Exploring Poetry

This week, students have been working on their own poems. They have written about photographs, their experiences, and the tadpoles we have in our classroom.

Writing poetry offers some challenges. How can we write new and interesting ideas, ideas that will make the reader think about the topic in a new way? How can we write our ideas in a way that looks like a poem? And how can we include figurative language, like similes and personification, or sound devices, like alliteration?

I'm thrilled to say that kids have responded to the challenge. Our wall is blossoming with poems! If you get a chance to stop by, come and see all of the amazing poems.

If you want to do some more work with poetry, try these sites:

Poetry interactive: This site, from ReadWriteThink.org, is a fun way to explore how changing the lines in a poem can change the experience of reading it.

Poetry idea engine: This is an interactive that lets you explore different kinds of poetry, like haiku, cinquain, and limericks.

Diamantes: Students loved this tool early in the year! Here, students can write diamante poems.