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Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Tabula Rasa

It's The Beginning of the fifth year of Ruth's and Stacey's The Two Writing Teachers March Slice of Life challenge, and my second year.  It's my first anniversary!  I am proud of myself, but also proud of all who chose to keep going and keep writing and keep thinking through this year in the group.  I'm looking forward to more fun everyone.  Thank you Stacey and Ruth for staging this challenge.  


           When I was in the classroom, in writers workshop and in our unit work, I shared, gave some lessons in poetry, and conferred with those students who wanted to write poetry, but for about 10 specific weeks of the year, I met with a poetry group, those students in my class who wanted to devote more time to poetry, and to write in a supportive group who loved poetry. 
The group varied from about 10 to 15 students and it was actually more fun with a smaller group, more time to share and talk about each others’ poems.  The structural plan varied little.  We met; we each shared a poem by someone else and told why we liked it.  Students were to put the poem in their writers notebooks and record a little of why.  By the end of the group, students had at least 10 poems they had found they loved, and sometimes were able to see a pattern of their favorites. 
 Once we began to meet, it was a pleasure to give a brief mini-lesson, usually with a poem I wanted to share, to share their ‘outside’ poems, and then spend most of the time reading the poems we had written.  During that period, I modeled how to comment and give support to the authors and sometimes there was a pertinent point I could add about something or other about poetry.  Perhaps it was about word placement for emphasis, or enjambment, some poetic device. 
One part I loved was that I collected his or her newly written poems the morning of the group meeting and made a poetry packet for everyone for the meeting.  It is powerful to see one’s words, to read them, and to have the audience be able not only to listen but also to see the poem.  Usually I had the student read twice, and then we commented.  Sometimes it was for a line we thought was wonderful, sometimes we were so touched, we sat silent for a minute, and sometimes, it was to suggest movement of a word, or a re-working of a sentence. 
Every group member was there to write poetry, enjoy poetry, feel supported as we wrote, and to improve our writing.  I did not have a specific agenda for the group but followed their lead in what they liked and where they seemed to be in their writing.   Remember I had taught them about half of the year already, and some I had for more than one year.  The group was led through choice and each improved by their engagement with many different poems by different authors, both those shared and classmate-written, and with their personal writing.  I learned too, and sometimes used a student’s model to write my next poem.  Others sometimes tried an idea I had shown. 

            If you are reading through this, I hope you are connecting my group description to the Two Writing Teachers’ Slice of Life Challenge that begins today.  We choose to take the challenge, we write, we take ideas from others and try that kind of writing, we observe styles and, sometimes innately, incorporate them into our style.  We support through comments, and at the end, we have experienced exceptionally wonderful examples of good writing from those who are passionate about it.

            I loved my poetry groups and miss them very much.  Blogging and being part of the Two Writing Teachers slicers and more recently the Poetry Friday group (who overlap some) have been substitute groups I value.  More importantly, I hope that you as teachers see the parts of a writing group that are so important in any classroom.  One writes, shares, receives support from and gives support to others, and works hard to get better.  That’s it.  It doesn’t take a written curriculum to do that.  It’s all about choice. 

Can't Forget This Special Day

'' photo (c) 2010, Caitee Smith - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/









                


















         
              My Leap Day

It takes the earth 365 calendar days
to orbit the sun,
Something termed drifting takes its toll. (I didn’t know we were
drifting; I thought we were barreling through space.)
I think I
am barreling through space,
right here
right now.
They say we cannot feel it because of the earth’s gravity and
other physical stuff like that,
but I feel that movement,
so fast,
so fast the time.
So every year adds up to about six hours
drifting. 
After approximately six hours
in our year of drifting,
we synchronize the season with our selves,
and our calendar.
to check that everything is really okay,
so that the sun
can return to the same
exact
spot 
in its orbit every year.
If we stop
to contemplate this,
we will see why Leap Day
being added as discretely
as possible,
every
four years,
adds to our pleasure as human beings.

        What will you do with this gift of a day?

Monday, February 27, 2012

topsy-turvy weather - nearly always in Colorado


        Come join everyone slicing at the Two Writing Teachers blog with Ruth and Stacey!






