Research & Poetry Boxes

 

If you're looking for a fun project to display that incorporates both research and poetry, why not try a box project? Each of my students selected a famous person to research. Each student then decorated a box of his/her choice with decorations that suited the person (based on research).

 

Students then wrote poems on their boxes as well about their research subject. This accompanies a written piece and is a great project to display at Open House or Parent Night. You may even want the students to place something inside the boxes such as index cards with notes, etc.

 

Happy teaching, friends!

Pronouns with Pizzazz!

I can't help it. I LOVE teaching parts of speech! There are so many fun and creative ways to add a little pizzazz so that your students don't become bored. I know the content can be a little dry, but it wont be if you make it FUN!

Students always seem to love art and hands on activities, so why not give these activities a try? They are shown here using pronouns, but they could easily be used for any part of speech. The first activity is called Poppin' Pronoun Profiles.

DIRECTIONS:

Why not try some poetry writing using pronouns? In the pictures below, Japansese tanka poetry is written using a specificed amount of required pronouns. Then backgrounds are designed for the poems using pictures torn from magazines, newspapers, etc.- no scissors! They look beautiful when finished and make a great bulletin board display!

At the end of a unit, students can create a Pronoun Picnic! They love making the three dimensional picnic food!

Are you looking for more creative pronoun activities? All of these activities plus MORE are featured on my Pronoun Picnic resource. Just click on the picture below to check it out!

Happy teaching, friends!

Color Me Poetic

I have done color poetry with my students for many, many years. I have to say that these poems are always some of the best that my students write during the year. They are filled with sensory description and are just so much fun to read.

I always begin with the book Hailstones and Halibut Bones by Mary O'Neill. I read a poem or two from the book to start the creative juices flowing. I read more after we are done writing our poems, but I just want to give my students a small taste of color poetry before they begin their own poems.

I start by having my students choose a color from a list provided by me. I give them a list because sometimes they only think of the most obvious colors, but with the list, they may choose more unusual colors such as gold, turquoise, or lime green.

We then make sense charts. We list all five senses with space to write under each sense. Each student thinks about his/her chosen color and writes things that come to mind under each sense. What does green taste like? What does gold sound like? It takes them a little while to get the hang of it, but when they do, their thoughts flood the paper. They have so much fun with it!

Students write rough drafts in which we break the color down into stanzas representing the five senses. 

When they finish, we have a magazine hunt for the color in order to make a collage as decoration on our good copies. You may remember I am a collage addict! They then write or type their good copies with the collage decoration around the border. The result is always a work of art!

Happy teaching, friends!