First Grade WOW, Windows on Wonder
Do you hate to teach poetry? Do you want your students to learn and enjoy poetry? Try these simple ways to learn how to teach poetry...
"First grade rocks / There's a lot to do!"
Poetry month is here and my students are letting their creativity fly! After teaching all the different types of poems with a structured lesson, I just let them go and have fun! They have been loving the freedom of poetry and they amaze me with their poems. During our Daily 5 my students are often […]
Wondering how to teach poetry to primary students in the kindergarten, first grade, and second grade classroom? Use the simple and effective ideas to make your poem instruction and lessons fun!
Poetry Notebooks: Free Printables and Daily Schedule Poetry Notebooks are an incredible tool to nurture the love for poetry and writing in children. By creating these fun notebooks, you can spark imagination and foster language development
Please Note: All images seen below are of my students artwork only. These photos/lessons are not posted in any particular order regarding the flow of my curriculum. Hot Air Balloon Collage Hot Air …
Are you looking for a fun way to reinforce teaching similes to students? Making simile monsters is always a huge hit! Students will create a fictitious monster and use similes to describe the 5 senses about their monsters. To hook students, I love to read the text Quick as a Cricket by Audrey Wood (affiliate […]
From turning snakes into spaghetti and clouds into cotton balls, writing poetry is absolutely magical! Students use their five senses and figurative language to create poems that break all the rule…
Do your young learners have poetry journals?! Mine do and we love them. The main question I have been asked in the past is what I put inside my journals and I created a resource to help answer that question. Most of the poems in our poetry journals are phonics poems, but I also […]
It's Five for Friday time again, so I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs on a Saturday because I'm always running late like that :)! I have lots of pictures
First Grade Writing Curriculum! This bundle contains 7 writing units for a FULL year of writing curriculum! Google Slides Version Included! KINDERGARTEN WRITING CURRICULUM AVAILABLE HERE! ****Join my private group, The Moffatt Girls-Engage Group, to see how other teachers, parents, and homeschoolers are using and organizing Moffatt Girl Curriculum and to see the FB LIVE for this curriculum! ***DOWNLOAD THE PREVIEW TO SEE THIS CURRICULUM IN ACTION Do you struggle with teaching your students how to write? Do you feel like you need more confidence and guidance in teaching writing? This First Grade Writing Curriculum has EVERYTHING you need to be successful with teaching writing! What Units are Included in the Bundle? Unit 1: Personal Narrative: Small Moments Unit 2: Non-Realistic Fiction: Showing Not Telling Unit 3: Writing to Teach & Inform: Engaging Teaching Texts Unit 4: Poetry: Exploring Poetry Unit 5: Realistic-Fiction: Developing Characters Unit 6: Opinion & persuasive Writing: Writing Reviews Unit 7: Non-Fiction Chapter Books: Organization Information Unit 1 Scope: Lesson 1 Research: Introduction to personal narrative Lesson 2 Planning: Topics I Can Write About Lesson 3 Planning: Choosing a Small Moment Lesson 4 Planning: Mapping the beginning, middle, and end Lesson 5 Writing/drawing to tell about what happened first Lesson 6 Writing/drawing to tell about what happened next Lesson 7 Writing/drawing to tell about what happened last Lesson 8 Revising: Adding details to my story Lesson 9 Revising: Using sounds and sight words to improve my story Lesson 10 Planning: Choosing a small moment Lesson 11 Planning: Mapping the beginning, middle, and end Lesson 12 Writing/drawing to tell about what happened first Lesson 13 Writing/drawing to tell about what happened next Lesson 14 Writing/drawing to tell about what happened last Lesson 15 Revising: Adding details to my story Lesson 16 Revising: Using sounds and sight words to improve my story Lesson 17 Proofreading my best story Lesson 18 Getting & giving feedback Lesson 19 Using feedback to edit my story Lesson 20 Publishing: Making a finished copy of my story Lesson 21 Publishing:Adding a cover and title to my story Lesson 22 End of unit celebration Unit 2 Scope: Lesson 1 Research: Introduction to personal narrative Lesson 2 Planning: Topics I Can Write About Lesson 3 Planning: Choosing a Small Moment Lesson 4 Planning: