remember that they are extinct and we don’t
really have to worry. [DD]
|
sky
is blue
clouds are puffy
coming towards you
Charlene Blankinship
|
rain
is falling
like people's tears
raindrop hits my head
Evan Gallone-Kosta
|
| ...Charlene
shows the blue of the sky and makes us imagine the white of the puffy clouds.
She then brings the clouds closer to us to increase our response to them. [DD] |
...I
like the way Evan show us raindrops and tears. I think that he shows us that we
are all influenced by the sadness and feelings of others. [DD]
|
breezy
wind
no one on swings
swaying back and forth
Miranda Moore
|
soda
pop drips
drink it all at once
exploding stomach
Ashley O'Neill
|
| ...What
a good eye Miranda has to to see the motion of the swings even when there is
nobody on them. I can almost feel the wind as I read this one. [DD]
|
...Ashley
show us in this haiku that even if the soda pop is dripping we better not try to
drink it all at once. It could be painful. [DD] |
water
floating through the sea
fish underneath
I'm under the air
Stephane Etienne
|
sitting
in class
doing work
thinking of playing
Kalgi Chokshi
|
| ...I
like the way Stephane make me think that if the air was like water, then
we would be like fish. Each time I read this one more pictures come to my mind’s
eye. [DD]
|
...Kalgi
has captured a great truth about school or anything else that we have to do.
Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to do something else. [DD] |
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