DMC: "What's Happening Right Now" by Breighlynn

WHAT'S HAPPENING RIGHT NOW

What's happening right here and now
I sit and think
writing
words
most things flowing
some fly
birds 

© 2020 by Breighlynn. All rights reserved.

TLD reader Margaret Simon has challenged us to write a mindful poem about the present moment. Click HERE for more details and to add your poem to the padlet. While some poems will be shared as daily ditties this month, all contributions will be included in a wrap-up celebration on Friday, May 29th.

DMC: "An Umbrella-Floating Day" by Breighlynn

AN UMBRELLA-FLOATING DAY

An umbrella-floating,
wind-howling,
color-observing day.

It is a sun-shining,
hawk-squawking,
umbrella-looking day.

Yesterday was a rain-falling,
person-frowning,
cloud-covering day.

Tomorrow will be a book-reading,
computer-typing,
person-silent day.

I want to be a queen-smiling,
sun-shining,
notebook-writing friend.

© 2020 by Breighlynn (4th grade) in Mrs. Simon's class. 
All rights reserved.

(Mrs. Simon wrote a poem about a rainy day as well! Read it on our February 2020 padlet.)


Buffy Silverman has challenged us to write a poem that uses combined or invented words. Click HERE for more details and to read this month's Spotlight ON interview.

Post your poem on our February 2020 padlet. All contributions will be included in a wrap-up celebration on Friday, February 28th, and one lucky participant will win a personalized copy of her nonfiction poetry picture book from Millbrook Press:

DMC: Instructions for the Sun and a star, by Isabella and Ani

Today I'm delighted to feature two students from Rebekah Hoeft's 3rd grade classroom. As you can see with these celestial poems, her young poets really do shine! Read more of Mrs. Hoeft's students' poems on the May 2019 padlet.


SUN INSTRUCTIONS

Shine real bright.
Don't come at night.
Don't come close to Earth.
When Winter comes, knock him back to
Aunt Artica.
Be the star of the show.
Let everybody know:
you shine bright.
 
© 2019 Isabella, 3rd Grader. All rights reserved.


STAR INSTRUCTIONS

Star in the sky,
shine so bright.
Only come
out in the night.

Be sparkly
and shiny
when you glow.

© 2019 Ani, 3rd Grader. All rights reserved.


Elizabeth Steinglass has challenged us to write a poem giving instructions to an inanimate object about how to do its job. Click HERE for more details and to read this month's Spotlight ON interview.

Post your poem on our May 2019 padlet. All contributions will be included in a wrap-up celebration this Friday, May 31st, and one lucky participant will win a personalized copy of her fantastic debut poetry collection from WordSong:

DMC: Instructions for a Merry-Go-Round and a Notebook, by Chloe and Madison

Margaret Simon introduced her gifted students to this month's challenge to show them "how we can write about the most ordinary of things in a very extraordinary way." Not surprisingly, she got some extraordinary results! Read more of her students' poems on the May 2019 padlet.


INSTRUCTIONS FOR A MERRY-GO-ROUND

Make me dizzy
Go round and round
Blow a soft breeze
Shhhhhhh Shhhhhhh
Create a tornado of sand
Spinnnnn Spinnnnn
Don't let me fly off
Ouch!!!!!!!
I hit a bushhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!
 
          © 2019 Chloe 3rd grader GT. All rights reserved.


INSTRUCTIONS FOR MY G.T. NOTEBOOK

Your vertebra must stay strong,
Your spindly blue ribcage holds beating words and breathing doodles.
You must stay a well-functioning organism, doing your job efficiently.
Hold together until you grow weary and old and begin to weather.
When you fall apart, let your destruction become recycled into the next generation.

          © 2019 Madison, 5th Grade G.T. student. All rights reserved.


Elizabeth Steinglass has challenged us to write a poem giving instructions to an inanimate object about how to do its job. Click HERE for more details and to read this month's Spotlight ON interview.

