L4GA News

Instructional and Literacy Coaches from our schools are attending the GAEL Literacy Leadership Institute with Sherry St. Clair, learning new ways to foster Literacy in our community.

On Friday, October 30, Pike County L4GA and Pike County Family Connection partnered to bring Communication Across Barriers to our community partners, with Dr. Donna Beegle as our guest speaker.  This presentation established the foundation that we will use to carry forward with our Good Neighbor Project this year, focusing on Literacy through the lenses of poverty and mental health. 

Through L4GA Grant funding, Pike County Schools was able to put thousands of books into the hands of our community partners for fall and winter events, including festivals, trunk or treats, Veteran’s Day ceremonies, and Christmas parades and visits with Santa.  The grant also helps us provide Christmas holiday books for our students in grades Pre-K through 5.

Please join us during the month of April for our celebration of National Poetry Month.  This year’s theme is Bloom!  Come stroll the businesses on the town square and read the featured poem by District Teacher of the Year Clayton Moon.  His poem is entitled, “The Kiss of a Flutter’s Eye,” and our students will be painting the windows on the square so that the poem can be read from start to finish.  For a copy of the poem in its entirety, please see below:

The Kiss of a Flutter’s Eye

Morning rays dance with Elkin’s dogwoods,

As a butterfly glides clockwise from the backwoods.

Anticipation of a lively spring,

Blooming, blooming, what will spring bring?

Oh, how this county bursts with color,

Brushed by the butterfly’s faintest flutter,

Round and round our springy town

Over cobble streets and back down.

 Meansville, Molena, Williamson, and Concord,

All the flowers line-dance towards,

A beautiful square adorned with pansies,

Where citizens stroll enjoying the fancies

Sweet tea, coffee, and pastries,

While conversing under shade trees.

Butterfly on a rose, you rest,

Spread your wings so we can picture the rest:

Tilting to the wild of rural,

 The dandelions corner milkweed in a countryside mural.

Daffodils blooming on forgotten homesteads,

Snapdragons awakening in the neighbor’s bed.

Black-eyed Susan waving by nineteen,

Clovers patching bare spots in- between.

Wisteria twisting around the loblolly pines,

Coffee shops nested in the captain’s vines.

Magnolias guarding the courthouse,

Cherokee roses remembering native scouts.

Camelia and Iris welcoming all to the neighborhood,

Tucked in red mulch, surrounded by Maplewood.

Gardenia, ferns, and lilies border porches,

Daises sprouting to tango with horses.

All the way to Hollonville,

Where sunflowers crowd into fields.

Through rows of planted crop,

To the majestic hardwoods on Hagan’s Top.

 Down low in scrub oak valleys,

Through the begonia’s in Pike alleys.

Amongst flowered briars in the swamp,

Darting through peach orchards, where whitetails stomp.

High in the clouds for an arial view,

Oh, how the colors soak through,

Every corner and crevice,

Colorful, blooming, Pike’s so precious.

As late light retreats from Lithia Springs,

Enchanted buds remain nestled but prepare to bring,

More blooms in the morning mist,

Fluttered by a butterfly’s kiss.

Before heading back to center,

On a Cosmos wave to enter,

The spirit of Pike,

On a cozy petal to rest tonight.

 Sailing back to the square

to nest above the pink azalea in the cool air.

A young girl has the butterfly in her sight,

And she imagines what it sees during its flight.

So, she wishes a wish, of vibrant bliss,

Opening her eyes to a fluttered kiss.

-Clayton Moon

Clayton Moon has been a public-school teacher for twenty-two years. During that time, he has entertained students with his outlandish stories. He sparks a child’s imagination and humor as he ventures into each tale, captivating his audience by using wild animals, reptiles, or birds as his main characters. He is married to Melinda Moon and has three children: Seth, Greylen, and Sara. His family supports his storytelling with ideas and illustrations. Being an avid outdoorsman, many of his tales are devised from his encounters in nature. He enjoys the spiritual tranquility found deep in the Georgia woods. Moon was named District Wide Teacher of the Year in 2008 and 2021. His students self-published a book in 2020 entitled Sanna-Tizer Disinfects the Substitute: The Heroes’ Journey of a Teacher and Her 2nd Grade Students, which raised over $1,200 for local families affected by Covid-19. Clayton Moon currently lives in Thomaston, Georgia, and teaches for the Pike County School System.

 

Other works by Boxer Moon

  • Rainbow Butterfly
  • Tangled Muscadine
  • Oglethorpe Estates
  • Crimson Hue
  • Mountain Lion Motivational
  • Random Circles of Chance

Moon will release a children’s book entitled Where Peanut Butter Jelly Sandwiches Come From in July through Covenant publishing.