       Last Friday I wrote about a snowy day and shared poems about snow.  This past Saturday we spent the day with our granddaughters and the temperature rose to 60 degrees.  We are used to change here in Denver but this was quite a difference.  It was a lovely day with the girls and I thought I'd share some photos of our time.  
        Ingrid will be three in April and is a wonder to be around.  When she lies down for her nap it is our custom to read two books of her choosing.  She still loves Goodnight Moon and lately Red Light, Green Light also by Margaret Wise Brown.  This time the routine was the same: "Which two books today, Ingrid?"  "Gramma, can we do three books?"  "No, you know what we do, two books."  Ingrid replies, "How about two and a half?"  Well, we did do that, and a few poems too.  It's quite fun to be a Gramma!


           According to accuweather.com, "Amarillo, Texas, and Jackson, Tenn., have more snow than Chicago this season. There have been mornings when temperatures in Louisiana and Florida have been colder than Maine at the same time."


Snow-still on the scene!

So we stayed in the yard to swing.

Grandpa held baby Imogene.

Who continues to be serene.
While Ingrid wishes most for spring! 



                                                          Awake, thou wintry earth -
                                                          Fling off thy sadness!
                                                          Fair vernal flowers, laugh forth
                                                          Your ancient gladness!
                                                                             ~Thomas Blackburn, "An Easter Hymn"


Sunday, February 26, 2012

A Good Week of Reading!


Thanks to Jen and Kellee, you can hook up with this kitlit meme: It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? From Picture Books to YA at teach mentor texts!  Please visit to discover terrific books others are reading!

  It's Monday! What are you Reading? is another meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journeys, a variety of reviews to find even more books for your TBR list. 

Also - This Thursday, March 1st begins the monthly Slice of Life challenge at the Two Writing Teachers, Stacey and Ruth's, blog.  Check out this post to find out all about it!  It's a wonderfully supportive group of writers, a personally rewarding month, and there are prizes too.


I read quite a bit last week, but have just a few to review.  Part of my reading included many short stories, from the various anthologies I spoke about in last Monday’s post, so I could choose a few for my short story group.

One pleasure was finally reading Bigger Than A Breadbox by Laurel Snyder.  There are several lovely reviews about this book that give their ideas about it, at the blog Literate Lives and at the Children’s Book-A-Day Almanac blog.  I enjoyed the voice of this young twelve year old girl trapped in her parents’ turmoil and separated from her home and her best friend by being taken to her grandmother’s house (who thank goodness was a good grandmother) and told she had to deal with it as best she could.  It seemed so real to hear her thinking through every part of the book.  Snyder painted a realistic early adolescent who at times made such impulsive moves that I found myself wanting to shout, “no, no, not that way” or “don’t do that” and “watch out”.   How does the saying go:  “we live and learn”.  And through the adventures of the book, Rebecca did learn.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Snowy February Means People Share Snowy Poems


Poetry Friday is hosted today by Jone at Check It Out, so please go over to check all the poems out!       


There are a number of connections to this post today for Poetry Friday.  February is our second snowiest month in the Denver, Colorado area.  March is traditionally the snowiest, so there is more to come!  We have had a lot of snow this February, and today, the 23rd, is another snowy day.  We’re supposed to have 4-6 inches, not the blizzard of earlier in the month, but still a messy day to drive, although beautiful when viewed out the window.  Wednesday, yesterday, was 65 degrees!  Our weather continues to be topsy-turvy, and never boring.
At school I seem to be the person with whom poems are shared.  Everyone knows how much I love poetry, and recently a friend sent me a snowy poem by a teenager.  The day today made me remember it again.  It opens with these words:

SNOW

Deep in the night it comes
Covering footprints of summer
Purifying the landscape of the year’s sins

The rest of this snowy poem can be found here. 

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Expo Has Come and Gone - Here's A Taste

