Poems
Background Information & Activities

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Poetry is a great way for children to experiment and explore language and develop phonemic awareness. Most children are familiar with nursery rhymes and tongue twisters, but acrostic poems, shape poems, rebus poems, and haikus are all fantastic ways to inspire your children and get them reading and writing.

Remind your children that they can get ideas for poems everywhere, and that poems can often grow from a strong feeling or thought. They might get inspired by watching a movie, reading a book, or looking at a piece of art. They may want to look through old diaries and journals or photographs to see what entries or images grab them. You might ask children to think of an object that is meaningful to them to write about. Brainstorming can help children gather ideas for poems and we recommend using different graphic organizers to help record their thoughts. Remind your children that there are many kinds of poems and they all communicate a thought or idea. Throughout your poetry study, it is important to give your children many opportunities to listen to, read, and respond to as many poems as possible.

To write an acrostic poem, your children should first pick a subject, or topic. Then they can pick a word associated with the subject and write a line of poetry that begins with each letter of the word. Encourage your children to be creative. Even if they are writing about a big or complicated subject, explain that they should focus on a small detail. They may want to focus on the way something looks, smells, tastes, sounds, or feels. Remind them to use the senses when they write a poem. They can use sensory detail charts to help them organize their ideas. Writing with the senses helps communicate their message to the reader. Furthermore, using literary devices such as similes can help strengthen their poems. We recommend watching the BrainPOP Jr. movies on Writing with the Senses and Similes to review.

A shape poem is a poem that is written to fit inside a shape. When there is only a little room inside the shape, only a few words might fit. When there is more space, however, longer lines can fit. They can also write a poem in the outline of a shape. Remind your children that poems do not have to rhyme. Compare poems that rhyme with those that do not. How are they alike and different? You can also rewrite a rhyming poem so that it does not rhyme. How does it change? Help your children understand that language is powerful and malleable.

A rebus poem is a poem that uses symbols to stand for words. For example, a picture of an eye stands for the word “I”, a heart stands for the word “love,” and the letter u stands for the word “you.” Display different rebuses to your children and have them decipher their meaning. Then challenge them to come up with their own rebuses. If children have a problem deciphering a rebus, encourage them to describe the picture out loud.

A haiku is a kind of poetry that originated in Japan. A haiku has three lines. The first line has five syllables, the second line has seven syllables, and the last line has five syllables. Remind your children that a syllable is a unit of sound in a word. Practice counting the syllables in different words. Challenge your students to come up with words that have many syllables. You may want to clap out the syllables together and count out loud. Help children see that a syllable in a word always contains one vowel.

There are many different kinds of poetry, but they all serve the same purpose: To use language to communicate a thought or an idea. Just as a carpenter uses a hammer and nail to create and build something, a writer uses words and language to help him or her create a piece of writing. Encourage your children to explore language and provide a nurturing, creative environment where they can be free to experiment. Encourage your children to carry notebooks with them to write down their thoughts and ideas throughout the day. Writing poetry is a great way to challenge children and help them understand the power of language.

Poems Teacher Activities – Click Here!

Poems Family Activities – Click Here!

Poems Teacher Activities

© 1999-2009 BrainPOP. All rights reserved.

Syllable Song

Remind your students that a syllable is a unit of sound in a word. Have your students come up with different one-, two-, and three-syllable words. Then as a class, make up a song that uses words that only have one syllable. You may want to create your song to the tune of a popular song. Pick a topic together and brainstorm different one-syllable words associated with the topic. Write the song together and give different parts of the song for pairs to sing together. If possible, perform the song at Open House or during a celebration.

Haikus

Review with your children that a haiku has three lines. The first line has five syllables, the second has seven, and the third has five syllables. Show different examples of haikus. Discuss each haiku with your children. What is the poem about? How does it make them feel? How are the haikus alike and different? Then have students write their own haikus. They may want to look through old journals or diaries to find ideas, or you may want to assign a topic to go with something they are studying in science or social studies. Have your children draw illustrations to go with their haikus and collect them together to create a haiku anthology.

Acrostic Poem Pairs

Have partners create an acrostic poem about each other. Partners may wish to use each other’s names as the base of their acrostic poem, or they may want to focus on a different attribute of their partner to write a poem. Partners can help each other write the poems and discuss different words they can use. Partners can also proofread and check for spelling errors. Have partners share their poems with the whole class.

Poem in my Pocket

Have your students use construction paper to create a pocket. Simply take a small rectangular piece of paper, fold it in half, and staple or tape the sides together, leaving an opening at the top. Then have students attach string or yarn to their pockets and hang them around their necks. Encourage them to decorate their pockets and write “Poem in my Pocket.” Then have students create a poem of their choice to put in their pockets. Throughout the day, students can ask each other to read aloud the poems in their pockets. During lunch and recess, other students may ask them to read the poems as well. Review good practices of reading aloud, such as inflection, annunciation, and proper, consistent speed.

Magazine Poem

Bring in old magazines or newspapers for your students. Students can cut out a few key words and write a poem around those words. Have them write their poems and paste their key words on a piece of paper. Have students share their poems with the whole class or small groups.

Poems Family Activities

© 1999-2009 BrainPOP. All rights reserved.

Rebus Collage

Together with your child, search magazines for small and simple pictures to cut out, or print out images from the Internet. Look for images that are homonyms, such as “bee” or “ant.” Have your child use these images to create rebus poems by arranging the pictures in different order. Your child can glue the pictures to the page and write the connecting words in between them.

Shape of Myself

Together with your child, go through an old photo album together to and find a picture of your child. Have your child cut out himself or herself from the photo and use the space to create a shape poem. Your child may want to write a poem about when that photo was taken. Encourage your child to write with the senses and focus on a small detail. Your child may want to use a graphic organizer before he or she starts writing. Then replace the photo in the album with the shape poem.