Tip #132 from 365 Teacher Secrets for Parents (McKinley, Trombly) - Poetry Starters
Today's tip for parents from two talented teachers comes from 365 Teacher Secrets for Parents by Cindy McKinley Alder and Patti Trombly.
#132
Specific Poetry Starters
Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.
~ Robert FrostTry reading some fun poems by Jack Prelutsky or Shel Silverstein to get started. But don’t forget to also read aloud poetry by such great poets as Walt Whitman, Robert Frost, Ogden Nash (and others that you may enjoy) to expose your child to other types of poetry as well.
Another fun and motivational way to get involved with poetry is to begin with a specific “frame” on which your child can fill in her own words. On the website, you will find frames for three favorites: haiku, limericks, and cinquains.
Couplets are fun, easy to write, and great for beginners. They are simply two sentences that end in a rhyme. An example would be:
I saw a green frog.
He was asleep on a log.
Now, try a triplet and make all three sentences end in rhymes!
I saw a green frog.He was deep in a bog.
Asleep on a log.
Haiku (Hi-Koo) are 3-lined, Japanese poems, usually about nature, that try to capture a particularly profound moment in time. They are metered by the number of syllables in each line. Here is an example using the 5-7-5 word pattern:
The sweet raindrops danced.
Sunlight shone through gray clouds.
A rainbow was born.
Please keep in mind that it is the beautifully written words (the feeling being expressed) that should be the focus here, not the number of syllables the words contain. If your child is having difficulty with that part of it, forget it! Stop counting, and keep writing a haiku-like poem!
Limericks are 5-lined poems in which lines 1, 2, and 5 rhyme with each other. Lines 3 and 4 are shorter and rhyme with each other (a couplet!) but not with the others. They are usually humorous. For example:
There once was a monkey in a zoo.
But he didn’t know quite what to do.
He wanted to be free
To run and climb trees.
So, he escaped and ran to Timbuktu!
Cinquains are also 5-lined poems, but are set up like this:
Line 1- one word title: Dinosaurs
Line 2- two words that describe title: Extinct reptiles
Line 3- three words that express action: Roaming, eating, hunting
Line 4- four words that express feeling: I think they’re awesome!
Line 5- one word that renames title: Giants
Use some of her favorite poems (from free verse to something structured) to make Shape Poems. Simply rewrite the poem in the shape of the object it is about. Sketch the shape lightly in pencil first so she’ll have a guide.
● Try some of these ideas, and then make up your own.
● Write a free verse poem with your child about the current season.
● Write couplets back and forth to each other. (Or you start one, she writes the other half and vice versus.)
● Give your child one of the frames and work with her to fill in her own special ideas. Soon, it will be a fabulous poem all her own!
● Go outside, smell some flowers, and write a haiku about them together.
● Display her favorite poem that she has written. Help her to memorize it.
● Write silly limericks about each member of the family.
● Memorize together one of her favorite poems written by someone else. You do the same!
● Read aloud silly poems, serious poems, long and short poems.
Cindy McKinley Alder Patti Trombly
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