Photo by vintagehalloweencollector
In years past, I’ve had my students create Thanksgiving cards for someone at the school who they are thankful for, with the rule that they cannot give me a card (too easy, I tell them). We make and deliver the cards in the last half hour before our Thanksgiving holiday break.
Add A Constraint
This year, I changed one requirement. Students had to compose a haiku as the body of their card. This gave me a chance to introduce a type of poetry that I like to use throughout the year, while still maintaining the purpose of expressing unexpected thankfulness to someone.
Naturally, the haikus were delightful and surprising, reinforcing my belief that structure increases students’ creativity.
Students wrote to friends, former teachers, office staff, and the principal.
The Sample
Here’s my haiku, dedicated to our principal:
I love your strange hats
you threw our eggs off the roof
and replaced my bulb