Mapping the beginning, middle, and end Lesson 5 Writing/drawing to tell about what happened first Lesson 6 Writing/drawing to tell about what happened next Lesson 7 Writing/drawing to tell about what happened last Lesson 8 Revising: Adding details to my story Lesson 9 Revising: Using sounds and sight words to improve my story Lesson 10 Planning: Choosing a small moment Lesson 11 Planning: Mapping the beginning, middle, and end Lesson 12 Writing/drawing to tell about what happened first Lesson 13 Writing/drawing to tell about what happened next Lesson 14 Writing/drawing to tell about what happened last Lesson 15 Revising: Adding details to my story Lesson 16 Revising: Using sounds and sight words to improve my story Lesson 17 Proofreading my best story Lesson 18 Getting & giving feedback Lesson 19 Using feedback to edit my story Lesson 20 Publishing: Making a finished copy of my story Lesson 21 Publishing:Adding a cover and title to my story Lesson 22 End of unit celebration Unit 3 Scope: Lesson 1 Research: Introduction to non-fiction and how-to books Lesson 2 Planning: What can I teach about? Lesson 3 Planning: Organizing my how-to book Lesson 4 Writing/drawing to teach step 1 Lesson 5 Writing/drawing to teach step 2 Lesson 6 Writing/drawing to teach step 3 Lesson 7 Writing/drawing to teach step 4 Lesson 8 Planning: Organizing my how-to book Lesson 9 Revising: Making sure my steps are clear and in order Lesson 10 Planning: Organizing my how-to book Lesson 11 Writing/drawing to teach step 1 Lesson 12 Writing/drawing to teach step 2 Lesson 13 Writing/drawing to teach step 3 Lesson 14 Writing/drawing to teach step 4 Lesson 15 Writing/drawing to create a materials list and cover Lesson 16 Revising: Making sure my steps are clear and in order Lesson 17 Proofreading: Checking sounds and sight words Lesson 18 Proofreading: Checking capitalization and punctuation Lesson 19 Getting & giving feedback Lesson 20 Using feedback to edit my book Lesson 21 Publishing: Making a finished copy of my book Lesson 22 End of unit celebration Unit 4 Scope: Lesson 1 Research: Introduction to poetry Lesson 2 Planning: Exploring adjectives Lesson 3 Planning: Finding words for my riddle Lesson 4 Writing my riddle poem Lesson 5 Revising: Refining my riddle Lesson 6 Planning: Finding words for my sensory poem Lesson 7 Writing my sensory poem Lesson 8 Revising: Refining my sensory poem Lesson 9 Planning: Finding words for list poem Lesson 10 Writing my list poem Lesson 11 Revising: Refining my list poem Lesson 12 Planning: Finding words for my acrostic poem Lesson 13 Writing my acrostic poem Lesson 14 Revising: Refining my acrostic poem Lesson 15 Planning: Finding words for my poem (open-ended) Lesson 16 Writing my poem (open-ended) Lesson 17 Revising: Refining my poem (open-ended) Lesson 18 Proofreading my best poem Lesson 19 Getting & giving feedback Lesson 20 Using feedback to edit my poem Lesson 21 Publishing my poem Lesson 22 End of unit celebration Unit 5 Scope: Lesson 1 Research: Introduction to realistic fiction Lesson 2 Planning: Choosing realistic topics Lesson 3 Planning: Mapping my story Lesson 4 Planning: Developing interesting characters Lesson 5 Writing/drawing to tell about what happened first Lesson 6 Writing/drawing to tell about what happened next Lesson 7 Writing/drawing to tell about what happened last Lesson 8 Revising: Adding details to show not tell Lesson 9 Revising: Using sounds and sight words to improve my story Lesson 10 Planning: Mapping my story Lesson 11 Planning: Developing interesting characters Lesson 12 Writing/drawing to tell about what happened first Lesson 13 Writing/drawing to tell about what happened next Lesson 14 Writing/drawing to tell about what happened last Lesson 15 Revising: Adding details to show not tell Lesson 16 Revising: Using sounds and sight words to improve my story Lesson 17 Proofreading my best story Lesson 18 Getting & giving feedback Lesson 19 Using feedback to edit my story Lesson 20 Publishing: Making a finished copy of my story Lesson 21 Publishing: Adding a cover and title to my story Lesson 22 End of unit celebration Unit 6 Scope: Lesson 1 Research: Introduction to opinion & persuasive writing Lesson 2 Planning: Developing a topic for my opinion Lesson 3 Planning: Brainstorming reasons that support my opinion Lesson 4 Writing: Drafting my opinion piece Lesson 5 Revising: Making my writing more persuasive Lesson 6 Revising: Using sounds & sight words to improve my opinion Lesson 7 Research: Introduction to reviews Lesson 