Poetry Rocks

Over many years, the authors have inquired into the integration of science and literacy in primary grades. Students have used science notebooks as places to write and draw their scientific questions, predictions, observations, research notes, claims, reflections, and wonderings. At the same time, the authors have engaged their students in writers' workshop. They are accustomed to writing processes such as drafting, revising, editing, publishing, and genre study. Recently, the authors became interested in having students infuse their scientific knowledge and understandings into their writing. In this article, they describe how they led first graders through explorations of poetry and understanding the world of rocks and earth materials and then merged these lines of study through the writing of poetry about rocks and earth materials.