 © Graphic by Amber Fleek
Welcome to Poetry Friday! Linda at A Word Edgewise has hosting duties and is having fun her annual Christmas Mash-ups..
Last Thursday and Friday, I worked in a fourth grade room and taught the elfchen form. Using the poetry of Moe Phillips and Mary Cronin, we build a word bank. Below are their poems. I discovered that when you talk snow and winter in December, it's hard to not bring Christmas along in the mix. They also created art with a moon, trees, snow, and shadows plus a few snowmen that are now on display with their other art.
My goal for 2026 is to send out a monthly newsletter on my Substack, Deowriter: Musings to Spark the Spirit. I plan to talk about my upcoming middle grade novel that I am planning to publish independently in the spring of 2026. So if you haven't signed up, please consider doing so.
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brings tiny new year wishes amid the bills © Jone Rush MacCulloch It's 21 days until 2026 begins! This means time to sign up for the poetry postcards. Also, as far as I can tell, this may be the TENTH year of hosting. Woohoo! Send five, send ten or send to all? In Japan, it’s called Nengajo, a Japanese custom of ushering in the new year. How It Works:
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 © Graphic by Amber Fleek If you celebrated yesterday either with family , friends or new adventures, I hope it was a wonderful day, Buffy at Buffy Silverman: Children’s Author has a wonderful interview with Suzy Levison today. She has a new book out. I had an opportunity to share poems from Thanku: Poems of Gratitude by Marlena Myles in a fourth grade class on Wednesday. Then they created a gratitude heart ala Georgia Heard and used it to write poems. The class was sparse as it was a district make up day for days lost at the beginning of the year. And a few students forgot to give me their poems.  What I Heard Poem The Poetry Sisters’ challenge for November was to compose an ‘Eavesdropped & Overheard’ poem in tribute to our pal at the long-running Chicken Spaghetti blog, Susan Thomsen. I got the part about finding lines I overheard. I'm not sure I wrote in the style of Thomsen's poem. The photo shows the list I created. But I think I have lines that could be poetry fodder later. These came from having lunch in a little hole in the wall place near my home. I wrote a shadorma. From the line: "I've seen what a branch off a tree can do..." Branches crack-- splinter off the maple I watched it transform-- a magical fort We hide, escaping the world. © Jone Rush MacCulloch, 2025 (draft) An Invitation: Please Join Us for the 2026 Poetry Postcards poetry postcards brings tiny new year wishes amid the bills © Jone Rush MacCulloch It's 34 days until 2026 begins! This means time to sign up for the poetry postcards. Also, as far as I can tell, this may be the TENTH year of hosting. Woohoo! Send five, send ten or send to all? In Japan, it’s called Nengajo, a Japanese custom of ushering in the new year. How It Works:
 I have today's Kidlit Progressive Poetry line. I hope you'll indulge me as I share my Texas Women's University Poetry Video links. Allergies caught up with me on Friday thus delaying a poem This year for the midterm project, I took some poems from poetry friends as well as working with Heidi Bee Roemer who has a most excellent Steamed Power Poetry Contest. Students selected from a variety of poems. They are encouraged to submit the poems to the contest but that is optional. Here are the first five of ten poems. Enjoy. Mariana V.: At The Pet Shop by Heidi Bee Roemer. Clarissa R.:Welcome to the Science Lab by Heidi Bee Roemer Sierra B.: Name That Seed! by Heidi Bee Roemer Aisha L.: Ode to the Washing Machine by Rebecca Kai Dotlich Victoria T.: My New Remote by Ken Nesbitt Note: The static audio at the beginning is intentional. Kidlit Progressive Poem 2025: It's 13th Year I think I may have participated in the annual progressive poem every year. Irene Latham began the tradition in 2012 and hosted until 2019. (Early archives here.) Margaret Simon stepped in and has been hosting since 2020. (Recent archives are tabs at the top of her page.) The rules: The poem passes