Since the STAAR Test is over, we started a poetry unit. This was my favorite unit last year, so I have looked forward to this all year. The Thursday after the test, I introduced the unit with a Prezi I created. You can view it below or click here see it.
After the presentation, we filled out the Forms of Poetry Chart that I found for free on Teachers Pay Teachers. You can download it here. Finally, I had my students look at poetry books that I had checked out from our school library, local library, and my some of my own books. They spent the rest of the class period exploring poetry.
The first type of poetry that we wrote was color poetry. I created a handout last year that I used to guide my students. For a copy of this handout, click here. We spent a day drafting, then they published their poems on a half sheet of computer paper and glued it to a half sheet of construction paper matching the color of their poem. You can see examples below.
I used a rubric I created to grade them. You can find the rubric here. We finished these poems on Wednesday and started Haikus the same day. I introduced Haikus with another Prezi, which you can find here and read some examples to the class. Then, we created ink blot paintings to use in writing our Haikus. I gave each student a half sheet of with construction paper. They could choose two different colors of paint. This year, I used neon tempera paint. They folded their paper in half, hamburger style. I put a drop of each color on their paper using paintbrushes. Then, they folded their paper back up and used their fingers to spread the paint around. We let the paint dry overnight.
On Thursday, the students used their painting to write a Haiku. I used a template I found online last year, but I can't remember where I found it. Any template will do. I had my students brainstorm ideas of what they saw and words or phrases that came to mind when they looked at their painting. I told them to be very descriptive and that they could not use any of our extinct words. Then, they began drafting.
On Friday, they finished drafting and began publishing. Again, they published on a half sheet of white computer paper. They glued their painting and their poem onto a piece of construction paper. Some examples are below.
I used another rubric I created to grade their Haikus. You can get it here.
We will continue our poetry unit this week, so I'll share more soon.
Labels: Color Poetry, Haiku, Poetry, Writing
