Really Exquisite Corpses

Games where you pass and fold paper to make crazy poems and stories are favorites at Frog Hollow. One of the classics is Exquisite Corpse (we didn’t name it — the Surrealists did — but we like it a lot). Here are a couple recent results by the Friday class that we particularly enjoyed. IContinue reading “Really Exquisite Corpses”

Sonnets: Shakespeare wrote ’em so why can’t we?

Sonnets are a staple of English-language poetry. They can also be intimidating to introduce to children, because of their density and formality and because lots of the best ones were written a long time ago. However, I’ve been teaching them — after a solid foundation in other poetry — for several years now, and whileContinue reading “Sonnets: Shakespeare wrote ’em so why can’t we?”

Math + Poems = Swagness

Today, in honor of April Fool’s Day, we pretended to do math instead of writing. We wrote a math poem, where each line had to have an equation but everything was words instead of numbers. It was so fun it felt like a game — might be a great writing assignment for a math-focused kid.Continue reading “Math + Poems = Swagness”

Dada in Our Hearts: teaching French Surrealism and Dadaism to children

Last week, I introduced the class to French Surrealist poetry and Dadaism. This sounds very highbrow, but actually this poetry is right up the kids’ alley. Why? Because it’s totally nuts. Basically, these poets were responding to the insanity of World War One by deifying nonsense. But lots of it is very lively, wondrous nonsense.Continue reading “Dada in Our Hearts: teaching French Surrealism and Dadaism to children”