“Your poetry workshop was by far the most successful event we’ve had in the library this year.”
— BridgePoint Elementary Librarian
We love doing school workshops!
This one was for a great group of 5th graders at BridgePoint Elementary. We had the students discuss what a poem is, walked through the spontaneity and freedom of on-the-spot poem creation, then had the kids write their own for each other! And of course, they loved the typewriters almost as much as the poem fun. 🙂
One of the coolest things was when we got a poem suggestion (“sugar, Nutella, elephants” — three words from three different students), then started making the poem up LIVE ON-SCREEN — with the typewriter displayed on the doc-cam! The kids loved it, and ended up saying the poem out-loud as each word came out. Talk about on-the-spot creation!
We also read each poem we created out loud, then discussed the thought process for each, what worked and why, and the beauty of making mistakes.
At the end, the kids paired up and wrote each other on-the-spot poems. Poetry fun for the win! ✏️😀
“Your workshop was wonderful preparation for our fifth graders, who then hosted their own Typewriter Rodeo, creating on-the-spot poems for students in the younger grades. These two experiences were by far the most successful events we’ve had in the library this year, and we got a ton of positive feedback from students and staff alike.”
— Kate Richter, BridgePoint Elementary Librarian
Showing how a “mistake” in a Harry Potter poem turned into something great 
Typing on-the-spot poem based on student suggestion 
Explaining the “clack!” when typebar hits paper 
Showing how the typewriter works