Poetry Ideas for April

[Barry Lane]

April is National Poetry month in the United States, whereas in Britain, according to T.S.Eliot, it is just the cruelest month.

I was thinking it would be fun to post all our best poetry lessons and write some poetry too.

[Barry Lane]

I am going to start with one that came up in the blog on writing prompts. It is from Sandford Lyne's wonderful book, Writing Poetry from the Inside Out. I knew Sandy and worked with him once or twice. He died 2 years ago but his wonderful ideas for teaching poetry live on. In this one I am giving you simple lists of 4 words. You have to write a poem using all 4 words in the list. That's it. I am going to give you many lists to choose from.

mother
folds
twilight
hands

curtain
cold
frost
lace

poems
flocks
wings
fly

moth
candle
room
wings

teacher
open
kingdom
hopes

hoop
cement
quiet
night


hearts
rules
breeze
boys

[Sue]

Poetry in the Bag
This idea is a take on the found poetry strategy and I'm sure it's been published somewhere else. Barry's word clusters reminded me of this activity in my first grade classroom.
Create a bag of words by taking powerful vocabulary from science content (satellite, super nova, or rocket)
Add some interesting onomatopoeia. ( Boom!, Pow!, Brrrrrrrrrrooooosh!, and my personal favorite, crrrrrrrrrash! )
Throw in some unusual verbs (dance, blast, streak, slide, roar).
Model how to pick words out of the bag, play with them to make meaning.
Provide a basket of markers and illustrate.

[Barry Lane]

Great idea Sue. My Friend Verandah calls this Wordboxing. She has a huge box stuffed with hundreds of words. The great part is that
new poets get playful with language from the start. They get poetic. I like the idea of stacking the deck with types of words.

[Colleen Stark]

In my second grade class I love reading the book "Ish" and reminding students...write something "poem-ish", it's also fun to do "A Poem in your Pocket" board. Cut out jean pockets, post the poem and have students copy down their all time favorite poem to put in their pocket...they have a blast checking out the other pockets, and poof! They're reading too! :)

I also cemented a large branch in a coffee tin and made a "Poet-Tree"...we hang our favorite "spicy" words on the tree to give us more inspiration, you could certainly hang poems on it too!

[Colleen Stark]

Love the idea! Have you read "Max's Words" before? It's a great picture book about Max collecting words when Max's brother collects stamps, coins etc. I can't wait to try your idea! Thanks for sharing. :)

Sue said:

Poetry in the Bag
This idea is a take on the found poetry strategy and I'm sure it's been published somewhere else. Barry's word clusters reminded me of this activity in my first grade classroom.
Create a bag of words by taking powerful vocabulary from science content (satellite, super nova, or rocket)
Add some interesting onomatopoeia. ( Boom!, Pow!, Brrrrrrrrrrooooosh!, and my personal favorite, crrrrrrrrrash! )
Throw in some unusual verbs (dance, blast, streak, slide, roar).
Model how to pick words out of the bag, play with them to make meaning.
Provide a basket of markers and illustrate.

[Colleen Stark]

Open the gate
carefully
hopes and dreams
lie within

a kingdom
of knowledge
waits
for a teacher
to lead
the way

[Barry Lane]

Beautiful, Colleen.

Colleen said:

Open the gate
carefully
hopes and dreams
lie within

a kingdom
of knowledge
waits
for a teacher
to lead
the way

[Sue]

Thanks Colleen! I'm going out right now with my little saw to cut a large branch.

Colleen said:

In my second grade class I love reading the book "Ish" and reminding students...write something "poem-ish", it's also fun to do "A Poem in your Pocket" board. Cut out jean pockets, post the poem and have students copy down their all time favorite poem to put in their pocket...they have a blast checking out the other pockets, and poof! They're reading too! :)

I also cemented a large branch in a coffee tin and made a "Poet-Tree"...we hang our favorite "spicy" words on the tree to give us more inspiration, you could certainly hang poems on it too!

[Colleen Stark]

Enjoy!!! :) I think it would be cute to spray paint it too...but then again that may not be the best idea to do in my apartment...ha!

[Laura Sandmark]

Excellent idea! I will definitely share some of the lessons and ideas already posted! And I'll be happy to share any that my teachers do during this month! I wanted to let you know that as a part of our morning announcements at our elementary school, each class has signed up for a day in April to read a poem or two over the speaker. The poems can be published poems or originals. We didn't do it today, since we were still calculating the final numbers for reading month. But tomorrow morning one of our kindergarten classes will share their poems. Can't wait to hear them! :-)

[Sue]

Look into a book called Mathematickles. by Betsy Franco. It creates poetry with mathematical formulas.
crisp air
shadows tall
+ a cat's thick coat
_________________
signs of fall

Give it a go....
tree + nest + eggs = hungry babies
tree - babies = a happy cat

I know, that is just plain sick:-)

[Barry Lane]

I LOVE THIS. It teaches thinking too.

Sue said:

Look into a book called Mathematickles. by Betsy Franco. It creates poetry with mathematical formulas.
crisp air
shadows tall
+ a cat's thick coat
_________________
signs of fall

Give it a go....
tree + nest + eggs = hungry babies
tree - babies = a happy cat

I know, that is just plain sick:-)