ProTeacher! Poetry lesson plans for elementary school teachers in grades K-6 including point of view, imagery activities, programs and thematic units, metaphor and simile skills curriculum, classroom and teaching ideas resources.

Poetry

Haiku

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ProTeacher Archive A growing collection of tens of thousands of ideas shared on ProTeacher over the years by teachers from across the United States and around the world.

Poem-a-Day I also do a Poem-a-Day with my fifth graders. I have the poem on the overhead projector, they get a moment to look it over, then anyone who wants to read it aloud with me stands up (its usually the majority of the class). We read it together, then I ask students to discuss in their groups what it means and what they thought when they read it. Groups discuss, one person from the group... source

Poet-tree A cute idea I heard about it to have leaves for the students to write poems on (after they do a rough draft, of course!). Then have a large tree (either using the rolls from carpet, or a paper one) for them to hang their poems from. You can attach the... source

Poetry Books During the school year I do a lot with poetry. After a poem is introduced and activities are done with the poem, a copy of the poem goes in each students pronged poetry folder. The poem is then ... source

Poetry Center I teach third grade and have a Poetry Center. We have a poem a week and I laminate the poem (they are on sentence strips and used in my pocket chart). I give the students a copy each Monday morning of that weeks poem. They put it into their poetry spiral (notebook). Throughout the week, they do different things with their poem... source

Poetry Ideas I found one of those magnetic poetry kits for kids where they take words printed on magnets and used a magnet board to experiment with the words. When they get something they like they write in in their poetry notebooks -- they can use the word processor to type it if they would rather. Then they illustrate. A great book to use with a poetry unit for mid elementary and up is... source

poetry is fun Each child ended up with a poetry booklet - the pages were the size of half an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper. The first page told what a haiku was (the "formula" if you will), the second page was their written haiku. Third page was... source

Poetry projects Each spring I would do a unit on poetry. We would read lots of poems and write some of our own.After students have written a poem I would have them type it out on the computer. The students enjoyed using different fonts for each poem. Or they could write it out neatly. They would cut it out and mounted it on to a piece of artwork. The artwork was a... source

Weekly Poetry On Mondays we spend the most time on the poem. Reading through it and decorating our page for our folder. Tues-Friday mornings we read through it once or twice during calendar. I often write them in 2 colors alternating each line. Then, I will say boys read the green lines and girls read the yellow- or people wearing jeans read the green lines etc. It just makes practicing more fun. Also, Friday afternoons performing them... source

A Simile and Metaphor Sample Lesson Plan - Difficult concepts to teach, this lesson provides you with all the tools you need including a ton of examples source

Alliteration Lesson Plans and Resources - Lists tongue twisters that illustrate the concept of alliteration followed by several lessons for students to complete source

American Verse Project - Archive of mostly 19th century American poetry source

Apple Writing (PRIMARY) - Combine poetry, literature, and technology into one lesson. Has links to help you get the resources you need source

Cool Rhymes for Kids - A collection of poems from an unpublished book: Playing Hopscotch on a Rubber Roof written by Arden Davidson source

Famous Poems and Poets - Students go on an online scavenger hunt to learn more about poets and the different styles of writing source

Friendship Cinquains - Students interview someone in their class and turn the information into a cinquain source

Guess What? - Read these poems to your students and have them try to figure out the object that is speaking. Great point of view activity source

How To Get Kids Excited About Reading Poetry: Make it Fun! - Twelve different ways to get your class excited about poetry source

How to Write a Cinquain - Gives you a simple break down and a detailed breakdown of what goes in each line for this poem source

How to Write a Name Poem - To create this poem about their lives, students simply follow the format given. An example is included source

Hyperbole- Lesson Plans and Resources - Have fun with hyperboles! Teach students what they are and how to create them source

IDIOM Lesson Plan - Students will be able to identify idioms and explain their meanings when they are done with this lesson source

Imagery- Lesson Plans and Resources - This site gives you a link to poems you can use to teach this concept. Lists several ideas for helping them learn this skill source

Look Whos a Poet Now! - Examine poetry on-line that was written by students all over the world. After examining this, have students write their own poems to be published on the internet source

Mrs. Henriksens Poetry Pages - Geared for young children, this page contains lots of poems grouped together by topic source

Onomatopoeia- Lesson Plans and Resources - Lesson provides a sample poem you can use to demonstrate this concept with students source

Performing Poetry: A Study Guide for Teachers - Teach your students about tone and voice inflection through the use of poetry performances. Other focuses include rate of voice and body movement source

Personification Lesson Plans and Resources - Students will be able to identify personification and be able to apply it to their writing source

Pizzaz!...Diamante Poems - Instructions on how to create a diamante poem along with several examples source

Pizzaz!...Sausage Poems - Poetry that will make your students think about the words they are using. Can be done alone or in pairs source

Pizzaz!...Tongue Twisters - Following these directions, students can compose their own tongue twister or they can do one as a small group source

Poems and Songs - Activities and ideas for using poems and songs in the classroom. Includes suggestions for teacher resource books source

Poetry Corner - Offers over 100 poems for kids. All poems have been written by the webpage creator. Many topics to be used with various classroom themes. Sample titles: Looth Tooth,Ah-choo!, Be Careful What You Wish For source

Poetry For Kids - Humorous, illustrated poems for children by poet Kenn Nesbitt and links to related poetry sites source

Poetry for the Elementary Classroom - A curriculum unit that contains a narrative about the unit, several lessons, a student bibliography and a teacher bibliography source

Poetry for Upper Elementary Students - List of links that will take you to poems you can use in class. Poems found here include a variety of both narrative and historcial source

Poetry of the Skies - Students compose poems about things found in space. Use the links to see samples of poems and a list of possible poetry topics source

Poetry Patterns - Includes several examples of poems in various categories to use as patterns to create poems source

Poetry Race - Fun activity to kick off your poetry unit or too wrap it up source

Poetry Springboards - Ideas and lessons to use with several poems source

Poetry Writing with Jack Prelutsky - Participate in a writers workshop with Jack Prelutsky. Your students will get to write and publish their own book of poetry source

Reading, Writing, Reciting, Exciting Poetry - Students will leanr about different poetry techniques such as alliteration and metaphors. They will also begin to analyze poetry and select some pieces to recite source

Review Poetry and the Simile and the Metaphor - After students have had some experience with these concepts, use this lesson to review them on it source

Serious Play: Reading Poetry with Children - Brief article that provides a rationale behind why children need to be exposed to poetry source

Songs and Poems - This site contains many songs and poems over a wide range of themes/topics including: seasons,special days,animals, vegetation, family & friends, etc source

Teachers Guide for Old Elm Speaks: Tree Poems - Help your students understand who is speaking in a poem adn who is being spoken to. Has a list of poems you can use source

The "Art" of Poetry - Explore how illustrations can enhance a poem source

The Rap Realm - So your students think poetry is boring? Give this site a try and teach them how to write their own rap source

The Semantic Rhyming Dictionary - Online rhyming dictionary. A search returns rhyming words listed by number of syllables. Also finds related words source

The Simile Satellite - Similes can be difficult and tricky to use the first time through. This site makes it easier source

Writing W Poems - Using the book Animalia, students will create poems that are similiar to the authors based on the five Ws. These can be complied into a class book source

Young Adult Poetry - List of ideas to help jump-start your poetry curriculum. Can easily be adapted for grades 4-6 source

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