An Acrostic Poem

Do you have reluctant writers in the house? Maybe you can entice them with an easy assignment: an acrostic poem about themselves because, you know, it's pretty easy to write about ourselves.

1. Have them write their names vertically on a sheet of paper.  

J

A

N

E

S

S

A

2. Ask them to write descriptive phrases of themselves for each letter. Janessa's looks like this:

Jr is my nickname that my dad gave to me when I was little. It stands for Janessa Renae.

A crazy human being (that can sometimes be annoying)

Never has, never will like going to bed

Eats lots of baked oatmeal because it is very "rumbly to my tumbly"

Sugar is what I like best because it is good to eat but it is not good for you.

Shopping is fun to do with Grandmom because she gets me anything I want.

An actress

3. You have a choice here. You can accept the acrostics "as is," or you can encourage your writers to go beyond the first phrases spilled out on paper, revising some or all of the lines to make them more descriptive. Some kids will be open to toying with their work after setting it aside for a day.

Others might need a little push to revise. For them, you can make specific rules. Let's think of a few possibilities.

• No word may be repeated.
• The acrostic must include at least one strong verb, adjective, and adverb.
• Include alliteration in one line.

A related idea:
Make an acrostic poem for something else you are studying. It could be a time period (Revolutionary War), a person (George Washington), a place (Pennsylvania), anything really.