April is National Poetry Month. Here are some teaching ideas and creative ways to make it come alive.
- Attend poetry reading in your community.
- Pick a famous Poet for a week and read his poems with the announcement.
- Reread some favorite poems.
- Read Poem aloud to your students everyday.
- Ask student to create their own anthology of favorite poems.
- Have student illustrate their poem. Make a booklet out of them giving everyone and the library a copy.
- Introduce a new poetic form each week and give example of poems that use or reinvent the form.
- Publish a student poetry in your school newspaper or website.
- Publish a special anthology of student poems.
- Do a chain poem in your building with a poem on every link.
- Make sure your library is loaded with fun poetry for all to read.
- Create a school poem asking each student to contribute a line.
- Give students a list of chance words and ask them to create a poem using those words.
- Invite a poet to your school. (Maybe www.garywittmann.com)
- Invite students to write poems in response to their favorite poem (or to songs, or TV shows, or artwork.)
- Stage a poetry race with tongue twisters.
- Encourage students to write in the voice of someone else.
- Hold workshops where students discuss one another's work.
- Celebrate special occasion with other school people or guest reading.
- Tape students reading their own poems or poems by others: encourage them to share the tapes with parents and friends.
- Invite the mayor to read one day and honor the Mayor Poetry day and give him a key.
- Decorate the classroom or the school with illustrated poems and pictures of poets.
- Hold a poetry exchange day with poems wrapped as gifts.
- Have your students write lines on small pieces of poster board and make them in poetry mobile.
