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Poem of the Week

How to make time for poetry when you have no time.

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Think you don’t have time to teach poetry?

Try using these activities to fit the specific needs of your classroom!

All of the following activities can be adapted to accommodate:

  • Various grade levels
  • Different time frames
  • English Language Learners/ Bilingual Students
  • Diverse Learners/ Special Ed

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How many days a week do you want to teach poetry?

1 Day a Week

3 Days a Week

5 Days a Week

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How Much Time Do you Have?

10 Minutes a Day

20 Minutes a Day

30 Minutes a Day

45 Minutes a Day

60 Minutes a Day

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Activities: 10 Minutes a Day

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Listen and Visualize

  • While reading a short poem, have students illustrate what they visualize as you read. There are many types of visualization activities you can do. Here is one example:
    • Choose a poem with strong imagery
    • Have students listen to the poem read aloud while drawing in pencil
      • Can be compiled in a notebook to be done every day or on copy paper
    • After listening to the poem at least twice, have each student color in the part of the drawing that stuck out to them most.
    • Suggested Poem (Spanish-English Bilingual Poem): Platero y Yo/ Platero and I

Sample Texts:

  • Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas

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Poetry and Pictures: Shared Writing Poem

  • Choose a picture that’s interesting or ambiguous to display to the class
    • Display on a projector or provide a copy for each group)
    • Or chose a picture from their favorite picture book
  • Ask each student to write one line of poetry about the picture
  • Write out each line to create a poem as a whole class.
    • Can also be modified for small groups if necessary
  • Read poem aloud as a class.
    • Extension: Have students go back though the poem to look for literary devices; have student revise the poem as a class

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Poetry Sentence Starters & Journal Responses

  • Leave a short poem on the projector for students to read as they get settled.
    • Sample Poems
  • Provide sample sentence starters for journals. Examples:
    • It made me feel...
    • This reminds me of…
    • One thing I notice is....
    • I like it because...
    • The mood of the poem is…
    • I connect to the poem because...
    • One question I have about this poem is…
    • A picture that comes to mind is…
    • I was surprised by...

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Performing Poetry

  • Choral reading can be conversational, with whole or small groups, partners, etc.
  • Suggested text: Poems to Perform by Julia Donaldson
    • Examples of different ways to do choral reading in your classroom are provided at the end of the book
  • In upper grades, students can take a poem and create a play based of it
  • Extension: students can take the poem and create another poem based of it by changing one aspect (character, tone, theme, etc.)

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Poetry Friday (Bring-your-own-Poem)

  • Have students bring a poem they like to share with a small group or whole class
  • Students can:
    • Copy one from online
    • Bring a poetry anthology/ collection
    • Write their own
    • *Teachers can have copies of poetry books available for students to choose from

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Grammar/ Figurative Language Mini- Lessons

  • Read a short poem. Look for:
    • Phonics
      • Find rhyming words
      • Find consonant blends
      • Find long and short vowel sounds
    • Parts of speech
    • New vocabulary words
    • Figurative language devices (alliteration, rhyme, personification, imagery, onomatopoeia, metaphor, simile, etc.)

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Activities: 20 Minutes a Day

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Close Reading

  • Read the selected poem twice. On the second read, have students
    • Highlight meaningful words/ phrases
    • Illustrate with sketches
    • Add annotations/ comments/ thoughts
    • Turn-and-talk with elbow partner to share ideas

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Mirror Poems

  • Start by reading short poems with similes/metaphors
  • Provide each student a small hand mirror to look carefully at their faces
  • Prompt them to think of as many similes and metaphors about themselves
  • You can offer students a template as well:
    • In the mirror, I see eyes like the stars

Sample Texts:

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Juicy Verbs

  • Select a short poem and re-write on chart paper or projector without any verbs
  • Have students guess what verb would best fit in each line
  • *You may want to provide students with list of vibrant verbs. Some examples:
  • Reveal and discuss the words that the poet chose
    • Why did the poet use “whisper” instead of “said”

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Poetry Stations (1/3)

  • Listening Station
    • Students listen to multiple poems (on a CD, computer, etc.) being read aloud by poets
  • Parts of Speech
    • Students highlight/ color-code the different parts of speech they identify in a poem
  • Poetry Reading
    • Students record themselves reading their favorite poem
  • Taboo
    • Students try to describe a word without using the words on the card. Promotes conscious word choice and strong descriptions

60

20

45

30

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Poetry Stations (2/3)

  • Google Search Poems
    • Students type a word into the Google search bar and create a poem using the first few search result words/ phrases
  • Emoji Poetry
    • Students create a poem using only emojis
    • Or students can “translate” a poem or song into emojis
  • Blackout/ Redacted Poetry
    • Using pages out of an old book/ article, students using a black sharpie to black out the words they do not want to use. The words that are left are their poem

60

20

45

30

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Poetry Stations (3/3)

  • Found Poems
    • Using newspapers or old magazines, students cut out words they want to use and glue it onto copy paper to create their own poem
  • Text Message/ Conversation Poems
    • Students create poems that are a conversation between two people that showcase different points of view
    • Can be done with a partner
    • Conversation Examples: Earth and the moon, water and clouds, predator and prey, mother and child, night and day, winter and summer
  • Roll of the Dice poetry
    • Roll the dice that will determine the number of lines then roll the dice for each line to determine the number of words in each line.