8 Planning: Developing a topic for my review Lesson 9 Planning: Brainstorming reasons that support my opinion Lesson 10 Writing: Drafting my review Lesson 11 Revising: Making my writing more persuasive Lesson 12 Revising: Using sounds & sight words to improve my review Lesson 13 Planning: Developing a topic for my review Lesson 14 Planning: Brainstorming reasons that support my opinion Lesson 15 Writing: Drafting my review Lesson 16 Revising: Making my writing more persuasive Lesson 17 Revising: Using sounds & sight words to improve my review Lesson 18 Proofreading my best review Lesson 19 Getting & giving feedback Lesson 20 Using feedback to edit my review Lesson 21 Publishing: Making a finished copy of my review Lesson 22 End of unit celebration Unit 7 Scope: Lesson 1 Research: Introduction to non-fiction chapter books Lesson 2 Research: Choosing a topic & asking questions Lesson 3 Research: Getting information from a trusted source Lesson 4 Research: Using a second trusted source Lesson 5 Research: Using a third trusted source Lesson 6 Planning: Organizing my information Lesson 7 Writing: Drafting chapter 1 Lesson 8 Writing: Adding text features to chapter 1 Lesson 9 Writing: Drafting chapter 2 Lesson 10 Writing: Adding text features to chapter 2 Lesson 11 Writing: Drafting chapter 3 Lesson 12 Writing: Adding text features to chapter 3 Lesson 13 Writing: Drafting chapter 4 Lesson 14 Writing: Adding text features to chapter 4 Lesson 15 Writing: Creating a table of contents, glossary & bibliography Lesson 16 Revising: Making my writing easy to understand Lesson 17 Proofreading my book Lesson 18 Getting & giving feedback Lesson 19 Using feedback to edit my book Lesson 20 Publishing my book (day 1) Lesson 21 Publishing my book (day 2) Lesson 22 End of unit celebration How are the Units Designed? Part 1: Pre-Unit On Demand This quick writing task provides an an opportunity to assess prior knowledge. Use this writing sample to guide your teaching throughout the unit and measure growth. Part 2: Lessons Each lesson is broken up into 6 easy-to-follow parts. Focus- The skill, strategy, or idea students will be focusing on this lesson. Warm Up- A quick activity that has students review and practice previous skills. Mini Lesson- Teach, model, and discuss the new skill in today’s lesson. Practice-The hands-on portion of the lesson where students apply what they have learned in the mini lesson to their own writing. During this time you will conference individually with students. Mid-Practice Teaching Point-A quick reminder and chance to highlight the great work students are doing. Share- Lesson wrap up where students analyze, reflect on, and share their work. Part 3: Final Writing Piece The unit final writing piece is a published piece of writing that highlights everything the student learned in this unit. Part 4: Post-Unit On Demand This quick writing task provides an opportunity to assess progress and measure growth. What Does a Lesson Look Like? Depending on the time you have available for writing, I have
This week we celebrated Choose Respect Day at our school to combat bullying. It was a very powerful day which included Choose Respect t-shirts for everyone, a wonderful play put on by the Grade 6 class (I definitely teared up it was so great!), and a few adorable, thoughtful crafts! Check out the picts below! Students had to brainstorm positive ways to be respectful and decorate their t-shirt with them. Also, we made handprints with a cross in the middle. Black tempura paint, white acrylic paint, flourescent pink paper and squares of black construction paper were all that was required. They turned out beautifully. Thankfully, I had a lot of help with the hand print portion! Black paint is hard to get off! Thanks to the amazing crew of teachers and staff at St. Joseph School! We are an amazing team! This coming Monday my little nutty crew:) is in charge of the assembly. Our virtue is perseverance! It's a BIG word for grade 1 but they pull it off! We created some I Can poetry and read with the proper tone it is really cute!! I CAN paint. I can't read hard books, YET!! I can dance, I can ride my bike. I can sing. I can't whistle, yet!! You can learn about perseverance in my new packet of printables and activities. It features the activity above, as well as a T-shirt inspired craftivity like we did for Choose Respect Day! This is just a little hint as to what we have been up to for Career Day! More pictures and ideas to come in the next post! Stay tuned!!!