Slices of Life on Tuesdays Are Hosted by Stacey and Ruth 


My school’s Expo was held last Thursday.  Excitement permeated the school in interesting ways in the days before.   It’s always interesting to me that while the getting ready for the crowds holds challenges for everyone; the days before the event are calm, with students so focused on finishing their displays that it is eerily quiet in the school.  As I explained in a post a few weeks ago, each student studies an individual topic around which the curriculum is written.  Expo is a day and evening of celebration of the learning thus far for the year, with displays of products completed by each student.   
The ways in which my school works is a difficult thing to explain in a few sentences, but in my many years’ experience here I believe much of the approach to learning has to do with questions.  I thought I would share the beginnings of the school year with students and what I’ve asked them to do with me as their teacher.  Each teacher might do this in a slightly different way, but the basics are the same, all having to do with questions, the answers discovered by both the student and the teacher:  What are possible topics of interest?  Why?  What would you like to increase your skill in?  What are your strengths?  What might be challenges for you in these strengths?  Where are your areas of weaknesses?  What might be some ways you can improve these?
I realize that these are sophisticated questions for very young students, yet their teachers follow similar paths to discovery.  They are the questions I asked my middle school students, who answered them through beginning research of their unit topic choices, through several conferences with me, and often through talks with their parents.  No matter what the age, they are their ‘wonderings’ about something.  I have been lately interested in reading about teachers who are exploring the site Wonderopolis because the site mirrors the goal of my school for its students, to find topics to wonder about and to pursue deeper learning within that topic. 
After deciding on the topic, and answering some of the questions, a unit of expectations is written by the teacher for each student with input from the student.  Weekly assignments are derived from that unit as the student’s weekly goal.   The intent of the questions remains the same, but the ways they are asked depend on class levels and with each child.  Teachers assess constantly by observing what a student is communicating through the work and through conferring often.  A path may start one way and then veer another depending on new information learned and the needs and interests of the student.  It is complex, but encompasses all that is being discussed as inquiry and/or project based learning.  Students are motivated when they have choice, and Expo is a celebration of the results of their learning choices. 
I’ve included a slide show of examples of displays from all the classrooms.  Some of the photos show students in process of completing the work and some few show visitors.  I didn’t include the crowded evening with parents, grandparents, neighbors, but at that time, the classrooms and halls are filled with those interested in visiting as many displays as possible and learning about the topics themselves.
 I visited all day Thursday, asking questions as the students played host to their displays, and taking pictures of representations of the work.  It was hard to choose what to show.  Over 250 topics have been researched.  My mind was swirling as I ended the day, full of questions of my own about certain topics.  It is a satisfying celebration of work well done. 
Next, students will continue on their journeys with the same topics or will choose another topic of inquiry for the remainder of the year.  Lifelong learning is a continuing journey we want all our students to enjoy.  Please take a look at some of the photos.  There are many, but I wanted to include some from all the ages, five through fourteen.  



Slide Show - Expo  

Monday, February 20, 2012

Reviews for Monday - Reading Wrap-Up

You can hook up with this kitlit meme: It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? From Picture Books to YA at teach mentor textsthanks to Jen and Kellee!  Please visit to find out what others are reading!

  It's Monday! What are you Reading? is another meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journeys, a variety of reviews to find even more books for your TBR list. 




There are some wonderful reviews already written about the book I read this week.  You can find two here and here.  Sometimes I think books that are reviewed as wonderful are challenging to get into.  This was one for me that started slow, and turned out, well, wonderful, just as everyone said. 

I read The Mighty Miss Malone by Christopher Paul Curtis this week, and found that this young woman, Deza, grew more beautiful as a wonderfully strong character as I read page after page.  She did what she had to do to survive some very hard times in the Great Depression.  After hearing the terrible news about her father missing from a fishing trip on Lake Michigan, Deza shares her feelings:  And as I sat on the couch wrapped in Mother’s arms, I felt big hunks falling off of me and thumping to the ground.  This must be how a tree feels in autumn when it watches the leaves that have been covering it all summer start to be blown away.
It must feel this hopeless and lonely.
Curtis’ writing is filled with metaphors like the one above that show feelings so real I can imagine the young readers he writes for relating to the feelings even if their life’s challenges are different.
Deza’s next words show her strength, that she must not give up.  She thinks:  I knew I really had to reach out and pick up the fallen pieces and pull them back.  This young woman keeps this strong core through all the book and as she matures, she manages to do some amazing things that support her mother, too.  Later in the book she says:  I’d learned not to cry or even get angry when all sorts of calamity befell us.  I’d learned not to take it personal when people barked at Mother and Jimmie and me about walking across their property.  I knew how to swallow the sadness that washed over me when Father used to come home and we could tell by the way he worried the brim of his hat when he asked how we were doing that there’d been no work.  I thought I could control it all.
 And then this man called Jimmie “sir” and all my hardness melted away.
I believe this is why everyone’s hardness melts away as they read about this character who is called “My Darling Daughter Deza” by her father.  Toward the end of the book, she again shows she is a survivor.  Hoping is such hard work.  It tires you out and you never seem to get any kind of reward.  Hoping feels like you’re a balloon that has a pinhole that slowly leaks air.  But she doesn’t quit, she doesn’t give up, and although hoping is hard, she does keep hoping.
How can one not like this young woman who has overcome hardships we only imagine?  Not me, all the previous reviews are right; it is a terrific book.

