Haiku & Art

(Image from http://www.earthrites.org/turfing/?p=3226)

Maybe I'm weird, maybe I'm different, but I like to try new things in the art room to keep things from getting stale.  At the end of the last school year, I got a couple of books full of ideas.  One included some stuff about poetry.  As an English major at Centre College many centuries ago, I read plenty of poetry.  Didn't write much of it, but appreciated it, studied it and wrote a bazillion papers on it.  Several years ago at LaGrange, the Arts & Humanities teachers got to go into the regular classrooms and spend time doing collaboration and enrichment work with the kids.  One unit I did involved writing poetry.  It was seemingly a success, but I never really pursued it again.

(Photo used by permission of me, since I took it)

I decided last spring to try again this year, but I wanted to stick to haiku.  I like the short length, the structure as well as the ideals behind haiku.  What we've been doing is making interpretive drawings of masterpieces, such as "Sunny Day" as a takeoff of "Starry Night" or a vase of Venus Flytraps instead of Sunflowers, then writing a haiku to display alongside.  We do so much writing in my room that the kids haven't batted an eye.  I've been doing this with first through fifth graders, and no kids whatsoever have had a problem at least trying.  Some of the poetry hasn't been half bad, either.  I've enjoyed working on this with the kids--it's been kind of like Writers' Workshop in my room lately--and I'll keep trying to incorporate new stuff.  While listening to the traditional Japanese music I'm playing in my room, a young man looked up at me and asked, "Is this art class or is this music class or is this writing class?"  Good question.  By the way, the guy in the pic at top is Basho, ancient haiku master.

--Corey