A set of collaborative “Short List” poems which shed light on the thoughts, secrets, senses of humor and lives of eight and nine-year-olds.

As part of a two week, all-school (K-12) Poetry Festival at North Shore Country Day School in Winnetka, IL, Third Grade Audio produced its first four “Short Lists” for one of the poetry assemblies.

What is a Short List? “It’s a list you create from your experience or research or daily life. You read it out loud for about 60 seconds and then tell us at the end what the list WAS.” (transom.org)

Here at Third Grade Audio, we think of them as a combination of a list poem and a riddle. We wrote Short Lists of all kinds and then took some of our favorite topics written by individual third graders and created group Short Lists – writing, recording and producing them jointly. We played them for an audience of roughly five-hundred people during the Poetry Festival.

Each Spring, a new set of third graders adds to our Short List collection.

LISTEN TO Short List #1 Can you figure out what the Mona Lisa, Chicago Blackhawks and ham have in common before you are told at the end?

LISTEN TO Short List #2 Can you figure out what a blender, shrunken heads and anchovies have in common before you are told at the end?

LISTEN TO Short List #4 Can you figure out what werewolves, computers and dresses have in common before you are told at the end?

LISTEN TO Short List #5 Can you figure out what tornadoes , the dark and augmented reality have in common before you are told at the end?

LISTEN TO Short List #6 Can you figure out what breaking a leg, getting chicken pox and smoking have in common before you are told at the end?

LISTEN TO Short List #7 Can you figure out what taking out the trash, doing homework and eating vegetables have in common before you are told at the end?

Short List #8  Can you figure out what doing a backbend, rollerblading and swallowing a sword have in common before you are told at the end?

Short List #9 Can you figure out what erasers, bananas and skeletons have in common before you are told at the end?

Third Grade Audio
“See” the world through third grade ears