Conversation Poetry

     The 3rd graders created a rhyming conversation poem between two characters. They were to create dialogue between an animal and a person: brave knight and a fire breathing dragon, fairy princess and teeny mouse, safari guide and a proud lion, wicked witch and an itsy bitsy spider, creative cook and a flopping fish, silly clown and a peppy poodle, lucky fisherman and a sneaky shark, ringmaster and a dancing bear, zookeeper and a hairy gorilla, and a dairy farmer and a cow. Once the partners were established, the students created a rhyming poem in a conversation format. It took a lot of work to come up with the poem. The poetry organizer helped students stay on track with the characters of their conversation poem. Students were asked to reflect on what they think the character "person" might say to the character "animal". After writing the rhyming conversation poems, the students practiced reciting the poems using expression and voice changes to fit the character. The students were able to use props when reciting their rhyming conversation poems in front of the class. It was exciting to see how the students took on the role of the character they were portraying in the poem.

Conversation Poetry

This week we continued to focus on rhyming poetry, but we used a different type of poetry that enabled us to really interact with eachother and  bring the characters to life.  We did conversational poetry.  Before Mrs. Kneeland came, our class read the poem "Hey Daddy Long Legs!" and used it as a choral reading to introduce them to this type of poetry.  Students were then paired up and given an animal and a person (such as lion and safari guide, or knight and dragon, or princess and mouse, etc).  Together they worked on planning and writing a conversational poem about the two characters they were given.  Then the next day, Mrs. Kneeland came in and further developed these characters by modeling for them how to dramatize the poem.  We first showed them a short video clip from Finding Nemo, where different voices are heard for different animals.  We pointed out how a whale may sound in comparison to krill.  Then, Mrs. Kneeland read a snake poem stretching out her "s's" to make her poem sound like a snake may sound.  We reminded the students about using appropriate voice and gestures while performing their poem for the class.  The students then rehearsed and performed in front of the class.  After they did that, they had a chance to try on different hats/props from other animal/people.  It was great fun to see them scurry around trying out different hats and instantly "become" that animal/person!

A Conversation Poem

This week students focused their poetry skills on a conversation poem, a poem involving interaction between two characters. To prepare for the poem, students read "Hey Daddy Long Legs!" as a choral reading. I split the class in two groups. One group read the little boy's part and the other group read the spider's part. This helped students read and hear the rhymed responses between the two characters. The next step involved partners writing a conversation poem. Students were paired up and given a selected character/animal conversation poem planning sheet. This draft would then be acted out when Mrs. Kneeland visited. The 3rd grade team generated the character/animal ideas based on our own collection of props and masks. We wanted the students to get into their part as they performed for their peers.

Mrs. Kneeland focused her visit on preparing the students for their conversation poem readings. She started with a short clip from Finding Nemo, where Dori speaks whale. Then, she read a poem about a snake and she modeled body posture and voice. We utilized two anchor charts to remind students as they met with their partners and practiced the conversation poem. The first reminder was about voice (pitch, volume and speed), and the second reminder was about body (posture, gestures, and movement). Students were given the props right before their performance and it truly brought the dramatic side out during the poetry readings.

 

Rhyming Poetry Lesson

     The lesson we started with for our poetry unit with AIM was the use of rhyming words to write poetry. We watched a Sesame Street video clip to demonstrate how to rhyme words. The students made a connection to the familiar characters of Sesame Street. After watching the video and discussing the idea of rhyming words, students listened to Mrs. Kneeland read some poems by Shel Silverstein. She used expression in her voice to show a change in character and the mood of the poem. She also emphasized the rhyming words as she read them. Students were ready to do some rhyming on their own. Students were partnered up.  The first task was to have one partner choose an object out of a mystery bag and the other had to find the anchor chart that matched the object. The students had to come up with 8-10 words that rhymed with the object they selected from the bag. The objects in the mystery bag were a jet, ball, chair, car, pen, clip, bat, dog, ring, dice, and block. After the students generated a list of 8-10 words that rhymed with their object, they had to write a four or more line rhyming poem. The last word in each line was to rhyme with the object they selected from the mystery bag. The students did a pretty good job creating their poems. A few students needed extra attention to complete their rhyming poem. After the groups were done writing their rhyming poem, they practiced reading it, then shared it with the class. The "poets" seemed to enjoy sharing their new rhyming poems.