As I wrote last week, I am preparing for a short story reading group that will examine short stories and those that speak to the immigration experiences in California today.  I haven’t read all of the following books, but they are full of good stories, some essays, and poems that are specific to my group.  Here is the bibliography:

Neighborhood Odes by Gary Soto
A Fire In My Hands a book of poems by Gary Soto
Living Up The Street  short stories by Gary Soto
Leaving Home  stories collected by Hazel Rochman and Darlene Z. McCampbell
First Crossing-stories about teen immigrants edited by Donald R. Gallo
Border Crossings - Emigration and Exile  Icarus World Issues Series 
American Street, A multicultural Anthology of Stories - edited by Anne Mazer

The first story we will read together is the title story “First Crossing” by Pam Munoz Ryan.  It is about a young Mexican boy whose rite of passage is to steal across the border to begin working with his father so they both can send money back home.  Men do this and return home about every six months just to see family.  It’s both a scary and a sad story about sacrifice and courage for loved ones.  The introduction of this anthology states more than 70 different languages are spoken in the public schools of Sacramento, California.


What’s Next:  Mostly stories from above and The Boy In The Striped Pajamas by John Boyne for another book group coming up.  I brought home A Step From Heaven by An Na (about immigrant’s experience) and Bigger Than A Breadbox by Laurel Snyder (which I still haven’t read).  

Thursday, February 16, 2012

A Poem of Loss

    Poetry Friday is hosted today by Myra, Fats and Iphigene at Gathering Books.





Elizabeth Bishop was a respected, but an obscure poet until after her death in 1979.  According to The Poetry Foundation “her reputation has grown to the point that many critics, like Larry Rohter in the New York Times, have referred to her as ‘one of the most important American poets’ of the twentieth century. Bishop was a perfectionist who did not write prolifically, preferring instead to spend long periods of time polishing her work. She published only 101 poems during her lifetime.”  Yet in that lifetime, she won the Pulitzer Prize for North And South, and the National Book Award for The Complete Poems.  This site also states “her reputation increased greatly in the years just prior to her death, particularly after the 1976 publication of Geography III and her winning of the Neustadt International Prize for Literature.”

Although some sites I read seemed to believe this poem by Elizabeth Bishop is about divorce or separation, when reading it, I believe the loss could be different things that happen in one’s life. Bishop appears to believe that this grief of loss takes practice, and perhaps then one might accept it.  Like all poems, it speaks to each reader personally. 

                           One Art

The art of losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

and you can read the rest here at Poets.org, as well as find other poems by Elizabeth Bishop.



photo credit: jmtimages via photopin cc

Monday, February 13, 2012

Weeding The Gardens of Our Memoirs

Tuesday Slices of Life are enjoyed with Ruth and Stacey at the Two Writing Teachers Blog.



Last week, in my final, I’m sad to say, memoir class, we discussed finishing up the pieces.  We’d already done some revision and they were ready to say ‘done’, but I wanted one more conversation about narrowing down to exactly the words they wished to say to their audiences. 
Valentine’s Day is today and to me that means flowers and spring are on the way.  Despite the fact that there is much snow on the ground at my house, and icicles are hanging from the eaves, I am receiving a few seed catalogs online (I’ve gone paperless!) and beginning to imagine my flower beds.  

How does this connect to the above revision lesson?  Well, I thought of the flower beds and weeds, and how flowers look so much better without weeds crowding them.  I must tell you that this is not an original idea.  I wish I could give credit to where I have read about it in my reading, but I’ve used it with success several times in the past years, so know it’s been a while since I first saw the idea.
I talked to my students about words that crowd the important messages they wished to communicate in a memoir.  As we cut out the weeds to make room for the flowers, we remove the words that are unnecessary.  However, sometimes we like the weeds that grow, and although they fill in spaces that seem bare, weeds choke the flowers eventually.  Just as we sometimes fill in spaces with wordy sentences, as writers we need to find the unnecessary and delete them.  We made a short list of words that might be considered “weeds”.  They are words like “very” and “most”, that only weaken the word (just as weeds weaken flowers), and we also determined that the writer personally must choose longer phrases that don’t fit. 
I hope the lesson was helpful to the students.  I have them just for a short time since I am teaching the group as a part of three different writing experiences their teacher wanted them to have.  They will return to their homeroom classroom and write other things, hopefully remembering the weeds in their gardens.
                                                -------------------------------------------
Finally, last week, for Poetry Friday I shared several antique Valentines I have from my mother-in-law, who was one of those teachers who, after leaving high school, taught in a one-room schoolhouse in the 1920’s.  She rose well before sunup, saddled a horse, and left for the country building where her first duty was to start the fire.  I love these special Valentines, quite different from the ones we see today, and wanted to share one with all of you too as my Valentine wish. 