One of my projects this summer was to plan out how I wanted to teach sight words and phonics skills next year. My curriculum does not dictate what phonics skills we have to teach and which sight word lists to practice, so I came up with a yearly scope and sequence that I am pretty happy with! At the end of this post you'll find a link to a bunch of freebies. This chart is in there (and it's editable). I have set aside about 20 minutes a day for sight words, poetry, and phonics. It usually works out to be about 5 minutes sight words, 5 minutes poetry, and 10 minutes phonics. My plan is to teach five sight words a week. My word lists come from Dolch, Fry's, and a few randoms thrown in! The phonics skills are based on what I feel my students need to work on Grade 1. We spend the first few weeks reviewing the alphabet sounds (I like Beverly Tyner's sequence.) Then we move onto short vowels, silent E, digraphs, long vowels, blends, bossy R, and some diphthongs. Even though I teach this stuff whole group, I do spend time in my guided reading groups doing more focused work on sight words or phonics skills too, depending on the group's needs. Each week I display the five sight words of the week on this little board. I bought a little white board from the dollar store, added the title and some clipart, and stuck on five little Stikki Clips. (Have you heard of these things? They are pretty neat. I bought them from Really Good Stuff. Apparently they stick super well to cinder block walls!) Each week I just stick the words in the clips. Easy peasy! At the end of the week we retire the words to the word wall and on Monday we put up five new words. Here's a peek at what we do all week long with these words: On Monday we introduce the sight words and practice them using some free chants from Cara Carroll at The First Grade Parade. Then we make a little mini book. Students cut apart the squares, staple it in the corner, and then practice tracing each sight word and colouring it (or rainbow writing it). They keep these mini books in their book boxes for a couple weeks to practice the sight words. They can read them during "read to self" time. On Tuesday we make and break the words. I scramble up the letters in each word and we practice putting them back together. I do this on the Mimio, but you can just use magnetic letters. On Wednesday we play Guess the Word. It's like hangman. I put dashes up for each letter in the word and the students take turns guessing letters. I cross off the letters they guess and cross off a section of the picture each time they make an incorrect guess. There are ten different monthly themed pictures. I don't just use the words of the week--I take any word from the word wall! On Thursday we read the Mystery Sentences. I write five sentences that each have one of the words of the week in it. We read the sentences together and try to figure out the missing word. On Friday we play Swat the Sight Word. On the projector I display a page with the five words all over it. I choose two students, give them each a fly swatter, and call out one of the words. The students try to swat the word. I love this because there's not one winner; they can both find and swat a sight word! :) They love this game! **I don't have any of the Mimio files for you to download, but I have put a blank PDF version of the four activities (Tues-Fri) into the freebie file. You can import the PDF into Mimio or Smart Notebook and add your own text to create the activities yourself. I have also included my sight word books and an editable version so you can put in your own five sight words.** I keep all of my sight word stuff for the week in page protectors in my Phonics & Sight Words binders (blogged about this here). The sight word lists are three weeks of sight words. I use them during Word Work. I'll blog about this more later! I number the back of all my word wall cards so that at the end of the year I can easily organize them back into the proper week. After our sight word activity, we look at the poem of the week. I have poems from a variety of different sources, but mostly I use Deedee Wills' Poetry Station Packs. They are amazing! I place the poem onto sentence strips and display them on a large pocket chart. On Monday we read the poem together, on Tuesday we look for certain letters or phonics skills, on Wednesday we ready in different voices for fluency practice, on Thursday we highlight our word wall words in the poem, and on Friday we put the poem in our poetry folders. Sometimes we will highlight the word wall words in our folder or draw a picture to go with the poem. Then we have phonics time. On Mondays I usually introduce the phonics skill with a story, such as the Scholastic Phonics Tales. Then we brainstorm a list of words that contain that phonics skill on chart paper. On Tuesdays we usually do some sort of phonics activity. My students love Babbling Abby's Highlight a Word from her Word Work packs. On Wednesday we usually do a read and match activity together. These cards are from Reagan Tunstall's Big Phonics Bundle. I love this bundle! It has so many activities for so many phonics skills!! It is well worth the price. On Thursday we do another phonics activity... this might be a cut and paste activity or a read the room activity. I have so many things in my files from The Mailbox Magazine or other TpTers. I might also have a Phonics Read the Room pack in the works... but we'll see about that! ;) On Friday we usually play Roll & Cover or Roll & Write. I photocopy the black & white versions of these games onto coloured paper so we can play as a whole group. Then I place a few laminated, coloured versions of the game in our word work centres so students can play them again during guided reading time. I keep all of my phonics stuff for the week in page protectors in my Phonics & Sight Words binders (read about this here). The first five weeks of school are a little bit different for phonics because we are reviewing our alphabet sounds. We still do sight words each work (although the very first week of school we just focus on our names) and we do a poem of the week, but each week we focus on five (or six) letter sounds. I like to use Beverly