A book of poems for kids with big emotions
The Why
The Alpine School District in Utah County recognized a need in their schools and started a handful of EBD units. These units help students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders. Many of these kids come from dysfunctional family units, deal with mental challenges, and have been pegged as troublemakers in their general education classrooms.
I had the pleasure of working with one such unit from February to May, and it changed my life! As a para, my job was to ensure the safety of the students and staff. As I built relationships with each of the kids in my classroom, I grew to love them.
The structure of the classroom is designed to help the kids develop the social skills and self-regulation necessary to reenter the general education classroom. Each day, the head teacher has the kids evaluate their emotions.
The purpose of the “My BIG Feelings” book is to help the students in the class recognize their own emotions and the way it affects those around them.
My BIG Feelings
The first poem written was “All I Can Be,” originally written for personal reasons at the start of the project, and later adapted for the purposes of this book.
The following is the poem without the illustrations. The illustrations for this portion of the book were different, as I was experimenting with different styles of art.
Oh, how grand my life would be
If I was a bird high in a tree
Eyes wide and feeling free
Oh how much farther I could see
–
How musical my life would sound
To be an elephant, my ears so round
I would listen and stand my ground
To hear nature’s sounds around
–
Sometimes I wish to be a fish
And with my little tail I’d swish
To see the world is my greatest wish
Rather than stay in a little dish
–
How different my life would feel
If I was a panda, and here’s the deal
With a hug, I could steal
All the pain my loved ones feel
–
To become better is my plea
Yet at the end, I’ve come to see
Of all the things I wish to be
I think that I would still choose me
In “My Crayon Box,” all of the colors coordinate with a color system the kids already use to identify emotions. The “Spot” books teach kids about their emotions and how they look different from day to day, and how to manage each of the emotions
Below is a PDF version of the poetry book!
The Challenges
My biggest challenges throughout the course of this project were intentional poetry and adapting to print.
INTENTIONAL POETRY
While I love poetry, most of my poetry is written for my own purposes. About a year ago, I started a poetry club out at the BYU Jerusalem Center. The original purpose of the club was to help us understand our experience out in the Holy Land. However, since returning to Utah, the club has become a way to express ourselves and acknowledge the beauty in the world around us.
The poetry I write for that group looks different than the poetry found in this book. While writing, I had to take into consideration a complete thought, resources the kids already use, sight words, and cognitive abilities of the kids.
These were specifically geared toward emotions and control of actions, rather than a general expression of my world.
ADAPTING TO PRINT
I have never sent a book to print before. So, learning to prep the sizing and color matching taught me a lot about what goes into the creation of printed works.
A challenge I ran into was actually sending it to print. I didn’t realize how long it would take to print the book. So, the book is still on its way. It will be here in time for the first day of school, when I drop it off at Mrs. Z’s classroom.
The Creative Process
My strategy changed throughout the course of writing the book.
When I started, I thought I would just write all my poems and then illustrate afterwards. However, that system changed after writing the first poem.
First, I would write a poem and start to illustrate. Illustrations would start in InDesign to create consistent looking images. Those images were uploaded into a document where I used my designs to compile the simple poetry book.
Then, after each poem was written, I would take it to Lauren Ellison, a writer and educator at BYU. She would help me determine if the poem was fit for kids and served the correct purpose.
After consulting with Lauren, I would then take the poems and partial illustrations to Kay Lynn White, a preschool teacher for , who would help ensure that the word choice was appropriate for the age group.
Finally, I would finish the illustrations and add them to the master document.
The document, once completed, had to be resized for print and sent to print. I worked with OnPressPrinting to print the book. Shipping is taking longer than anticipated, but the book will arrive before school starts in the Alpine School District.
The Overview
My BIG Feelings, a book of poems, is a way for me to give back to the kids that taught me so much. The EBD unit in the Alpine School District helps kids that struggle in general education develop social and emotional skills to better handle their day to day. The poems in the book (less than originally planned to ensure the book wasn’t too large) focus on lessons the students learned in their class.
On the first day of school, I will deliver the My BIG Feelings book to the students in Mrs. Z’s class. This printed book is a cohesive reference for the kids to better understand and communicate their emotions.
The Key Takeaways
Every project teaches you important things! Below are some lessons I learned while working on this book of poems:
- You never stick with the first draft. While it might be great, there is always something you can do to improve your first draft. When writing the poems, there were a lot of words I would have to change to make it flow better or fit into the kid’s list of sight words.
- Writing for other people makes your work more valuable. There are times when you write for yourself, and other times you write for others. Both are important, but the value increases for others when you write for them.
- If you have a deadline, work backwards from that deadline to determine your schedule.
- Find mentors, and ask them lots of questions! Mentors are incredible and have been through the tough parts of the learning process to make it easier for you. Use their knowledge!