Hello there, Elm Tree families!
What an inspiring first day! The kids arrived with so much excitement, and we were lucked with the best weather. We started the day by giving the kiddos some time to play in the knoll right by the entrance before slowly making our way over to the main lawn. Once we settled under a tree, the nine of us gathered around in a circle and started by playing an oral poetry game, the Many-Headed Expert, where each child continues a story by adding one word at a time. Here’s a transcription of our first go-around:
There was a baby dolphin and a Ubalo.
The baby, Antidisestablishmentarianism Dolphin, wanted some freedom and killed baby. Dolphin was sad because someone ate his poo.
The baby, Antidisestablishmentarianism Dolphin, had an angry monster and ate Antidisestablishmentarianism. The monster later created a Rod.
Baby Rod liked to write big essays and Michelangelo paintings (!!!)
We will continue to practice this challenging game! After two rounds of the Many-Headed Expert, we collectively agreed on some ground rules for our week at Elm Tree. We asked the kids what they thought some of the rules should be. The first big rule we landed on was an oldie, but a goodie: Don’t talk to strangers. The kids knew that one by heart, though Annabel countered with a few crucial hypotheticals: “What if you see your aunt? Or your best friend’s mom?” We all decided that in this type of scenario the kiddos would tell us who they are and ask to head over and greet them. The most important rule — no wandering off — helped establish one of our favorite things about Elm Tree, which is that we do everything together. This means helping with materials, collaborating, and moving around.
We discussed the ways we were going to treat the park, which meant no littering and no pulling plants. Amelia noted that we wouldn’t pull flowers out of a garden and that the same rule applied to Prospect Park, which we all agreed with. We then transitioned into how we were going to treat each other. Sylvie launched us off with the golden rule: “treat others as you want to be treated.” We discussed kindness and patience, both of which are super important when supporting friends’ creativity.
Over the years, we've learned that some of our most treasured moments occur spontaneously, such as on the walk to the bathroom. As we mosied over to the bathroom in the Picnic House to change into our swim suits, Nate showed us some edible plants and berries! We also chatted about the origin of our program name. The name Elm Tree Poetry is in honor of poet, Marianne Moore, who saved the only Elm Tree in Prospect Park. She asked that donations be made to save the tree in lieu of sending flowers to her funeral. And the public did! This act of kindness and generosity often translates in the manner in which the Elm Tree Crew interacts. It's pretty magical to see in action. New friendships form and old friendships deepen on these walks to and fro!
After our snack and a bathroom break, we headed across the park, over to the Natural Playground. On the way, the kiddos helped Rod push the wagon over to a shady tree overlooking the playground. When we arrived, we set out a large tapestry to sit on and gave the kiddos their first project. We told them to take out their notebooks and gave them the option to either draw or write the answer to our prompt: What is a poem?
We knew this may be a challenging question, but the kids fearlessly took it on. We spent some time at the top of the day discussing how the “rules” of the summer program are different from the “rules” of poetry because one is flexible while the other is not. So when we arrived at our first project, we really wanted to drive this point home by having them describe to us what they think a poem is. After some quiet writing time, we got back in a circle to share, and we heard some really unique responses.
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Dedicated to Robin on the occasion of her birthday!
with love from Lyla |
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| by Nate |
"Poems don't have to rhyme. Poems are freedom."
by Wynnie
by Amelia
by Lyla
by Sylvie
by Ubalo
"A poem is a page of writing that can rhyme and be creative."
by Annabel
The theme we all noticed was that the kids thought of poetry as a liberating experience, which seemed just as exciting to them as we had hoped it would be! To build on this, we had the kids put their notebooks away and lay down with their eyes closed while we read, “Life Doesn’t Frighten Me” by Maya Angelou, one of both Romy and Rod’s favorite children’s books. Instead of offering them a definition, we decided to show them an example of one kind of poem. We then had the kids close their eyes again while we re-read the book, and this time we asked them to pay attention to the language, and to see which turns of phrase popped out and stuck with them. The following are a few lines they remembered. They not only remembered them, but also analyzed them without being prompted!
“Big ghosts in a cloud”
“Dragons breathing flame”
“Panthers in the park”
“I can walk the ocean floor”
Once we all shared some of our favorite lines, we read it a third time, except this time we had the kids observe the accompanying illustrations: paintings by Jean-Michel Basquiat. Looking at the paintings, the kiddos began to reinterpret the poem itself. The imagery lead the kids to the conclusion that maybe Maya Angelou’s use of the refrain “life doesn’t frighten me at all” actually meant that she was frightened, and was using the line as a technique to try and be more fearless.
As we went through the story a third time, we focused on Maya Angelou’s amazing use of syllabic line breaks and rhyme. Earlier, during our first writing exercise, Amelia decided to write a haiku to accompany her drawing of flowers, which she used as an example of what a poem is. While sharing her haiku, we noticed that she’d switched up some of the syllables by accident, giving her haiku a 4-5-4 structure instead of the traditional 5-7-5. Still, we noticed that she had created her own poetic form! This became the center of our Maya Angelou reading; we counted out the syllables in her lines and noticed that as the poem progressed, the syllables increased and the rhyming became much more complex.
"Self-Portrait" by Wynnie
During lunch time, we gave the kiddos the option of chatting or listening to us read the beginning of the novel, Where The Mountain Meets The Moon by Grace Lin. They chose to have a read aloud as soon as they saw the cover of the novel...sometimes, only sometimes (just between us) perhaps you should "judge a book by its cover." This book took us into another lunch-filled dimension.
Here are some photos of the kiddos building a dam and frolicking in the Natural Playground:
Here are some photos of the kiddos rolling down a hill because we think city kids should always be given the option to just take a minute to roll down a hill!
Once they were sufficiently grass-stained and rolled out, we had them come back to our spot under the tree for our second writing project of the day. They were greeted by a circle made of paper plates, under each of which was a piece of paper. We then launched into a discussion about Jean-Michel Basquiat’s paintings, and the ways in which all of us managed to see different things in the same images: a painting of a flower looked, to Annabel, like a bomb going off; a painting of a man standing next to a dog made some of the kids feel like he was its owner, and made others feel like he was scared of it.
This was the perfect segue into a discussion about “abstract art” and interpretation. For our second project, we had the kids each choose one color, and create an abstract painting out of just that single color. Blue, purple and green were the most popular choices, though Ubalo proved himself to be a cultural contrarian when he mixed red and yellow together to make orange.
painting by Amelia / poem by Sylvie
painting by Sylvie / poem by Amelia
painting by Lyla / poem by Annabel
painting by Annabel / poem by Lyla
painting by Nate / poem by Wynnie
painting by Wynnie / poem by Nate
painting & poem by Ubalo
Once they felt that they had completed their paintings, we had them grab their notebooks and swap their artwork with the friend who painted using the same color. In the same way that we had them take in Basquiat’s paintings, and consider the way Maya Angelou’s words shaped our interpretations of his work, we asked the kiddos to write poems reflecting their own interpretations of their friends’ paintings. There is a strategy of sorts commonly used both in Improvisation and Comedy...that you likely know. Try not to say "No" during a scene, sketch or situation. Instead say, "Yes, and..." This does not mean that you cannot disagree, but instead focuses on the art of trust, collaboration, and the beauty and pleasure of the unknown. In many ways, this is how our first day of Elm Tree unfolded. Our daring and thoughtful group of young writers trusted us and said, "Yes, and..." to all of the ideas and projects we proposed.
It is Day 1 and it has already been such a joy to work with your fearless artists!
Always, always and always,
Rod & Romy
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