Missoula Writing Collaborative

We teach kids to love to write

Missoula Writing Collaborative

The Missoula Writing Collaborative teaches literary competence, critical thinking, cultural awareness, and artistic joy through creative writing.

We place writers in school classrooms, after-school programs, youth homes and other venues to show young people the power of words and help them find their voices as writers. We are a nonprofit 501 (c) (3) organization committed to reaching the underserved members of our society.

Each year we teach over 1500 kids to love to write.

The Missoula Writing Collaborative is a proud member of The WITS Alliance: A professional network of literary arts education programs and individuals. Learn more at http://witsalliance.org/.

Watch our Mini-documentary!

The Missoula Writing Collaborative has been working in classrooms in Western Montana since 1994, and have even worked in Hawaii and Alaska! In our 22 years we've worked with more than 35,000 students in Western Montana classrooms.



Missoula Chilren’s Poetry Map

In 2018, the Missoula Writing Collaborative collected over 500 poems about the many different places--mountainsides, parks, carousels, waterslides-- that kids know and love around Missoula. With help from Geodata Services and Xplorer Maps, we transformed the poems, drawings, and recordings from each student into an interactive Missoula Children's Poetry Map which you can explore here: https://arcg.is/jynGj

This week’s Monday Poem

Snow at Dawn and Dusk

Snow

A poem about a big snow from Hailey Suthers at Drummond School:

Snow at Dawn and Dusk

 When the snow falls
it doesn’t seem to stop.

You’re just sitting at the window
waiting for it to stop so you can go out and play.

But by the time it stops it’s night,
but you don’t care
so you bundle up and head out the door.

You and your brothers go sledding,
but then your Dad bundles up and comes out.
First, he scares you, then he starts a snowball fight.

Then you eventually get tired
And your brother says, “Let’s bury Dad.”
And you all agree.

Right as you say you’re done
your Dad jumps out of the snow and scares you
And you then run to the square of lanterns.

Then after awhile your brother says, “Tag you’re it!”
So you run over to your Dad and tag him,
but he says no I can’t or I might freeze to death.

So you all head to the square of lanterns.
You each grab your own lantern and race home to get warm.

Then the next day you wake up and see the snow has grown.
So you run to your brothers and say,
“The snow has grown.”

So you and your brothers bundle up and head outside.
It is up to your knees.
You can barely move.
So you all have a blast until,
your gloves are frozen to your hand.

So you head inside and sit on the couch with as many blankets as you can.
Then your mom yells, “Lunch!” and you run to the table.
You are glad that it is grilled cheese and warm tomato soup.

More Poems