Hi, teachers! This is a gathering of blog posts I’ve written that contain samples of activities or enough detail about the writing process that they might be useful to you in creating your own poetry lessons. For instance, I’ve shared several detailed lesson plans of poetry activities from Young Authors Conferences I’ve taught at. Enjoy!
March 16, 2022 My biggest hopes for We Belong are that it gets used to spark good discussions and to create community.
So I’ve created a template for you to use with your students to write a classroom or family poem. I used this template at the book launch ... February 2, 2022 Why not write an equation poem for someone you love for Valentine’s Day? These snappy poems are short enough to fit on a handmade card!
Just pick a person to make your valentine for.
my sister Patty
Brainstorm lists of specific things about your person.
loves:
funny movies
dark chocolate
cross-stitching
games
therapy dogs
wolves
describes ... March 3, 2021 I so love it when kids (or grown-ups) do their own writing inspired by something I wrote!
A virtual book club of 2nd graders at Spradley Elementary in Frisco, TX, read Lion of the Sky and wrote their own zoo-ku in response.
Aren’t those fabulous? Can you ... June 2, 2016 Happy Poetry Friday! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.)
Shoot! I forgot until this moment that this was the first Friday of the month, so it’s a Poetry 7 day! But I promised my Young Authors Conference writers last week that I would share our ... May 16, 2016 Last month, I got to visit Hugo Elementary School in White Bear Lake, MN, at the invitation of Media Specialist Connie Stirling, whom I had run into at the Hubbs Children’s Literature Conference. I was so excited to visit the school and spend an entire ... March 31, 2016
Hello, and Happy Poetry Month–again! In a happy Perfect (Poetry) Storm, this is actually my third Poetry Friday post for Friday, April 1st! This one is because I am honored to be starting off Irene Latham‘s annual Progressive Poem. Irene, of Live Your Poem, invites ... February 1, 2016 Last Friday, I was part of a literacy event in Stewartville, MN, called Hot Reads for Cold Nights. Wow. There were 500 or so people there, and organizer Renita Irvin had so many things going on: book exchanges, food, storytellers, silent auctions, and a ton ... November 4, 2015 As a writer, nothing makes me feel better than knowing that my words inspired someone else to do something: to write, to think differently, to take some kind of action (or even just to relax, to laugh, or to learn). Last month, I got the ... July 30, 2015 Happy Poetry Friday! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.)
I learned about Padlets recently when Amy Ludwig VanDerwater created a Favorite Poem Padlet and shared it at The Poem Farm. So. Cool.
I can see tons of ways that teachers could (and probably already are) using ... June 3, 2015 One more day of wordplay poems here! Monday, I shared the lesson plan. Yesterday, I shared a gallery of poems. And today, here’s a gallery of the rest of the poems! Thank you, students!
Teachers, please note: Most of these are their notebook version, not copied ... June 2, 2015 Today and tomorrow, I’m sharing student poems from my sessions at Success Beyond the Classroom’s Young Authors Conference at Bethel University. I shared the process/lesson plan yesterday, and I’m excited to share student work here. Teachers, I know you’ll find some awesome poems here to ... June 1, 2015 Last week, I taught all week at Success Beyond the Classroom‘s Young Authors Conference in the Twin Cities in Minnesota. I love this event every year. It’s an opportunity for me to lead the same writing workshop 12 times in a row with 4th-8th graders, ... April 4, 2015 Hi, everyone! It’s Day 4, and thus Line 4, of the 2015 Progressive Poem, created and curated by Irene Latham.? I missed participating last year and am happy to be back.