Oh let’s make life
a jolly lark
A picnic if you
please.
And it will be just
this for me
If words you say
are these:

I Love You!
                               Happy Valentine’s Day Everyone!





Sunday, February 12, 2012

Reading Jill Paton Walsh-A Chance Child

This is an award-winning challenge hosted by the Gathering Books blog, 

You can hook up with this kitlit meme: It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? From Picture Books to YA at teach mentor textsthanks to Jen and Kellee!  Visit to find still more books for your TBR list!

  It's Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journeys, a variety of reviews to find even more books that you can't live without.

---------------------------------------------



I love Jill Paton Walsh’s book, The Green Book, and have put it into the hands of many students, but most of the time recommend it for a terrific read aloud to middle grade readers.  It is a good opening to post-Apocalyptic literature, and gives a surprising, satisfying and hopeful end.
So, when looking for an award-winning book for the challenge hosted by the Gathering Books blog, I was happy to see another book by Walsh.  It is A Chance Child by Jill Paton Walsh, which won the Phoenix Award in 1998.  According to the Children's Literature Association site, this award is given by them, an organization of teachers, scholars, librarians, editors, writers, illustrators, and parents interested in encouraging the serious study of children's literature, created for a book originally published in the English language, and intended to recognize books of high literary merit. The Phoenix Award is named after the fabled bird that rose from its ashes with renewed life and beauty. Phoenix books also rise from the ashes of neglect and obscurity and once again touch the imaginations and enrich the lives of those who read them.

In A Chance Child, the main character’s name is Creep, whose abusive mother names him that and we also find she keeps him in a cupboard most of the time.   The opening scene is a dump, from where he takes off along a canal in an abandoned boat. An older brother Chris, who keeps Creep alive by sneaking leftovers to the cupboard, searches frantically when he finds him missing.  Although the main story concerns child labor of the 1800’s, there is a link to today’s time in that this family treats their children poorly as well.  Walsh seems to want us to see the connection that children are at risk no matter what time they live in.
The book alternates between the stories of Creep in his boat, and Chris on his search, and we find Creep has somehow slipped back into the 19th century, where he meets two runaways.  The reader is thrust into the cruel world of child labor. Walsh describes the lives of young children during this Victorian time who work twelve hour plus days in terrible circumstances, while the older brother Chris eventually seeks and finds information about his brother in old historical documents at a library.  It’s a complicated and heartbreaking story, made all the more troubling knowing that Walsh has done her homework so well in the research of labor conditions of that time.  There is some satisfaction in the ending, however, but sharing that will be telling too much!

Here is one scene from one of the work experiences of the children, many of them pre-teen:  One day working at the pot bank was much like another.  The first comers to work, very early in the morning, were the little children.  They came before the light to kindle the fires in the drying room.  There was coal ready, piled damp and cold on the wharf by the riverbank, for the master saw to that.  As to dry sticks and ready sparks, that he did not trouble over, but the boys must find those for themselves.  So they crept in and out of the hovels, where the furnace mouths blazed red, spaced all around the bottom of the great firing kilns, and the firemen kept watch, ready to chase and beat any child they saw taking out a shovelful of fire; and yet till someone succeeded no new fires could be lit at all, and a beating from the mold workers when they arrived loomed nearer, and stiffened the courage of small creatures risking a beating from the firemen now. 

This book is slim, but an extraordinarily well put together time fantasy.  I was reminded of the atmosphere of David Almond’s book Skellig as I read.  The descriptions of the landscape, the terrible work conditions and the characters are beautifully drawn.
Wikipedia has a good article about Lewis Hine, whose photos aided the end to child labor and the formation of the National Child Labor Committee, which is a non-profit organization in the United States that serves as a leading advocate for child labor reform.   Although the book concerns children in Great Britain, similar conditions were happening in the United States also.


Picture Books this week:

I Am Different! Can You Find Me?  by Manjula Padmanabhan   I just read a review of this from Mary Lee Hahn at A Year of Reading and the next day walked downstairs to a colleague’s primary classroom to tell her about the book (we exchange good finds), and she had just checked out the book from the library.  It is a book that can easily cross ages from kindergarten up to encourage good discussions about differences and varied opinions as to what is ‘different’.  Please read Mary Lee’s review.