Post your poem on our May 2019 padlet. All contributions will be included in a wrap-up celebration on Friday, May 31st, and one lucky participant will win a personalized copy of her fantastic debut poetry collection from WordSong:

Hungry Dinosaur Poems by Dawson, Trace, and Lynzee

T-Rex with Broccoli by Dawson

These dinosaur poems about food are like potato chips, you can't stop at just one! Many thanks to all three of these students from Margaret Simon's gifted classroom.


VEGAN DINOSAUR
          by Dawson, 4th grade, © 2018

A T-Rex, big and fierce,
hard to imagine one eating broccoli.

Well It's as true,

as celery.

Sharp teeth,

good for meat,

but a T-Rex eating a salad,

how that idea is going extinct.

I WILL DO DA DINOSAUR
          by Trace, 5th grade, © 2018 

You can ask a T.Rex lots of questions.

Like why does it eat meat.

But never ask why their arms are so short.

If you do, when you're running, you'll feel the heat. 

You can ask why they don't eat plants.

Never say they should go on a diet and eat like a triceratops.

If he answers, it will scare your socks off.

But that is your loss.
 
If you do ask one of these,

hide in a tree.

His stubby arms won't reach you.

( Don't tell them I said that.)


I CAN'T IMAGINE

          by Lynzee, 3rd grade, © 2018 

a T-Rex going to the gym,
lifting weights,
saying,
"I gotta get fit, lose the triceratops bacon I ate for breakfast!"
Straining to pick it up,
he puts it down and goes,
"CHOMP!"
He says,
"Oh, great, now I need replacements,
AND my wife is going to sign me up for anger management classes."

Mrs. Simon's students also wrote a couple of non-food-related poems that you can read on our April 2018 padlet.


Click HERE to read this month's interview with Deborah Bruss and Matt Forrest Esenwine. They've challenged us to write a poem about something you would not expect a dinosaur (or another kind of animal) to do.

Leave your poem on our April 2018 padlet. While some contributions will be featured as daily ditties this month, all contributions will be included in a wrap-up celebration this Friday, April 27th, and one lucky participant will win a personalized copy of their fun new rhyming picture book from POW! Kids:

DMC: "Rainy" by Madison

Happy Poem in Your Pocket Day! 
          What poem are you carrying in your pocket? 

For our final featured ditty of National Poetry Month, I've chosen to share what's in my pocket today. It's a cinquain by a 3rd grade student named Madison. Not only is her poem perfectly pocket-sized, but it also suits Laura Purdie Salas's challenge to a T! (You can read more water-themed cinquains HERE.)

But there's another reason I chose this poem for today. It has nothing to do with what I'm carrying in my pocket, it has to do with what I carry in my heart—the reason I write children's poetry. If all of our children saw the world through poets' eyes and had teachers like Margaret Simon to nurture and help them express their thoughts and feelings in this way; if all of our children were given the opportunity to develop observational skills, foster compassion, and broaden their understanding of life through poetry, how could we not, as a society, be better off for it? Our world and our future are in their hands. Read more poetry by the students of Mrs. Simon's Sea at their blog.


Rainy
Cadet Blue Sky
Thunder Beating on Drums
Lightning Marching Through the Clouds
Pouring…

© 2017 by Madison, 3rd Grade


The DMC challenge for National Poetry Month is to contribute to our Ditty Potluck. Follow the guidelines for any one of the last 28 challenges, choosing from the following recipes:

Click HERE for an alphabetical list of all the DMC challenges.

Click HERE for an alphabetical list of all the Spotlight interviews.

Post your poem on our April 2017 padlet and be sure to indicate which challenge you are responding to.  All contributions will be included in a wrap-up celebration tomorrow, Friday, April 28th, and one lucky participant, chosen randomly, will select from the following:

Option 1: A set of 8 copies of The Best of Today's Little Ditty: 2014-2015 to use with a classroom or extracurricular group.

Option 2: One copy of The Best of Today's Little Ditty, plus a $20 gift card to purchase a poetry book(s) of your choice.

Option 3: A $25 gift card if you already have all the copies of The Best of TLD you need.