Did you know that April is National Poetry Month? Well, if you didn’t, you do now! I write poems of all sorts with my class through this month. We will be starting next week. Tomorrow, I’m going to head to the library and dig up a good mixture of poetry books to add into the class library. Here are some of my favourites:
“African Acrostics” is fairly straightforward. It’s a series of acrostic poems about African animals.
“The West is Calling” is about the history of British Columbia. It is a series of Haiku poems based on different historical events. I’ve a lesson based on it below.
What’s a poetry unit without Shel Silverstein or Jack Prelutsky? These guys are must haves. You can see my Jack Prelutsky lesson below.
“Mirror Mirror” and “Follow Follow” are amazing books! The illustrations are so gorgeous. They are poems, however, the interesting bit is that they also read backwards. It’s a bit genius!
I try to do a focus lesson on as many different types of poetry as time allows. Cinquains are a good one to start with. The form is fairly simple. This lesson contains some anchor charts and examples, criteria and a marking rubric to go along with the lesson plan.
My second lesson is all about Haikus.
It’s inspired by the book “The West is Calling”. It’s perfect if you
teach in British Columbia like I do, but still great no matter where you
are. I’m not going to say too much about it because I blogged about it
in detail here. You can find this lesson on TPT by clicking the photo below. The task is to create a Haiku about your home – students may choose a
narrow topic, such as their actual home, or go wider to town, or
province. They are provided with a criteria sheet, brainstorming sheet
and two choices for a good copy sheet. A marking rubric is also
included as well as samples from grade 4 students.
Next up is my Jack Prelutsky Poetry lesson.
Kids love Jack Prelutsky! His poetry is so funny, and a great way to
hook them into a poetry unit, in my opinion. This lesson introduces
students to Jack’s style, has them searching for
rhyming pairs, practices reading fluency and ends with them creating
their own Jack-inspired poem!
Or, if you prefer I’ve put all my poetry lessons on TpT in one
convenient bundle. It contains the three you see above, and then some!
My Diamante poems lesson is only available in this bundle. You’re also
going to get 7 poetry posters to teach with and display. These
include: acrostic, concrete, colour and more.
What do you do to teach poetry in your classroom? Leave a comment and share your ideas.
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