Kid Lit Frenzy: April is National Poetry Month

Sunday, March 31, 2013

April is National Poetry Month

Tomorrow is the start of National Poetry Month. How are you going to celebrate with your students? Here are a few ideas to try this month...

- Poem of the Day: Have different students share a favorite poem each day of the month.

- Poem in Your Pocket: Have children carry around a poem in their pocket and be prepared to share it with classmates and others at school.

- Spine Poetry: Have children create poems from interesting titles of books. Stack the books so that the titles can be read like a poem.

- Poetry Night/Poetry Reading: Talk with your local library or Independent Bookstore and arrange for a poetry reading event. Invite parents and friends to listen to students read poems that they have written.

- Poetry Workshops - Set up the classroom with images, and props to inspire children to write their own poetry. You can even have students go on a walk around the school and bring back a picture or an item to write about.

- Poetry Videos: Have children create their own videos featuring their poetry using a website such as Animoto

- Poetry Wall: Create a space where students can post favorite poems that they have discovered and also, post their own poetry

And don't forget to just simply share dozens of different types of poetry books and styles of poems with children. Poetry can be a wonderful way to support all learners in a classroom in building vocabulary and in developing as writers.

Here are a few new poetry books that I love ...