11 Activity Ideas to Celebrate National Poetry Month

Take a quick trip outside and have each of your students find one leaf.  Have them trace that leaf on a sheet of paper, and then write a poem about leaves or trees inside the tracing.

If you like this, then check out these other lesson ideas for teaching outdoors.

Having students write their own poems is one of the best ways to celebrate Poetry Month!  If students are new to writing poetry, however, this can be intimidating.

Poetry writing templates are an ideal way to scaffold so that students do not get too overwhelmed.  Have students use the templates in this No Prep Poetry Writing Packet to write 13 different types of poems.  Then, bind all the poems together to easily create a poetry book!

Want to make your own templates?  Here are 9 different types of poetry that are great for beginning poets.  

This is a simple, quick, and engaging poetry activity.  Give each 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade student a blank sheet of paper and have them write their name vertically down the page.  Students will then write a poem about themselves, using the letters from their name to begin each line of the poem.

Shel Silverstein is well known for his humorous, kid-friendly poetry.  You've probably read at least a few poems from one of his popular poetry books - like Falling Up, A Light in the Attic, or Where the Sidewalk Ends.

His website has some useful resources for teachers, including this fun template to create a Poet-tree.

Poems are full of figurative language.  Introduce your students to the different types of figurative language, and then go on a hunt for it in poems.

This No Prep Figurative Language in Poetry Resource includes poems that have figurative language so that you don't have to go on a hunt for it yourself!  It also includes a figurative language reference sheet as well as guided activities to help your students write their own poems with figurative language!

These poetry refrigerator magnets were popular when I was growing up.  We would use them to leave messages, write silly sentences, and - of course -  make short poems!

You can have your upper elementary students do the same thing with words from a newspaper or magazine!  Cut out a variety of words and then let students get creative!  They can rearrange the words to make one of these short poems of poetry. 

Have them glue the words onto a blank sheet of paper and illustrate it for a fun Poetry Month Display!

Read the following poem written by Christina Rossetti to your students.  The poem is entitled "Clouds" - but don't tell that to your students.

White sheep, white sheep,
On a blue hill,
When the wind stops,
You all stand still.
When the wind blows,
You walk away slow.
White sheep, white sheep,
Where do you go?

Discuss the poem with your students.  What are the white sheep?  What is the blue hill?  What type of figurative language is this?

After discussing the poem, take your students outside to observe the clouds, and then have them write their own cloud poem!

This is another activity that involves a trip outdoors.  Introduce your students to haiku - you can use these example haiku for your lesson, or go the no prep route with this Reading and Writing Haiku Packet.

Once your students have been introduced to haiku, take them outside.  Have them choose a topic for their haiku and observe it closely.  What do they see, smell, touch, and  hear?  (You might want to leave out taste, although they can imagine!)  Then, have them write a haiku!

The No Prep Reading and Writing Haiku Packet has a brainstorming page and template to walk students through the process of writing a haiku.

An obvious option, but one that definitely shouldn't be neglected!

Not sure what poetry books to start with?  Check out my favorite haiku books for upper elementary students.

Another good option is to get a good poetry anthology that includes carefully selected poems from a variety of different authors.  Two of my favorites are The Randomhouse Book of Poetry for Children and Sing a Song of Popcorn.

Or, try one of these popular poetry books for 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students:

• Poetry for Young People: Langston Hughes
• The New Kid on the Block: Jack Prelutsky
• Honey I Love and Other Poems: Eloise Greenfield
• Where the Sidewalk Ends: Shel Silverstein

Reading and rereading poems is a great way to practice fluency with your 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students.  Poems often have a distinct rhythm that students will naturally want to read smoothly.

You can have students simply reread poems repeatedly to different partners, or ask students to each memorize a different poem and present it to the class.

After students memorize their poems, you could:

• video tape them reciting the poems and form a short movie
• have a poetry slam
• have a poetry picnic
• have a poetry cafe

This is a fun, interactive Poetry Month Activity!  Put students in small groups, and have each student start off with a blank page.

On the blank page, have each student start a poem - but only write the first line!  Then, have the students pass their page to their clockwise neighbor.  They will read what has already been written, and then write the 2nd line before passing the page again clockwise.

Each student adds one line to the poem until everyone in the small group has written on everyone's paper.

Providing students with a structure for their poems before beginning will help your students that might be overwhelmed by this task.  You can provide the rhyme scheme (for example, AABB), or you could provide rhyming words for students to include in their poems. Use these 9 different types of short poems for inspiration.

This is a great activity for making writing fun outside of poetry as well!