This apple shape book activity lets K-2nd grade children color, cut out and write their own apple story on cover, picture and writing pages with kid-sized lines.
This barn shape book activity helps K-2nd Grade children color, draw and write their own farm story, then cut out and staple the barn pages into a book to share.
This apple themed writing activity has 1st and 2nd grade children order apple life cycle cards, write the steps, compare apples and oranges, and write a poem and story. Answer key included.
This house shape book activity helps K-2nd Grade children color, draw and write their own story about home, then cut out and staple the house pages into a book to share.
This three amigos poetry drama prose activity has 3rd to 5th grade students sort short texts by how they are written: poem, play, or prose. Answer key included.
This boy shape book activity helps K-2nd Grade children color, draw and write their own story, then cut out and staple the boy-shaped pages into a book to share.
Using Fun With Poetry Activity, students read prose and poetry of appropriate complexity for grade 1. to build reading comprehension skills.
Using this Flower Shape Book Activity, your students can create quick and simple books about themselves or stories about flowers or Springtime.
This computer shape book activity helps K-2nd Grade children color, draw and write their own story about computers, then cut out and staple the pages into a book to share.
This how words work poetry activity has 1st-3rd grade students sort rhyming words, same-sound words, and repeated words from a fun poem. Answer key included, so kids hear the beat of every poem.
Using this Girl Shape Book Activity, your students can create quick and simple books about themselves or stories about girl main characters.
Rhyme, rhythm and a little magic
Poetry is writing that plays with sound, rhythm and feeling. Young kids start by hearing rhymes and clapping the beat in songs and nursery rhymes. In 2nd and 3rd grade they learn about lines and stanzas, and they find words that rhyme, repeat or sound like what they mean, like buzz and splash. They write their own poems in fun forms: acrostics, shape poems, limericks and haiku with 5-7-5 syllables. In 4th and 5th grade they talk about imagery and figurative language. The click comes when a child reads their own poem out loud and the whole class snaps!
Poetry is meant to be heard. These moves get kids reading, clapping and writing.
Read a short poem aloud twice, then let kids tap the rhythm on their desks the second time. Ask, "Which words rhyme? Which words did you love?" Hearing the music of a poem before analyzing it keeps poetry fun.
Why it works: showing first, practicing together, then letting kids try alone is the "gradual release" model teachers have relied on for decades (Pearson and Gallagher, 1983).
Try it withPoetry Rhyme and Rhythm WorksheetWorksheetsOpen it →Have kids pick an object, like a kite or a raindrop, and write describing words that follow its outline. Shape poems are perfect for reluctant writers because there is no rhyme to worry about and every word counts.
Why it works: kids understand an idea best when they touch it, then draw it, then write it, the order the U.S. Department of Education recommends for elementary math.
Try it withShape Poem WorksheetWorksheetsOpen it →Write one short poem every week all year, rotating forms: haiku, acrostic, list poem, limerick. By spring kids have a whole poetry book, and they look forward to poem day.
Why it works: the brain holds on to what it meets again and again over time; spaced practice was rated among the very best methods (Dunlosky and colleagues, 2013).
Try it withMy Haiku WorksheetWorksheetsOpen it →Silly poems are the best way in.
WorksheetsFill in the blanks to finish a funny limerick, then read it in your best storyteller voice.
Open Limerick Fill in the Blank Worksheet →
ActivitiesKids write a little poem inside an apple-shaped book they make themselves.
Open Apple Shape Book Activity →
WorksheetsRead a classic poem about the wind and describe what you would see, hear and feel outside.
Open Describing Who Has Seen the Wind Worksheet →Teacher favorites right now: Apple Shape Book Activity, Barn Shape Book Activity and Apple Themed Writing Activity.
Start by reading poems aloud and enjoying the sound. Then explore one feature at a time, like rhyme or rhythm, and let kids write in simple forms like acrostics or shape poems.
Acrostic poems, shape poems, haiku, limericks and list poems are great for kids. They have simple rules and leave lots of room for creativity.
A haiku is a short poem with three lines that have 5, 7 and 5 syllables. Haiku usually describe nature or a single moment. Clapping the syllables helps kids count them.
No! Many poems do not rhyme at all. What makes a poem a poem is careful word choice, rhythm and feeling, so kids can write great poems without any rhymes.
A stanza is a group of lines in a poem, like a paragraph in a story. Stanzas are separated by a blank line.
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