To prepare the Third graders for Christmas, Cathy Tramontana (SJE parent) invited the library class to hear and then write poetry.

First, we discussed how Christmas is a very poetic season, with carols and poetic language all around us during Advent and Christmas. We considered how poetry can help us celebrate, give us pleasure, build connections and community, and slow us down so that we can reflect on our lives, our faith, and our world. Then, we read Clement C. Moore's "A Visit from St. Nicholas" and E. E. Cummings' "little tree," taking a close look at how the poets use rhythm, rhyme, comparisons (like the many similes Moore uses to describe Santa Claus), personification (as when Cummings' speaker tells the tree "put up your little arms…every finger shall have its ring / and there won't be a single place dark or unhappy"), and other special uses of language to give their poems meaning and to make them memorable.

After listening to a recording of Christmas bells recorded from cathedrals around the world, each student (along with Mrs. Campion and Mrs. Tramontana) contributed one line of poetry to a class poem. Here is our creation: