Poetry Activities

My kids are really getting into reading poetry.....lots more than I thought they would.

Each kiddo got their own copy of the poem to add to their poetry journal. We drew boxes around each stanza, highlighted rhyming words, underlined examples of repetition, and marked examples of alliteration.

I think their favorite part is determining the rhythm of the poem.

We started by clapping to a simple song they had done in Music class. I kept clapping while I was talking, so that they could see that regular talking doesn't have a rhythm. We kept clapping while I read the poem, then they read it with me.

We moved into marking the lines of poetry.

We used dots for unstressed syllables and lines for the emphasized syllables.

They've been clapping and trying to make regular beats out of ordinary conversation!
We also added a foldable of poetry elements to our Reading Journals.

We're concentrating on poetry for a few more weeks. I think I'm going to have to step up my original plans. My kiddos are really getting into this!

Leave a comment with your favorite ideas and activities for poetry.