One of my favorite parts of the poetry unit is how easy it is to incorporate whole class discussions on the rug into the lessons. While we only did that for one lesson this week, I was reminded how much I love having the students share their thinking and build off of each other's ideas. Poetry is often not literal, so it involves the kids doing a lot of inferring in order to make sense of what the poet is trying to say. During this unit, we've already started learning strategies to help us do just that. This includes rereading the poem a few times, breaking down the meaning of each line and stanza of the poem, and tracking the imagery the poet is creating in your mind. On Friday of this week, we focused on figurative language, specifically similes and metaphors. To make things relevant and engaging for the kids, we used the lyrics of well-known songs to identify and analyze examples of similes and metaphors. I compiled excerpts of lyrics from a bunch of songs, like "Firework" by Katy Perry, "Happier" by Marshmello, "Titanium" by David Guetta, and "Skyscraper" by Demi Lovato. It was fun playing the songs too, and having the students recognize that figurative language really is everywhere!

Our Bucket Fillers this week were Maggie and Samar. Maggie really stood out for her participation during our discussions about the poems and songs we read. She was super engaged and eager to share her ideas. One of the aspects of my job for which I am most grateful is when kids show enthusiasm for what we're doing and what we're learning, and Maggie does that on a regular basis. So thanks, Maggie. :) I also owe a big thank you to Samar. She and Eva were lifesavers this week in how much they helped me prepare the final copies of our landmark magazines for both classes. After printing each student's pages, the next steps were to cut them out, glue them together, arrange them in the lamination sheets, and put each one through the laminator. Well Samar and Eva were wonderful in their willingness to help me out and attentiveness while doing so, and they ended up saving me a ton of time. Samar is always up to help me and help others, and I really appreciate that about her!