When I was talking with my colleague, she also shared The Wishing Tree by Roseanne Rosethong, another good picture book about wishing and learning that wishes might turn out to be granted in different ways than expected.  It’s a good story to encourage conversation about the meaning of cultural traditions and the fact that things are not always what they seem.


What's next:  I didn’t finish The Mighty Miss Malone by Christopher Paul Curtis, but love it so far.  After that I will need to prepare for two book groups I’m starting in a couple of weeks.  One is reading The Boy In The Striped Pajamas by John Boyne and another will examine short stories about immigrants in California, background reading by middle school students who will be traveling to California in April.  I will be scanning anthologies by different authors looking for about eight or nine stories.  If you have a favorite already, I’d love to hear about it.  

photo credit: Dystopos via photopin cc

photo credit: John McNab via photopin cc

Saturday, February 11, 2012

The Fifth Year of Two Writing Teachers' March Slice of Life Challenge

   It is the fifth year of the March Slice of Life Challenge with Ruth and Stacey at their Two Writing Teachers blog.  This link speaks about starting a blog if you need one, but the basic challenge is to post every day in March and to support others through your comments.  At this post, scroll down to see the comments of others who blog with us.  It's such a supportive and wonderful community of bloggers.  One learns much about oneself and others by writing.  Please take the plunge and join us.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Sweetness for Valentine's Day




         Poetry Friday is hanging out with Laura Salas-Writing The World For Kids


                                                        If you love Valentines
                                                   and the sweetest of rhymes,
                                                please read these poems today  
                                                written in old fashioned ways!

      I had a wonderful mother-in-law named Helen.  She warmly welcomed me as a new daughter into her family.  Through all the years and visits, she and I had fabulous talks about just everything:  raising children as well as politics, people’s behavior along with town events, the virtues of hand-mixing batter or use of an electric mixer.  I never heard her say a bad word about others, nor did she complain about anything.  As they say, she kept a stiff upper lip, even in the most sorrowful times, like when her husband of many years died suddenly of a heart attack soon after he retired.  Broken dreams.  She was a kind woman who helped out at the church nursery well past seventy and continued to play the piano for church when needed until the last year of her life.  I loved her and still miss her.  She just made it into the 21st Century, after having lived almost all of the 20th.

My dear mother-in-law Helen was one of those teachers who, after leaving high school, taught in a one-room schoolhouse in the 1920’s.  She rose early, saddled a horse, and rode to the country building where her first duty was to start the fire.  Like that story told so eloquently by Charles Portis, she had grit.  And, as a true woman of her generation, she saved everything!  I am the proud recipient of many old-fashioned Valentines given to her (Miss Helen) by her students, probably about 1928.  I thought since we will celebrate St. Valentine’s Day next Tuesday, I would share a little sweetness with all of you. 
Here are photos of some, and the rhymes found inside are beneath.  Many are intricate, lacy, and pop out.   A few have been altered like little hearts have been cut out in them, and it’s clear that it was hand done.  You may be able to see which are the pop out ones, but photos did not show that very well. 

                                              Happy Valentine’s Day!

To my Valentine
      Your voice is like a
              song bird
The sweetest thing I’ve
         ever heard.


May you be always happy, gay,
And joyous, as you are to-day,
Is what my ardent hopes express
For you, my Love,
           and nothing less!

The whole world
   loves a lover
So they say—I hope
        it’s true,
‘Cause then the world’s
     in love with me
‘Cause I’m in love
           with you.

Dear Teacher,
Don’t overlook
This One
from
me
You’re my Valentine
‘Cause you’re sweet
as you can be.

I hope my heart will
     reach you
And be there right
       on time,
It’s just chock-full of
     loving thoughts
For you, dear Valentine.

Oh let’s make life
a jolly lark
A picnic if you
please.
And it will be just
this for me
If words you say
are these:

I Love You!

The Valentine I’m sending
Is sealed with kisses two.
Which I trust will reach you safely,
For both are meant for you.

Of all the girls I know
You are the very best.
To me you seem much brighter
Thank any of the rest.

Postman, handle this with care!
I’m sending my heart to a lady fair,
Who is an old sweetheart of mine
And I want her to be: My Valentine.

I think that I shall try a line,
I hope to catch a Valentine,
There’s only one I want, ‘tis true.
Oh! Can’t you guess that one is you?