National Poetry Month

April is National Poetry Month. I love teaching my students about reading and writing poetry. Here's a quick round up of poetry activities I look forward to using with my class every year.

This blog post is geared toward the K-2 classroom, but for great poetry resources for all grade levels check out Read Write Think.
Here are some of my must have read alouds/picture books for National Poetry Month. Click on my Amazon affiliate links to take a closer look at these books.
            
One of the first things I do when teaching poetry is break down the parts of a poem with this anchor chart. It's not my fanciest work but it gets the job done. Check out our old school pencil sharpener! All classrooms in my school still have one. I wonder if we'll ever get them removed? 

One of the first poems I do with my class is a biography poem. Every year when we take pictures, Lifetouch always sends a strip of picture stickers for each student. I love reading the three adjectives students use to describe themselves the most!

Another favorite of mine is the rainbow name acrostic poem. I first saw the idea on Pinterest, but can't pin point who originally posted the idea. One of the reasons I love this acrostic poem is how it can easily be part of an adjectives lesson. This year I might switch things up by having students also do an acrostic poem about spring. 

One of the last poems we write is a formula poem. Each student writes a formula poem about a favorite thing. Of course one of my favorite things is a cupcake! First we study each of the five lines while we create a class example. Students create their own poem after our class example is finished. This poem I usually save as part of a writing station in April. 

What are you favorite ways to teach poetry in your classroom? Have a wonderful week!