{"id":2879,"date":"2020-04-29T14:42:34","date_gmt":"2020-04-29T18:42:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/earlychildhoodny.org\/blog\/?p=2879"},"modified":"2020-04-29T14:42:35","modified_gmt":"2020-04-29T18:42:35","slug":"preschool-poets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/earlychildhoodny.org\/blog\/preschool-poets\/","title":{"rendered":"Preschool Poets"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As we approach the end of National Poetry Month, I pause to reflect on what poetry has meant to me during this crisis. When the schools closed, my children\u2019s principal, the inimitable Anna Allanbrook, sent home this letter mourning the loss of custodian Hank Friedland with the poem Keeping Quiet by Pablo Neruda.<\/a> I shared it with my colleagues at the Institute. Throughout the month, I have been grateful for the poems that have rained into my inbox, poems that have brought moments of stillness, connection and hope into our lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2016, Nancy Kangas, a librarian, poet, gardener and teaching artist made PreSchool Poets<\/a>, a collection of short animations of poems dictated to her by the preschool students at the Columbus Early Learning Center in Columbus, Ohio. In a documentary about the process<\/a>, she described the value of writing to help young children process traumatic events in their lives. She said, \u201cWriting helps us figure out what is happening. It helps us to get unstuck.\u201d When children see their words on paper, they feel powerful. Some of the prompts Nancy used include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n