Elementary School - Lesson Plan Ideas
Writing
- Have students write/compose their own song/song lyrics.
- Have students create funny metaphors and similes and draw pictures.
Poetry
- Get involved with local MFA graduate-run magazines for community outreach and contests.
- Read Shel Silverstein and Roald Dahl.
- Discuss what poetry is and can be with examples of stories and poems.
- Write ode poems to something silly (i.e. Pablo Neruda's "Ode to My Socks")
- Have your kids try blackout poems with newspaper, magazine clippings, or pages of children's books.
Reading
- Have students act out the story while others read.
- Have students draw the story on the board while reading.
- Have the students draw out their interpretation of the story on their own paper while it is being read.
- Have students do an art project in response to something they have read.
- Have students put on a play or puppet show about the story.
Links
- Open the Door: How To Excite Young People About Poetry: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/foundation/openthedoor
- The Poetry Archive - Classroom Collections: http://www.poetryarchive.org/teach
- Poetry by Heart (Educational initiative of The Poetry Archive)
- Black Cat Poems
- The Poetry Station
- The Poetry Zone - Publishes children's poems (UK)
- A Poem a Day for American High School Students (Library of Congress)