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He shared it with the class and then the next day two more children asked for paper and wrote "poems" about the Earth. 

Now at this point, my plan had been to launch a nonfiction unit of study.  There was great interest in the eagles we had been watching on a webcam and Zoo to You had just visited our classroom.  Yet, I knew poetry had a lot to offer as well (descriptive writing, fluency, reading with expression etc.)  So I thought it over during the April break and decided to test the waters on poetry when we returned.

 I asked if all poems were about the Earth.  They said, "No," and named several things that poems could be about. One child said, "Poems are about Everything." (Remember this as it becomes important later!)

Then, I asked if anyone knew a poem.  Only one hand went up and this is what he offered.

I asked him if he had written the poem himself (he very proudly said yes!) and said he learned how to write poetry from his brother who was in seventh grade. 

And it was from here that the poetry unit really took off! We talked about how this child used repeating words in his poem and then other hands went up and now they too had poems to share.  They were starting to understand a little bit about poetry and even more importantly, they felt empowered to write them.

So I gave them paper and they were off!