60

20

45

30

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Activities: 30 Minutes a Day

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Definition Poetry

This activity can be used across curriculum (math, science, history, social-emotional topics)

  • Student/ Teacher chooses a word or topic
    • Ex: George Washington, caterpillars, fractions, happiness
  • Students create a poem about the word/ topic using short, colorful phrases.
  • The poem begins with the question: “What is ____?”
  • The poem ends with the exclamation: “That's _____!”
  • Students share out their poems
  • Can also be adapted to create Acrostic poems for the topic

Sample Poems

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List Poems

  • Students create a poem about a topic using the list format.
  • Examples:
    • Reasons why I love my mom
    • Reasons not to write a poem
    • Favorite things
  • Can also be adapted to write recipe poems

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Goldilocks Poetry Hunt

  • Students go on a Poetry Hunt for poetry books
  • Students pick 3 books
    • 1 too easy
    • 1 too hard
    • 1 just right

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Paint Chip Poetry

Teachers can go to a paint store to pick paint color samples for free. Here are some fun ways to use paint chips to teach poetry.

  1. Students pick at least 2 paint chips with unique names and use them to create a poem
  2. Mix and match the names of paint colors to create new, and more colorful adjectives
    1. Ex: Secret Meadow, Rusty Gate, Taffy Twist
  3. Have students guess what color is being described without using the color word

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45 Minutes a Day

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I am Poems (Self)

  • Read an example of an “I am” poem
    • Examples could include George Ella Lyon or the teacher’s own “I am” poem
  • Students brainstorm about themselves and family histories using the 4 Square Room Rubric.
    • Students can write about where they are from, their likes and dislikes, topics they are learning about, hobbies, sports, family
    • Can incorporate dual languages

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Sample Templates:

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I am Poems (Content)

  • Content Poems
    • After a mini-lesson/research about a topic, have students create a “I am” poem about that topic
    • Examples: “I am George Washington,” “I am a tadpole,” “I am a fraction,”
    • Students write from the point of view of the topic
  • Students can act out the poem about a famous person
    • Students research about a famous person and create a poem about them
    • They can present to the class individually or as a “wax museum”

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Sample Templates:

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Poems: A History of the Human Heart

  • Find poems about a topic from 2 time periods
    • Example: Your parents’ time and the current day
  • Compare the topics and engage in a discussion
    • Example: Contemporary protest songs/raps about gun violence in Chicago compared to protest songs about the Vietnam War
  • Can also be used to compare different points of view on a historical event

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Kenning Poem

This can be adapted to create short or long poems

A Kenning is a two word phrase describing an object often using a metaphor. A Kennings poem is a riddle made up of several lines of kennings to describe something or someone.

Students write their poem and read it to a classmate without the title. Their partners try and guess what they are trying to describe.

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ABC Poetry

  • Students choose their favorite letter to write a poem about.
  • They can answer questions like:
    • What does the letter look like?
    • What does the letter sound like?
    • What does it do?
  • Good for teaching: similes, metaphors, alliteration, conscious word choice, imagery
  • Students can also create their poem in the shape of the letter (like a word cloud)

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Poet Biographies

  • Students research their favorite poets
  • Students create a list of interesting and unique facts about the poet
  • They can present their information to their classmates
  • They can also dress up or act out their character to demonstrate what they learned

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Poet Laureate of the Week

  • Students that want to be a Poet Laureate will write a poem and put it into a hat to be drawn once a week
  • The week that they are chosen, students can
    • Read their poem aloud to the class/ school
    • Present a mini-biography about the author
    • Be in charge of the Poetry Corner in the classroom
    • Can choose a Poem-of-the-Week from a book
  • Teachers can:
    • Explain what a Poet Laureate is, the different types, give examples etc.
    • Encourage students to practice their poem
    • Invite parents/guardians to see their child perform the poem
    • Create a poster titled “Poet Laureate of the Week” with student’s picture and photo

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60 Minutes a Day

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Camp Poem-A-Lot

Can be adapted for a whole-day activity or an evening event with parents!

  • Students spend the time reading their favorite poetry books
  • Set the stage:
    • Invite students to bring in sleeping bags, pillows, blankets, or other camping-style gear
    • Turn the lights on dim and play a CD of outdoor sounds.
    • You could take it to the next level by setting up small tents or creating different camp locations
  • You can also create different poetry stations for students to visit during the camp.

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Reader’s Theater

This activity can be broken into two 30-minute lessons

  • Chose a challenging poem to introduce new vocabulary and improve fluency
  • Break poem into parts
  • Have students practice reading the poem multiple times
  • Students decide how to act out the poem in a group discussion
  • Then have students act out their part of the poem in their group
  • Students perform their poem for the whole class

Sample Texts

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Family Poems

  • Students ask their families for their favorite poems while growing up
    • Can be in different languages
    • Or they can chose a favorite poem with their parents
  • Students memorize and perform their poem for the class
    • Can invite parents to watch their performances
  • Students can also memorize a song, poem or nursery rhyme in another language

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Sports and Onomatopoeia

  • Students explore poems written about sports
  • Then they watch a sports game and create a list of sounds they hear.
  • They use this list as a springboard to create their own poem about a sport.

Sample Texts:

Casey at the Bat