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Short Poems Are Scary!
What do all those chairs and pencils do in the classroom once everyone leaves? Allow imaginations to run wild with frighteningly short poems!
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Maniac Magee: Found Poem
Instruct your readers to scrounge through the pages of Maniac Magee in search for descriptive passages or words they may use to write poetry. As they look for meaningful, sensory descriptors in Jerry Spinelli's novel, readers connect to...
Poetry Society
Simile and Metaphor
Young poets use word cards to prompt a metaphor poem comparing to very dissimilar items.
Poetry Society
A Conceit Poem
Young writers needn't be self-involved to craft a conceit. Directions for how to craft this form of extended metaphor, models, and a worksheet are all included in the packet.
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Nurture Poetry
Learners create a poetry book. In this poetry lesson, students write a cinquain poem, name poem, haiku, limerick, and preposition poem.
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Different Types of Poetry
Provide pupils samples of different types of poems including haikus, narrative, nonsense, shape, and rhyming poems. In groups, class members read the poems, establish their general meaning, identify poetic devices, and rate the poems,...
Poetry Class
Tackling Climate Change
Get your kids thinking about climate change with a series of activities that include creating a ditty box poem for the planet, a poem that identifies concepts or objects they would want to preserve.
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Word Association Poetry with Visual Thesaurus (or Not)
Young poets get inspiration and guidance for making word association poems with the Visual Thesaurus. Your class could complete this project with nothing more than a pencil and paper as well. A nice one-off for a substitute during your...
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The Imagine Poetry & Mural Lesson
Readers of all ages can work together in groups to create original poetry on the theme of "Imagine," inspired by John Lennon's classic song. They also create a mural to illustrate their poetry. A beautiful lesson, inspired by a beautiful...
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Making Objects Human
Explore poetry, personification, and multiple languages with a poetry reading and writing lesson plan. After the teacher reads the poem to the class, a discussion about personification follows. The class then writes a collaborative poem...
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The Palm of My Heart: Poetry By African American Children
Elementary students explore African American culture by reading children's poetry. They read the book, The Palm of My Heart which features poetry by an assortment of young African American boys and girls. Students define several...
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Fall Similes
Fall is like a beautiful painting come to life—or is it more like an overflowing cornucopia? Practice writing similes with a lesson on figurative language. As learners review simile structure, they come up with their favorite similes for...
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Discussing Poetry In Class
Students investigate syllabic metre and rhyming techniques by analyzing poetry. In this language arts activity, students read the poem Considering the Snail and discuss the nature and mood of the poem with their classmates. Students...
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I Can Write a Poem
Using an outline, learners write a poem. The poem is focused on highlighting their experiences. This is a great way to combine language arts and an exploration of self esteem.
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Flashlight Poems
Students read various forms of poetry and identify poets, both contemporary and traditional. They discover how Shel Silverstein rhymed great stories in his poems. Afterwards, they read Shel Silverstein's poems and write verse in a...
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Poetry Passport
Passport photos are notoriously unflattering but here's an activity that encourages youngsters to create a poetic picture of themselves using each category on the passport as a prompt for a poem.
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Heartsongs Poetry by Mattie Stepanek
Use Mattie Stepanek’s Heartsongs book of poetry to inspire young poets to write about their own lives, experiences, and feelings. After reading the introduction to Mattie’s book, in which he talks about himself and his reasons for...
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Skill Building: Alphabet Poem
Amateur poets explore alphabetical poetry. They choose a topic and brainstorm vocabulary that relates to the topic using each letter of the alphabet. The class then generates ideas for a group alphabet poem. After creating one as a whole...
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Acoustic Poems
Students explore acrostic poems. In this interactive poetry activity, students visit the ReadWriteThink.org website to view characteristics and samples of acrostic poems. Students develop acrostic poems by using the interactive site.
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Go Free or Die: Figurative Language
Figures of speech, sensory details, and academic language are all targeted while reading Chapter Two of J. Ferris’ Go Free or Die. First, learners engage in an exercise to practice describing with detail. Then, partners use a chart to...
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Personal Poetry Books
Students work in the classroom and in the computer lab to produce a Personal Poetry Book.
Poetry Class
Eccentricity and Sound
What do Lady Gaga and Dame Edith Sitwell have in common? As they examine Sitwell's poetry, class members learn that the similarities are far more than their unique appearance.
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Language Arts Skills: Listening and Speaking Strategies
Your class can practice communicating clearly. They practice listening and speaking through games such asTelephone and a social scavenger hunt. This is a solid lesson that helps apply good communication skills.
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Poetry Beyond Words
Participate in writing poetry as a group. Focused on a given theme, young writers compose a popcorn poem using sensing verbs and adverbs. They write popcorn poems, onomatopoeias, collective poems, and diamond poems. You could introduce...