Tyner's sequence. (If you haven't read any of her books, check out Small-Group Reading Instruction. It's really great!) I'm planning on using activities from my new Alphabet Practice pack. Each week the activities are the same, but it focuses on a different set of letters. The first week is BSMAC, then TDLRI, JGHON, PUQWY, and lastly ZXEVKF. On Monday we will practice the sounds that each letter make by chanting "b says /b/, m says /m/, etc." We sometimes add an action to go with it, like biting an apple for /a/ or bouncing a ball for /b/. Then we do a card sort in the pocket chart. We will sort the picture cards based on their initial sound (or final sound with X). On Tuesday students will do a colour code activity. They have to write the initial letter of each word, then colour the picture using the colour code. Great practice for those colour words as well! Then when they are done, they can play Spin to the Top. They spin an uppercase letter and practice tracing the letters. When one letter reaches the top, they win! On Wednesday we do a read the room activity. I place 12 cards around the room. Students find the card and write down the letter the word starts with beside the correct number. When done, they do a letter search on the back. They circle and count each type of letter and write number beside it. Great for identifying letters in different fonts! On Thursday we do a cut and paste sort. Students have to glue the correct lowercase letter and two beginning sound pictures beside the correct train engine. Then when they are done, they can play Roll to the Top. They roll a die and practice tracing the correct lowercase letters. When one letter reaches the top, they win! On Friday we play a game. Either small group beginning sound BINGO (included in my Alphabet Practice pack), Roll & Cover, or Roll & Write. Check out these products by clicking the pictures below. Well I hope that gives you some good ideas for teaching sight words, poetry, or phonics! Click the picture below to download some of the freebies from this post.
Another center that is really popular in my class is Read, Visualize, Draw . It's a great way to practice visualizing while reading, which...
Are your students struggling with word choice and writing? Use these 8 types of poetry to unleash their creativity and engage readers and writers.
April is Poetry Month so I thought I would share a bit about how I use Poem of the Week in my classroom. If you read through to the end, there’s a FREEBIE waiting for you! When I first started with a new poem each week, we would just read the poem each day and then […]
A collection of different poetry lessons, activities, and projects, plus a TDA essay, digital escape room, and final test!
Cultivating a postive classroom community is such an important part of teaching, and I've learned that little things go a long way. The Best Part of Me writing activity is a great community builder!
I have to admit - I was never a fan of poetry. In the words of my students, I just didn't "get it." That all changed my junior year of high school. I had what in most of my classmates' minds was the toughest teacher in the school. She certainly wasn't "warm and fuzzy," but she pushed us and challenged us. I fell in love with poetry in her class because she was able to open my mind to it. Sign of a great teacher. When I told my students that we will complete a unit on poetry this year, there were groans aplenty. That just wouldn't do for me - so I worked to create a poetry unit that they would be excited about. We started out reading a lot of funny poems (Shel Silverstein was a favorite), but we also read a lot of classic poems by Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, and Langston Hughes. The Langston Hughes poems worked SO well since we were studying the Harlem Renaissance in social studies. Cross-curriculum instruction at its best! I taught them the parts of a poem and rhyme schemes, and we had poetry readings - snaps and all! Lots of fun was had by all, but I just wanted them to go a little deeper. Since I only fell in love with poetry once I was able to fully understand it, I had to teach my students to do the same. Cue annotation. I think as teachers of elementary students, we are often a little apprehensive to introduce concepts like "annotation" because they are still young and you just never know how students will perceive a difficult concepts. They ALWAYS manage to surprise me! To teach annotation, I introduced the poem, The Wind Began to Rock the Grass by Emily Dickinson. The students read the poem to themselves, and then I read it out loud to them. Of course, when I asked them what they thought the poem was about - many were unsure. I told them that we are going to annotate the poem, gave them the definition, and then we dived right in. I read the poem stanza by stanza again, but this time we defined words, asked questions, and made comments on the left hand side. On the right side of each stanza, we wrote a one sentence summary. As we defined words, we talked through the words and used context clues. It's amazing how intuitive fifth graders are. They can always figure out the meaning of a word (even though they don't always believe in themselves). We worked through the first three stanzas together, and then I let them complete the last two on their own. As you may guess, they excitement began to build as the poem drew to a close. The light bulbs went off, the choirs began to sing, the end of the tunnel was in sight...you get the idea. Students were SO EXCITED about the fact that they now understood the poem so clearly! This certainly ended up being one of those "it worked!" lessons. Here is another example with the poem, A Bird Came Down by Emily Dickinson. The next day, I asked students to work in partners and gave them a new poem to annotate. I was very impressed with their work, and they were able to see the purpose of annotation and understand why it helps them become better readers and writers. I learned a good lesson too: start annotation at the beginning of the year! :) I use a PowerPoint Lesson and Interactive Notes to teach this entire unit. The lesson teaches students how to annotate slide by slide! Happy Teaching!
