It’s National Poetry Month! So it’s the perfect time to incorporate some poetry word play into your classroom. Maybe you’re like me and finding time is of the essence as the end of the year approaches. If so, these ideas can be done as part of a class rather than requiring a full or multiple days. These five ideas can work as bell ringers or brain activation, activities for early finishers, ways to include as part of an established lesson, or even for SEL! BONUS: If you have the time, each of these ideas could lead to longer poetry exploration either through writing or analysis of published poetry.
General Word Play
Are you or your students into word games? Did you dive in on the Wordle craze? My students love these but sometimes the traditional Wordle is difficult (I’m looking at you epoxy and nymph!) so creating custom Wordles has made it more engaging! You can create a custom puzzle at this website to share with your students.
Here is a FREEBIE with 34 custom puzzles for poets and poetry-related terms. You can create your own vocabulary, character names, part of a review, or have students write 5-letter word poems. Check out this Instagram post with a bit more info. You can assign within your LMS or schedule some emails to include the links to your custom puzzles. The staff at my school love these and so I’ve shared some; it’s been a nice way to build some community again after such long periods of distance/isolation.
Easy as Pie: Focus on Idioms
If you’re like me, you probably spent time nearer the start of the year on figurative language devices but they’ve been cast aside for a while since. It happens! Well here’s an easy way to bring it back with a more specific focus on idioms.
The Oxford definition of idioms is gold unto itself and one to share with students as an intro to the activity: “a group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words”. This can lead to brainstorming idioms they might already know or to introduce a myriad of others. You can check out a full lesson here with 100 idioms that you can scale down as you need; I like to choose so that there is one for every student.
Once students have an idiom they can build a poem around it – using it or inspired by it.
Have them share with a classmate or two or create a quick display of the finished work. When’s the last time you updated your bulletin board? Are you like me and have the same one up since the start of the year? No shame in that game but this activity can provide a quick changeover… so too can the next few ideas!
Poetry Collage
Want an option that requires minimal writing? Then look no further to engage even some of the reluctant learners in your class with some found poetry.
You’ll need scissors, glue sticks, and an assortment of old magazines, newspapers, or even printouts of other poems. Give students 15-20 minutes to search for words of interest. This can be done in small groups to create a stockpile of words in the center for all to use. Students then glue words on paper to create their collage poem. Add a twist and use an image from the magazine as both inspiration and background to add the words as an overlay.
Share some inspiration with these examples. Remind students that poems come in all shapes and sizes!
A Twist on Magnetic Poetry
Want to skip the cutting and pasting to create a found poem? Then this digital twist on magnetic poetry may work for you. Here’s a FREEBIE with three different images and a blank template that will help usher spring into your classroom.
Students can click and drag the words onto the image to create their own poem inspired by the included picture.
Make it more student-driven with a blank template where they can add their own image and words. This works well as a peer-to-peer option with students adding the image and words and then sharing with a classmate who then clicks and drags to write the poem. Add them into a slide deck that all students can access and they can work simultaneously and sneak a peek at others’ work for inspiration!
Use it as an end of year activity and students can make a copy as a digital memory book for the end of the school year.
Poetry, Color, and Calm
Finally, this option takes into account that it’s the time of year when the level of tired for teachers and students is next level! I know! So if you want to incorporate some poetry but in a way that gives everyone a chance to collectively catch their breath consider some poetry coloring pages.
Here’s a freebie for a Christina Rossetti poem called “Color”. Or if you’d like a class pack to use throughout the month or even the school year then you can check out this full grouping of 40 poems.
These low stakes options are a great way for students to read poetry and then spend some time de-stressing. They can bring some calm back to your classroom and are great for early finishers too! The bonus here is that you can scale it up from just a calming activity to one that has students do light or intense analysis of the poem.
I love to use these as a bell ringer on a couple of Fridays in April. Students spend 10 minutes or so reading and coloring and then, in small groups, share a bit about their poem. No pressure or analysis, just a bit about what poem they had and what they noticed, or liked/disliked about the poem they read. They can then keep coloring later in class or put it into their binder for another bit of free time. This way students have the chance to hear about different poems than the one they have and can return to their own at a later time.
There are so many ways to incorporate poetry into your classroom this month. Ideas that can be big or small depending on what you and your students need at this time of year. What will you try?
How do you incorporate poetry into your ELA classroom? Any tips or tricks to share? Let us know in the comments or share with us on Facebook or Instagram.
For more poetry-related ideas check out these posts:
