Read The Bumblebee Queen. Pull out the chewiest, most evocative vocabulary and put it on sticky notes. Then move around the words to make a poem of your own.
This is one of the activities done at Midway Elementary in Lexington, SC. by Mrs. Huff’s and Mrs. Crapps classes. Wow. These student are digging into nonfiction and finding their own voices. Understanding nonfiction “informational” texts is parts of the S.C. state language arts standards. These teachers are fulfilling that standard and going beyond, to inspire young writers and scientists. Hooray!
I believe that Mrs. Huff mentioned The National Writing Project as one of the sources for her ideas. Also mentioned frequently in S.C. were workshops and books by Ralph Fletcher, Linda Hoyt, and Jeff Anderson.
