Ready for an Awesome Poetry Roundup?
April’s National Poetry Month,
What’s a mom to do?
Wish for a poetry roundup
To teach poems to your crew!
WriteShop to the rescue
With resources galore
To show your kids that poetry
Can have them shouting, “More!”
◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊
The poetry lessons and articles on WriteShop are among the most popular blog posts and printables we share! Take advantage of all these great teaching tips and lesson ideas for National Poetry Month—or any time you want to add a poetic slant to your homeschool language arts lessons. This poetry roundup is the perfect place to begin!
Introduction and Overview of Poetry
Start your homeschool poetry preparation here with these four posts:
- 5 fabulous features of children’s poetry — Discover the poetic devices that make children’s poetry so much fun to read.
- Experiencing poetry with children
- Poetry links and resources
- 13 warning signs of a bad poetry contest — Don’t let your budding poets get fooled by a scam!
Easy Poetry Lessons to Teach
Here’s the nitty-gritty—a variety of poetry lessons for teaching your children how to compose original poems.
- Writing haiku poetry
- Writing “Never” poems
- How to write a cinquain poem
- How to write a diamante poem
- How to write a cento (patchwork) poem
- 7 tips for teaching free verse poetry — Especially for teens!
- Kids’ poetry activities from Pinterest
Five of the WriteShop Primary and WriteShop Junior levels incorporate poetry lessons! In at least one assignment per level, children learn the mechanics of a new kind of poem and apply what they learn to compose a creative piece. Poetry often gets a bad rap, but these activities teach kids how fun and inviting this genre can be!
WriteShop curriculum is the perfect complement to whatever language arts program you are using. Get a catalog here.
Fun with Poetry
Try these poetry games and activities—and bring on the smiles!
- Rhymes for sale! — Play this rhyming poetry game with your children.
- 5 poetry writing prompts for kids — Writing prompts with a poetic twist
- Writing math poetry — Try this with older kids and teens (geometry, anyone?)
- Poem in Your Pocket Day — Celebrate with favorite poetry book resources and hands-on activities.
- 4 ways kids can celebrate National Poetry Month
Poetry Freebies
Enhance your poetry lessons with these free lessons and printables!
- 3 writing activities pre-writers will love — Download these colorful Poetry Word Strips.
- Summer acrostic — Printable activity for young children
- Poem in Your Pocket Day {free printable} — Print out these tiny poems and tuck your favorite into a pocket!
- 7 Poem in Your Pocket Day ideas — Free printable bookmarks feature lines from favorite poems.
Seasonal Poetry
Many parents, teachers, and students are poetry-phobic. Are you? Try adding a touch of poetry to seasonal celebrations. Remember: when you keep poetry fun and lighthearted, you take away the fear factor!
- Spring creative writing and poetry activities
- Easy spring poetry ideas: Acrostic poems and color poems
- Mother’s Day writing and poetry activities for kids
- How to write a Thanksgiving acrostic poem: I Am Thankful
- How to write a Christmas carol haiku
- How to write a Christmas cinquain poem
- How to write Christmas shape poems
Poetry Product | Let’s Write Imagery Poems
Is imagery hard to explain?
Does poetry seem hard to understand?
You and your kids can answer, “Not at all!” after using Let’s Write Imagery Poems. This unit study gives your children (ages 8-14) step-by-step directions for using imagery to compose their own poems. Get these poetry lessons for free for a limited time by subscribing to the WriteShop email list.
Let’s Write Imagery Poems
In this poetry pack, kids learn to write three different poems that come to life through the use of imagery and sensory detail.
- Color Poems. Using similes, metaphors, and emotion words, students compare a favorite color to objects and experiences they can see, hear, touch, smell, and taste. Their five senses will help them come up with descriptive words and phrases. The result is a vibrant sensory poem that paints beautiful word pictures.
- Comparison Poems. How is a fox like a cloud? How is a toaster like a dragon? While most poetry includes some form of imagery, the poems in this lesson are especially rich in figurative language. Children learn to combine poetic devices with descriptive adjectives, strong nouns, and active verbs to create a striking, imaginative poem.
- Shell Metaphor Poems. As your kids study a seashell from every possible angle, they’ll begin to see how it reminds them of many things. From one angle, a shell might be a unicorn’s horn or a mighty drill. From another angle, it could be an ice cream cone or an Olympic torch. Your child’s point of view and vivid imagination will bring their Shell Metaphor to life!
No prior writing experience needed! Use this unit study for National Poetry Month or as an add-on to your composition or literature lessons. By using imagery when they write their own poems, your children will come to understand this common literary device with greater depth.
