It's Poetry Week!

This has got to be one of the most exciting weeks, at least for me, and definitely one of my favorites throughout the entire year. It's POETRY WEEK! I have always loved poetry and constantly want to spread that passion to my students every year. Therefore, instead of hitting poetry here and there and in spotty times of the year, we hardcore focus on poetry for one week. During this week we dive into poetry review (terms like simile, metaphor, personification, etc.), then we actually write a piece of poetry or two a day! Of course we also look at some poetry and answer questions (but this is done throughout the year). This week is mainly dedicated to students writing their own poetry and expressing themselves through figurative language.

Monday we created "I Am" poems. These poems are three stanzas long about the students and their personality. They are given line starters for the stanzas, but then they feel in with actual dreams, wishes, thoughts, and feelings. Here are some examples:

 

Tuesday we did Pantoum poems. We reviewed stanzas and introduced quatrains. Students really like just saying the word, and were super excited to tell Mrs. Kinnett that they used a Spanish base word in Language Arts. These poems follow a specific line pattern where each line is repeated twice throughout the poem and it follows an ABAB rhyme scheme. Students were given the topic of Spring to write about and here are some awesome ones:

 


Wednesday we reviewed Haiku poems. Many students have written these before, but did not recognize the term when I introduced it. These poems are from Japan and mainly focus on nature. Students wrote two poems dealing with nature following the five syllable, seven syllable, five syllable pattern for this three line poem:

 

Thursday we worked on Concrete poems. This is probably a majority of my students' favorite poem of the week! Students are able to write on any topic they choose (they are excited after being told what to write about for the last two days!). They write their poem first, then choose a shape, then write the poem in that shape. For example if students wrote a poem about a tree, they could create a tree shape out of the poem! Students really get creative with this poem.

 

Finally today, Friday, we actually covered two poems! (We still do work on Fridays!!) We did Metaphor and Diamante poems. Metaphor poems are simply the students writing metaphors to compare themselves to another thing. Students can pick any object, animal, or thing to compare themselves to, then write metaphors (comparisons not using the words "like" or "as") about themselves being that object. Diamante poems (which I believe are my personal favorite) are in the shape of a diamond. Students can also write this poem on any topic. Students choose either two synonyms or two antonyms. The first line is one of those words, line to are two adjective describing word one. Line three is three -ing words describing word one. Line four has two nouns for word one, then two nouns for the final word. Line five is three -ing words describing the final word; line six is two adjectives describing that final word. The final line is the synonym or antonym for word one of the poem. (I'll have pictures of these two wonderful poems on Monday!)

Also at the end of this week (today!) students were turning in their Instagram Project that I assigned last week. Students did a wonderful job with it! Check out the instructions in this post from last week... Here are some final copies and views of the students' work:

 

 


And last but not least...It is the Cinco De Mayo weekend and I could not be more excited! I absolutely love Cinco de Mayo, Mexican food, and everything that goes with it. At Cramerton today we had a pre-celebration lunch with tacos, chips, salsa, queso, and all sorts of desserts. Here's my contribution...Sombrero Cookies (Thanks Pinterest!)

Tener un gran fin de semana!! (Have a great weekend ;) )