Poetry can be SO much fun if you approach it the right way. Over the past few years, I’ve realized that poetry isn’t always my students’ favorite subject. But, when we do engaging activities and get creative with our poems it can be so much fun and they end up loving it!
One big part of poetry instruction in my classroom is figurative language (which is always my favorite to teach). Earlier in the year we had a mini figurative language unit using the Figurative Language Passport from my TPT store. The students “traveled” through our 3 multiage classrooms and traveled through the “World of Figurative Language”. They had a BLAST traveling through their passport and learning about figurative language.
During poetry month, we always create our very own poetry books. We start by learning about the different types of poems, writing each poem together as a class and finally getting my students to write their own poems! I always love reading and listening to the poetry that comes from my kiddos – they can be SO creative! We always end with a small “coffee house” sharing day that consists of great poetry, plenty of snapping and of course some delicious treats! You can find the poetry book we use in my TPT store here.
We also read a variety of fantastic poetry books! A few of my favorites are The Crossover by Kwame Alexander, and Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson. With my 5th grade class last year, we dove into The Crossover and my students were thoroughly engaged with the book as it was written in verse and was so relatable to their own lives. It was a great book to close read a few poems, discuss rhyming patterns, stanzas and lines and to discuss theme and character traits. You can find my novel study in my TPT store!
Finally we dive more into figurative language with my favorite activity – Figurative Language Song Task Cards. Each task card has a few lines from popular songs that many kids listen to. Students read the task cards and find a specific type of figurative language within. Finally, they check their work with QR code to self- assess! Figurative language, popular songs & QR Codes – what is not to like?! To add to the fun, we listened to the songs while students roamed the room immersed in figurative language that completely related to their everyday lives!
Happy National Poetry Month full of engaging and meaningful poetry activities! Please share some poetry books or activities you love to use to teach poetry! 🙂
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