Looking at Ordinary Things in Extraordinary Ways

Although we celebrate poetry year round in our room (especially as a more authentic venue for word study)- we have currently been focusing on it as a writing unit. We cap off our unit with a Poetry Pocket where we invite friends and family to come listen to and celebrate our original poems in our room which we transform into a coffee shop. Every year I am amazed at the amazing poets that live/work/play in our room. Before we even begin to write poems, we talk about how poets notice the most ordinary objects in extra-ordinary ways (Thanks Lucy Calkins). With that being said- I wanted to share one of my student's poems that I especially love:

The Basketball

A Basketball....
is not
just a ball
that is
thrown
in a hoop
but
a circle
that is
spinning
through space