April is Poetry Month across the United States, offering educators a perfect opportunity to create fun and engaging poetry lessons for their classrooms. Unfortunately, while many educators acknowledge that poetry is an important aspect of language arts, many shy away from teaching it because they don’t know how to approach it. If this is a situation you find yourself in as an educator, the good news is that there are plenty of fun and educational poetry activities that you can easily incorporate into your classroom.
Practice With Haikus
If your students are younger and totally new to the concept of poetry, start with something simple. Haikus are a great starting point for younger learners because they’re only three lines long and their structure is easy to remember. Specifically, a haiku consists of three lines. The first line should have five syllables, the second line should have seven syllables, and the last line should have five syllables. Consider presenting some fun haikus on various topics to your class.
Once they seem to be getting the hang of it, assign your students to come up with their own haiku on a subject of their choice. Consider asking for volunteers to read their work to the class for bonus points.
Create Poetry Bookmarks
Another fun activity to get your students appreciating poetry is that of making poetic bookmarks. Following a unit on poetry, ask your students to choose their favorite line or two from a poem that you read in class. Then plan an activity where you make bookmarks with each student’s favorite poetic lines. You might even have students share these bookmarks with the class when they’re done and explain why they like those particular lines.
Try Poem Illustration
Often, students struggle to interpret poetry. A great way to practice this without having your students write a formal interpretation is to have them illustrate the poem’s premise. This is an especially useful exercise for younger students who may not yet have the vocabulary or writing skills to construct a written interpretation, but will feel more comfortable drawing or otherwise illustrating the poem.
Plan a Field Trip
If you have the means at your school, why not consider taking your kids on a field trip to a local poetry reading? Many local libraries host these regularly, so this can be a great opportunity for you and your students to experience live poetry and the emotional reactions poetry readings can evoke.
These are just a few ideas for incorporating poetry into your lesson plans. For more classroom resources or to order quality classroom supplies, visit School Specialty today. Here, you can find some excellent deals on everything you could possibly need for your classroom.
