A Poem of Excuses

Who: Students in the elementary grades

What: Joining poet Bruce Lansky, children gripe, groan, and grumble as they write their best excuses for why they can't write a poem.

How: 

1. Show Lansky's poem to your students, so they can read it aloud and count the excuses. (It must have been one of those "terrible, horrible, no good, very bad" days to write a poem!)

Here is Lansky's poem:

I Can't Write a Poem

Forget it.
You must be kidding.
I'm still half asleep.
My eyes keep closing.
My brain isn't working.
I don't have a pencil.
I don't have any paper.
My desk is wobbly.
I don't know what to write about.
And besides, I don't even know how to write a poem.
I've got a headache. I need to see the nurse.
Time's up? Uh oh!
All I have is this dumb list of excuses.
You like it? Really? No kidding.
Thanks a lot. Would you like to see another one?

-Bruce Lansky

2. Set students loose to outdo Lansky's excuses with doozies of their own. If it helps to have a planning sheet, you can find one here.

3. Include your students' best excuses in the comments. I may need one or two of them if I ever have to write a poem.

Note: I found the original lesson here.