Thank you to our Girls LitClub Facilitator Virginia Crawford for submitting this blog entry about her group of girls in Maryland!

********

This week my girls and I considered Curiosity. We read a Shel Silverstein poem in which the speaker observes someone he believes to be upside down, but then he pauses to consider if he himself might be upside down. Then we discussed Mary Oliver's poem The Summer Day in which she asks questions of the universe and describes her close observation of a grasshopper - a demonstration of curiosity in action. I invited the girls to consider questions they might have and also any moments of close observation when they felt so interested in something they couldn't take their eyes from it and then use those questions and experiences to write a poem. They asked some interesting questions like "Why are we here in this world? Why are clouds in the sky? Why are trees growing? Why are lines on my hands?" "What if I looked like a different person? Does it matter how I look?"

Another wrote this poem:

untitled

The wolf's eyes glitter
in the darkness. His paws
fall silently
on the ground.
The birds squawk
in the sky, and the crickets
practice their songs.
I don't know why
the world was built like this.
I don't know why
the trees stand so tall.
I don't know why
we try to grasp
something that isn't there.

Luca S., 5th grader

****

We look forward to reading more work from Baltimore. Thank you Virginia!