Poetry Archives - Longwing Learning I ELA Worksheets For Upper Elementary

3 Creative Ways to Bring Poetry into the Classroom

BLOG, CURRICULUM, Reading, SEASONAL, Spring Activities / Vanessa I Longwing Learning

Bringing poetry into the classroom can get students to talk to each other, express their thoughts, and tackle challenging topics.

However, with so many other activities a teacher must complete within a reading block, it's pretty easy to push it aside.

Besides reading poems during National Poetry Month in April, students can do many other poetry activities in fourth grade.

Read on to find other ways to bring poetry into the classroom for your students to develop writing skills and foster a sense of community as they learn about the people around them.

Let's explore these engaging poetry activities for 4th grade to incorporate poetry into your classroom.

Poetry Activity 1: Write bio poem

Students writing a bio poem about themselves using the bio poem template is a poetry activity that is excellent for building classroom community at any time of the year.

By following the bio poem template, students answer the questions to create their bio poem.

Bio poems are biographical poems based on a person and do not have to rhyme.

One of the main features students enjoy writing a bio poem is at the end when they include pictures of items that represent their unique personality.

Poetry Activity 2: Write a Cinquain poem as an exit ticket

The following poetry activity for 4th grade is writing a cinquain poem to show what they have learned about a topic.

This poetry activity works for any subject and topic. If you are a content area teacher writing a cinquain poem is one way to bring poetry into the classroom.

Here is an example of a cinquain poem my fourth graders did after our unit on magnets.

Students love writing cinquain poems because they are short in length, and using a cinquain template, they can write one in a breeze.

A cinquain poem contains five lines, with only a few words on each line, and does not have to rhyme.

So, no need to spend hours looking at a thesaurus for rhyming words.

Poetry Activity 3: Write a bio poem about a famous person

This next poetry activity is a twist to the bio poem.

Instead of writing a bio poem about them, students write it about a historical figure.

Students can use the historical bio poem template to write a bio poem based on a historical figure.

For example, after researching the person designated, students complete the bio poem template based on their research.

Students can practice making inferences about the character's thoughts and actions by completing a bio poem based on a famous person.

This poetry activity works great as an alternative project to writing a biography essay.

Writing a historical bio poem is another creative way to bring poetry into the classroom for Hispanic Heritage Month, Women's History Month, or Black History Month.

Wrapping It Up

Bringing poetry into the classroom can easily be integrated into an upper elementary classroom in numerous ways, from an exit ticket to writing mini biographies.

Featured Resources

bio poem template worksheets — Bio Poem Template and Self Portrait

biography bio poem template to bring poetry into classroom — Bio Poem Template and Self Portrait

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The 9 Popular Elements of Poetry To Teach Poetry

BLOG, CURRICULUM, Reading / Vanessa I Longwing Learning

Poetic elements, better known as elements of poetry, are the different tools, techniques, and features that poets use to create meaning, mood, and emotion within their poetry.

From an early age, students identify essential parts of a poem.

For example, they can hear the rhythm of a poem when hearing rhyming words at the end of a line.

Apart from rhyming words, upper elementary students need to know poets use different tools and techniques to make people feel a certain way when reading their poetry.

Therefore, one of the first lessons when teaching poetry in 4th and 5th grade is identifying the parts of a poem known as poetic elements.

There is a wide range of poetic elements, and here is a list of the most popular poetry terms for 4th and 5th graders to learn.

If you've ever wondered about simplifying the elements of poetry for your students, this post is for you!

Elements of Poetry for Kids Defined

Form

Form refers to the format and organization of a poem.

In other words, poetry is a particular way of writing. People who write poetry have different ways of writing them.

Each type of poem form has its own specific set of rules or guidelines.

For example, some poems rhyme and are long.

Other poems have different types of organization, like lists or ideas.

Rhyme

Rhyme is the repetition of sounds at the end of words, such as glue and blue.

Poems can include rhyming words within a line of a poem or at the end of every other line.

It is important to remind students to pay attention to the sound and not the letters to identify the rhyme of a poem.

Meter

When explaining meter, emphasize the connection the word has with math.

The word meter is related to measurement and, in a poem, is used to measure the syllables.

Count how many stressed and unstressed syllables there are in a line to find the meter of a poem.

Rhythm

Rhythm is the poem's beat created through meter, rhyme, and figurative language tools such as repetition, alliteration, and imagery.

Rhythm is an integral part of poetry. It decides how the poem will sound when read or performed aloud.

Line Breaks

In poetry, when one line ends and a new one starts, that is called a line break.

Poets sometimes stop a sentence in the middle and start a new one.

They use commas to show that they want to stop a line and begin a new one.

Poets put breaks at the end of some lines to create a rhythm in a poem.

Stanza

Many poems often have lines grouped, known as a stanza.

A space between them separates each stanza. A stanza in a poem looks like a paragraph.

Verse

A line in a poem is called a verse.

Repetition

Repetition, as the word implies, is repeating a word, phrase, or line in a poem.

Poets use repetition to make an important point or highlight the theme of a poem.

Figurative Language

Figurative language is the use of words and phrases beyond their literal meanings.

In other words, poets use words and phrases to describe things in a way that goes beyond their ordinary meaning.

Poems include several types of figurative language, like idioms, metaphors, similes, and imagery, to provide greater insight into the poem's message.

Elements of Poetry Teaching Tip

When introducing the elements of poetry, it is essential to point out that poems, like stories, are composed of different parts called poetic elements.

By weaving this language into your poetry unit, you can help students grasp what makes a poem.

The key thing to remember when teaching students to identify the elements of poetry is that they are not just lists of vocabulary words but are key terms that represent the concepts that ultimately contribute to finding the theme of a poem.

Related Resources

elements of poem anchor charts — Elements of Poetry Posters

figurative language anc — Elements of Poetry Posters

poetry