Rhyming Poetry

This week we spent time brainstorming many different word endings and ways we could make rhyming words with these endings.  We used what we learned during our literacy lessons prior to Mrs. Kneeland coming to help us write rhyming poetry.  We watched a Sesame video to introduce rhyming and then Melissa read a poem from Shel Silverstein.  She and I both wore berets and scarves to get into character of a poet.  Then the students got into partners and picked an object out of the bag (bat, ball, ring, plane, pen, dice, cube, car, chair, dog, clip)  and wrote rhyming words.  With that list, they created 4 line poems.  After they finished writing the poems, they practiced reading them together.  Last, they came to the front of the class to read their poem.  They are looking forward to next week when they get to wear berets and sunglasses and learn about poetry beat.  

Poetry Lesson: Rhyming Patterns

Lesson one started with a Sesame Street video. Students identified immediately with the familiar lead character struggling to find rhyming words. This short video was a quick way to get students warmed up for the rhyming story activity. Mrs. Kneeland also shared a Shel Silverstein poem. She changed her voice throughout the reading to emphasize the dramatic tone of the piece.

During the rhyming story, students partnered up. One chose a object out of the mystery bag and the other partner located the matching anchor chart for their rhyming list. Objects were simple (bat, ball, ring, plain, pen, dice, cube, car, chair, dog and clip) and most partners were able to complete a 10 words list during partner work time. The most challenging rhyme was the list for car. Students with some fishing knowledge rhymed gar with car! Once the list was generated, student partners then created a 4-line poem with their words. Walking around the room helped keep the young poets on task with the subject of their poems. Finally, partners practiced their poems and shared with the class.

Mini Unit on Poetry

Last week we spent time planning with Mrs. Kneeland about ideas for our poetry unit.  We brainstormed which types of poetry would work best for our idea of  adding "beat/rhythm" to our poems so we could "jazz" it up with some sunglasses and berets.  After doing some discussing, we decided that before she came to our class, we would teach some basics of poetry and begin with free verse.  The students have been listening to us read poetry and then writing their own poetry.  We gave the students a variety of poems to read and then they decided which poems they enjoyed reading the most and why that poem stood out to them as one they liked best.  We discussed a few different types and then started writing.  We wrote a shape/concrete poem, which they all liked to create because it was a picture and it was a very comfortable way to get them writing poetry.  We also wrote a cinquain poem which helped the students review adjectives, nouns and verbs.  We are looking forward to adding rhyme to our poetry and then eventually beat/rhythm.

Poetry Time

     Our next AIM project will be creating a lively poetry unit in Language Arts. The 3rd graders have been reading a variety of poems to identify that there are many ways to write poetry. We have been focusing on free verse poems. One of the free verse poems that we wrote was "If I were...would you be....?" The students were making connections between nouns. One verse from this type of poem might be; "If I were a basketball, would you be my hoop?" The students wrote poems that were anywhere from five to ten verses long. Another type of poetry that the students have been writing has been the shape/concrete poem. This type of poem is written in a way to make a picture of the thing being written about. Students used a wide range of ideas for this form of poetry. The third type of poem that we have been working on is the Cinquain. This poem has five lines. Line 1 has one word (title). Line 2 has two words that describe line one. Line 3 has four words that tell the action. Line 4 has four to six words that express the feeling, and line 5 has one to two words which recall the title. We will be working with Mrs. Kneeland this week on rhyming word activities to help us prepare for writing poems that rhyme. It will be exciting to see how the 3rd graders incorporate what they've learned about using expression when they read, as they write and read their own poems.

A New Poetry Path with the help of Mrs. Kneeland

We are switching gears mid-year from integrating theater arts into our Social Studies curriculum to making our Language Arts poetry unit come to life. So, in preparation for Mrs. Kneeland's arrival, students have been busy learning and creating a variety of poetic forms. They have written shape/concrete poems where the words take the shape of the topic of the poem. Students also focused on their five senses with a "winter" poem (what does winter look like, sound like, feel like, taste like, smell like). We also focused on writing If I Were, Would You Be poems. This type of poetry has students pairing nouns up and adding adjectives for extra details. We are currently finishing up our cinquain poems, where students are following a specific formula to complete their poem.
A cinquain is a five-line poem that describes a person, place, or thing. The first line is a one-word title, a noun. The second line is two adjectives. The third line is ending with-ing participles. The fourth line is a phrase. And, the fifth and final line is a  synonym for their title, another noun.

Winter Senses

If I Were, Would You Be...

Shape Poem