from blog to blog Each poet-blogger adds a line. The poem is for children. Other than that, anything goes. Each blogger will copy the previous line exactly as written (unless permission from the previous poet is obtained) and add their line, offering commentary on their process if they wish. This year Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewisel wrote the beginning line and yesterday Buffy Silverman at http://www.buffysilverman.com/blog left me a line which instantly made me think of my deck with the Downy woodpeckers and hummingbirds. Open an April window let sunlight paint the air stippling every dogwood dappling daffodils with flair Race to the garden where woodpeckers drum as hummingbirds thrum Now it travels to Janice Scully at Salt City Verse. April 1 Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise April 2 Tricia at The Miss Rumphius Effect April 3 Robyn at Life on the Deckle Edge April 4 Donna Smith at Mainely Write April 5 Denise at https://mrsdkrebs.edublogs.org/ April 6 Buffy at http://www.buffysilverman.com/blog April 7 Jone at https://www.jonerushmacculloch.com/ April 8 Janice Scully at Salt City Verse April 9 Tabatha at https://tabathayeatts.blogspot.com/ April 10 Marcie at Marcie Flinchum Atkins April 11 Rose at Imagine the Possibilities | Rose’s Blog April 12 Fran Haley at Lit Bits and Pieces April 13 Cathy Stenquist April 14 Janet Fagel at Mainly Write April 15 Carol Varsalona at Beyond LiteracyLink April 16 Amy Ludwig VanDerwater at The Poem Farm April 17 Kim Johnson at Common Threads April 18 Margaret at Reflections on the Teche April 19 Ramona at Pleasures from the Page April 20 Mary Lee at A(nother) Year of Reading April 21 Tanita at {fiction instead of lies} April 22 Patricia Franz April 23 Ruth at There’s No Such Thing as a Godforsaken Town April 24 Linda Kulp Trout at http://lindakulptrout.blogspot.com April 25 Heidi Mordhorst at My Juicy Little Universe April 26 Michelle Kogan at: https://moreart4all.wordpress.com/ April 27 Linda Baie at Teacher Dance April 28 Pamela Ross at Words in Flight April 29 Diane Davis at Starting Again in Poetry April 30 April Halprin Wayland at Teaching Authors  Graphic © Amber Fleek
Janice at Salt City Verse has a lot of poetry goodies to share on her blog. I concur with her that Laura Shovan's February poetry challenge kept me writing all month. The prompts shared by the group took me in surprising places.
On Wednesday, I was enjoying morning coffee and my former school texted me, 'can you sub, it's an emergency?" It was a day that I didn't have plans and it worked out to jump in. The plans were emergency written with the topic "art/writing". I hadn't thought to bring any poetry lessons. I went to Georgia Heard's website and perused the Heartmaps and decided to do the belonging heart. 
Start of National Poetry Writing Month with a Write-In
On April 5, 2025, you're invited to write with me 11:00 AM-12:30 PM EST.
A group of us gathered on January 18, 2025 and had a wonderful time writing and sharing. If you want to join me on April 5, you can sign up here: Writing for a Shared Poetry World 
Kat at Kats Whiskers has the Poetry Friday hosting duties and shares a poem about cats and dogs.
I returned to Mrs. Martin’s fourth graders I had the opportunity to teach winter poems and we created snowman art. I absolutely love how the snowman turned out. Their expressions! I modeled that they could tear the circle out instead of using scissors and they did. They used the remaining whit paper to create the snow. 
I used four poems from The Dirigible Balloon:
Winter Word Warning by Lisa Roullard The Day After the Snow Day by Theresa Gaughan Winter Fairies by Moe Phillips (We also listened to this one) Wintertime Fair by Mary Cronin Students had copies of the poems and we underlined wintry words that we would like to see in our poems. I then challenged them to use at least one of their underlined words. I put them into the PADLET. They are in Section 2. So scroll past Section I. By using the teacher and adding sections, I can maximize the allowed number of free Padlets. Saturday, January 18, 2025
What: "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." - Martin Luther King Jr.
