Poetry

My kids REALLY love poetry. They feel so confident reading their poems and they are always so excited to take their notebooks home and share their new poem(s) with their moms and dads.

I usually do one poem a week, but occasionally I will have two.  I hang the poem on my front board and we usually practice reading it after calendar math when we have a few minutes of down time.  The first day I usually read the poem a couple times to the class. I point out sight words, punctuation, etc. Then I have them practice the poem with me.

 The next couple of days, I call students up to the board to lead the class in practicing our poem. I will also let them choose if they want to read it by themselves, have only the girls read, only the boys, read it in a whisper voice, etc.

I also call students to the board to practice writing the sight word that we are focusing on. I try to choose one word in each poem as our focus word. 

 On Fridays the students glue the poem into their poetry notebook. 

 They illustrate the poem and highlight the focus word. I add a little 'sign and return' sticker and then I let the kids put their notebook in their backpacks to take home for the weekend. I love giving them the opportunity to share their poems with their family!

 The second week of school we did the 'Red' poem which is by Frog Street Press. Occasionally I will give them little graphics to color in and glue into their journals instead of having them illustrate a picture.

And last week, the third week, we did the 'Blue' poem which is also by Frog Street Press. This week I had them draw their own scenery, but I gave them little ocean images to use :)

This week we are actually doing two poems. We are learning the 'Yellow' poem and a super cute poem called 'I Am Me' that focuses on the sight word 'I'. 

I would love to hear how you teach poetry in your class!