Make your writing mini-lessons for the year successful! Follow a writer’s workshop lesson from beginning to end. Monthly writing lessons for Kindergarten, first grade, and second grade.
Additional artwork below!! This easy and fun 2 day art lesson focused on the elements of art; Line, Shape, Color and Value. Students also learned about a new watercolor resist technique using rubbe…
I LOVE making charts! Step into my classroom and you’ll probably say, “Wow, someone has too much time!” but to be honest, I don’t! I just love them so much and love the w…
This post shares 7 engaging poetry activities for upper elementary students that can be used all year long + a FREE Poetry Puzzle!
In this language arts worksheet, your child will read two poems aloud and then compare the two by answering questions about the structures, rhyming pairs, and language in both.
Math About Me, Back to School, Freebie
This week I introduced visualizing to my little ones with a super easy and powerful lesson! Visualizing is such an important comprehension standard in primary grades! As our students delve […]
Hi, all! Long time, no blog. This quarter has been a crazy one full of extra-curricular activities, illness, and big decisions. I’m back today though because I COULD NOT WAIT to share with you about our classroom poetry café! We’ve been planning this for weeks… My students worked extremely hard all ... Read More about Classroom Poetry Slam
This free printable PDF lesson plan for Robert Frost’s poem
Do you have students who struggle writing poetry? I always have several each year. A few activities that have been extremely effective with both struggling writers and those who love creating original poems have been the more "hands-on" activities. When your students are struggling writing, have them: 1. Write "chance" poems. They choose pre-selected words and put them into any order they wish. I have had students who hate to write come up with some amazing poems this way. The retail kits for magnetic poetry (which is practicing chance poetry) are pretty expensive. You can create your own using a digital kit, or simply cut words from newspapers and magazines (see below). I had students make these years ago and store them in plastic bags. ONLINE ACTIVITY: They can create their poems using an online program like the one found on MagneticPoetry.com. 2. Create a "Dada" poem. "Dada" poems stem from the Dadaism art movement of the early 20th century. The anti-establishment movement often parodied art, or perhaps "found" art in everyday objects and images. Whether you consider their works art or not, they certainly paved the way for modern movements. One "Dada" poem your students can create is to draw words from a bag at random. As they draw them, they place the words in the poem in the same order as drawn. That's it. When they want the poem to end, they stop drawing words. A second "Dada" poem is a "sound" poem. Your students can create a poem using only sounds and record it for the class. Most of the sound poems created during the Dada movement were nonsense, not really words at all. However, beat-box artists practice a form of this, and while it may be nonsense, it's still interesting and can be catchy. ONLINE ACTIVITY: Students can use the website Incredibox to mix different beat-box sounds. 3. Have your students create "redacted" poems. "Redacted" poems are similar to "chance" poems, except they cross-out (or redact) words on a page, rather than pick and place the words. I've seen many beautiful examples on Pinterest using book pages. However, articles from a newspaper or magazine work just as well. (See my examples below.) Students can either use markers or colors to cross-out the words they do not want to include, or use white-out/liquid paper. The samples shown here came from the following publications: Entertainment Weekly, Car and Driver, MacLife, and Helzberg Diamonds. For reluctant boys, provide them with a short advertisement from one of their favorite magazines. Many of my male students like hunting/fishing, sports, and cars. When given a short grouping of words about something they like, they'll most likely enjoy it. The only problem I consistently face with them is keeping it school appropriate. Girls typically write more about love and heartbreak. I have found jewelry ads to be most effective for them because they will contain more words like "love," "sparkling," and "irresistible." All of these activities are featured in my "Poetry 9-1-1: First Aid for Writing Poetry" packet, which also contains over 40 formulas for writing original poems. You can also get the presentation Write Like Poets that has students write parody poems and many other formulas while learning more about famous poets and movements. I recently updated it with redacted poem page activities. And if you are looking for additional poetry resources, I have over 35 poetry downloads, including many freebies. Click on the links below to check out my teacherspayteachers store.