Let's create or write poems for persistence, for presence during the Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend. Let's share our work in community. If you are a writer, a poet, a slow stitcher, or artist, join us for a couple hours of creative community. 10-12 EST If you can only join us for an hour, great. Join us. Join here: Creating for Persistence. 
Thanks to Karen at Karen Edmisten* for hosting Poetry Friday this week. She is sharing an Ellen Bass poem that had me at "the smell of grated ginger."
This week, I subbed for in a fifth grade class for my friend who was a teacher librarian and was moved into the classroom as a result of the district getting rid of the library positions. She has a fabulous class. She left me a Joyce Sidman unit of poetry for the week. So I read:
When In Doubt When in doubt. take a nap. Even at 10 in the morning. When in doubt eat the dark chocolate stashed in the drawer labeled “when in doubt”. When in doubt go outside at night. Look for the newest stars. Name them. When in doubt reread letters you’ve saved in a box. It’s your history. When in doubt talk to the neighborhood crow. The one who brings you trinkets. When in doubt drive to the coast. Count the waves. When in doubt sip tea at your local tea shop. Read the tea leaves. When in doubt text your friends. Let them know they’re loved. © Jone Rush MacCulloch The class wrote poems in response to Night Emperor and This is Just to Say. In the Padlet, you will also see my "This is Just to Say" poem, regarding teaching fractions in math this week. I am so hopeless in teaching math!!
Thanks to Jama at Jama's Alphabet Soup for hosting our poetry posts.
First of all, I want to say that I am holding in my heart and prayers all those who live on the east coast and have been affected by Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton. Especially my poet friends. It was good to see Jan’s post. Last week, I subbed in two classrooms and was excited to once again share Georgia Heard's book, Boom! Bellow! Bleat! as a mentor text. With fourth grade, we did animals but in fifth grade, I gave the option to create a "spooky animal" like a "Pumpkinoctopus". It's evident that students had fun with these. Mrs. Martin's Fourth GradersMrs. Standish's Fifth Grade©graphic by Amber Fleek
Patricia at Reverie is hosting all the Poetry Friday goodness. She has a seedling poem that is an amazing request of the seedling. I love her photos of the mother tree and the seedling.
Her post ties in so well because today I had the opportunity to do a "flash in the pan" poetry lesson with fifth graders (they are the highly capable and gifted all day class at the school I was subbing at in the library. Their class is only thirty minutes in length with time for book checkout. I wanted to showcase the new book by Carol Labuzzetta, Picture Perfect Poetry and have students write to my photos from the book, thus creating their own ekphrastic poetry. My style is to offer a prompt and also allow the freedom to explore and play with their own poetry. I used a poetry frame for "I Am" and had them pretend they were an animal looking at the two photos I have in the book. I feel like this class had fun! ©graphic by Amber Fleek
Happy May! Buffy at Buffy Silverman is slithering in as host with a poem about a snake seen recently at Saugatuck State Park.
Today I am sharing a couple slide shows from two fourth grades and one first grade class at my former school. Did you know that when you use Padlet, you can create a slide show in an easy way! Mr. Canning's class (1st grade) and Mrs. Martin's class (4th grade) created color poems. Unfortunately, I didn't photo their color squares . I had Mrs. Fisher's class (4th grade) create I am poems. I've been teaching a poetry for children and young adults class to MLIS students at TWU. It's my second year. Thanks to the venerable Dr. Sylvia Vardell, who taught before me, I have had an excellent curriculum to use.
For their midterm, students are asked to create a video of a poem which several poetry friends have donated. Originally, I was to teach for just a year and then last fall, I was asked to return and teach. The class was returned to the program. Because of the late notice, I have only had ten students this year. They are a wonderful dedicated group. You know how I love featuring student work of all ages. Today I am featuring:
Previous Videos:
On Saturday, the last four videos of the TWU students will be shared. |
AuthorAll photos and poems in these blog posts are copyrighted to Jone Rush MacCulloch 2006- Present. Please do not copy, reprint or reproduce without written permission from me. 
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