OK, I confess I am a fan of short poems. And short lines. (My Ireland ... October 15, 2014 You guys know Michelle Heidenrich Barnes’ Ditty of the Month Challenge at Today’s Little Ditty, right? Where she features a guest, who issues a poetic challenge? This month she featured J. Patrick Lewis, who shared a poetic form he created, the zeno. You can read ... September 18, 2014 Happy Poetry Friday! I don’t often write poems or verses for specific people. Well, I do, occasionally, but I don’t give it to them–I’m too self-conscious to do that. I’ve written poems for/about both my daughters but don’t think I’ve ever shared them. However, inspired ... June 2, 2014 Last week,?I did?Young Authors Conferences all week with 4th-8th graders. I’ll be doing a poetry workshop I tried out in March, and the kids and I had lots of fun with it. The theme of the conference is making unforgettable characters, so we wrote mask ... May 19, 2014
Teachers, last week I posted about a picture book I love, My Blue Is Happy, by Jessica Young. It would be fun to take this book and then brainstorm what you see each color as and write a list poem based on it. You could ... April 29, 2014 Please forgive the double post today, but I wanted to share this poem while it was still Poetry Month. I signed up for Jone MacCulloch‘s Silver Star Poetry Project again this year, and I just got my beautiful postcard yesterday. What a burst of brightness ... April 28, 2013 You know, I love poetry games. The idea of making poems up on the spot based on words randomly assigned makes me happy. Writing group poems with 1st through 6th graders, never knowing what they’ll come up with, makes me happy. Adding a line to ... June 5, 2012 I presented at a Young Authors Conference all last week, and I thought I’d share a brief version of my lesson plan with you.
First, here’s a less-than-1-minute slideshow:
The theme of the conference all week was “Writing with Muscle,” and my session was?”Poetry Powerlifters.” We worked ... May 29, 2012 I’m working with elementary school kids this week, and the theme is Writing with Muscle. I’m working with them on revising flabby first drafts into power-packed shorter poems. I did this lesson plan earlier this year for one day, and I’ve tweaked it a little ... May 16, 2012 OK, here’s one of the ways I fail at social media. I thought I had blogged about both the poetry suitcase variation I do and about my recent terrific school visit with some 3rd graders in Monticello, MN. Apparently, I shared about them on Facebook ... June 6, 2011 Week before last, I spent Tuesday through Friday at Young Authors Conferences here in the Twin Cities. I’ve been doing this for four or five years now, and I always enjoy it. The 4th-8th graders are, in general, very smart, enthusiastic, and excited to be ... June 8, 2010 On Friday, I shared just a few of the cool poems that 4th-8th graders came up with in my Young Authors Conference workshops. A few people asked about the process, so I thought I’d share the outline of what we did. Each session was only 50 ... June 11, 2008 I’m sharing this not because it’s some stellar presentation, but because it’s always so helpful to me when people share the activities they do at school visits. I wouldn’t copy anything exactly, but it gives me good ideas and let’s me know what’s realistic.
At the ...A We Belong Poem Template for Classrooms
Make an Equation Poem Valentine
Ready to Write Some Zoo-Ku? #ClassroomConnections
Biopoems from Young Authors Conference [Poetry Friday]
Writing Things To Do If… Poems with 1st Graders at Hugo Elementary
The Progressive Poem Begins
Things To Do If… Student Poems
A Tree Can Be…, by Mrs. Vallarino’s 3rd-Grade Class
Displaying Your Students’ Poems or Other Projects
Wordplay Poems from the Young Authors Conference, Part 2
Wordplay Poems from the Young Authors Conference
Wordplay Poems in Your Classroom
2015 Progressive Poem: What’s My Line?
Meet the Zeno (a great poem form for classrooms)
Poetry Friday – A Daughter Can Be…
When Pencils Get Emotional [Writing a Mask Poem with Emotion]
Write a Color Poem – My Blue Is Happy, Pt. 2
Jone MacCulloch’s Silver Star Poetry Project
The Progressive Poem Is Here: Poetry Month Day 28
Powerlifting Poetry
Power Poetry: Short and Muscular
Poetry in the Classroom: Poetry Chests
Praising Everything at Young Authors Conferences
Lesson Plan for Emotion Poems
What I Did at the Young Authors Conference