A Poem of Excuses

Who: Students in the elementary grades

What: Joining poet Bruce Lansky, children gripe, groan, and grumble as they write their best excuses for why they can't write a poem.

How: 

1. Show Lansky's poem to your students, so they can read it aloud and count the excuses. (It must have been one of those "terrible, horrible, no good, very bad" days to write a poem!)

Here is Lansky's poem:

I Can't Write a Poem

Forget it.
You must be kidding.
I'm still half asleep.
My eyes keep closing.
My brain isn't working.
I don't have a pencil.
I don't have any paper.
My desk is wobbly.
I don't know what to write about.
And besides, I don't even know how to write a poem.
I've got a headache. I need to see the nurse.
Time's up? Uh oh!
All I have is this dumb list of excuses.
You like it? Really? No kidding.
Thanks a lot. Would you like to see another one?

-Bruce Lansky

2. Set students loose to outdo Lansky's excuses with doozies of their own. If it helps to have a planning sheet, you can find one here.

3. Include your students' best excuses in the comments. I may need one or two of them if I ever have to write a poem.

Note: I found the original lesson here.

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.

Limericks

There was an Old Man with a beard,
Who said, "It is just as I feared!
Two Owls and a Hen,
Four Larks and a Wren,
Have all built their nests in my beard!
                                ~Edward Lear

Limericks appeal to kids because they are silly and simple to write. They appeal to teachers because they are an easy way to show rhythm and rhyme scheme.

Bruce Lansky, a children's poet, has a refresher course on limericks here.

These two sheets are good for introducing kids to limericks.

What can your kids do with their limericks?

• Add them to a book of poetry. (See more poems to try here.)
• Invite their friends to write some, too. Make a special-edition limerick newsletter.
• Write and illustrate several for a mini book. To lengthen the book, include the limericks of siblings, friends, and you. 
• Share them in the comments. 

Jabberwocky

 

I remember being introduced to Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky" in junior high. With its nonsensical vocabulary that still manages to tell a story, it is sort of hard to forget.  Are your students familiar with it?

In addition to reading this poem aloud, enjoying it for its genius, use it to generate discussion about parts of speech.  What do you think about the words in the first stanza?  Brillig?  Slithy toves? Gyre and gimble?  Are there clues to show us the function of these and the other words in the poem? Look for them with your students and figure out as many as you can.

JABBERWOCKY
Lewis Carroll
(from Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, 1872)

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
  Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
  And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
  The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
  The frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
  Long time the manxome foe he sought --
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
  And stood awhile in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,
  The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
  And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through
  The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
  He went galumphing back.

"And, has thou slain the Jabberwock?
  Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'
  He chortled in his joy.

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
  Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
  And the mome raths outgrabe.

Using Poetry to Teach Parts of Speech

 

Learn or review parts of speech by writing structured poetry.

Parts of Speech Poem 1

 

The Structure

Line 1 – one article (a, and, the) + one noun
Line 2 – one adjective + one conjunction + one adjective
Line 3 – one verb + one conjunction + one verb
Line 4 – one adverb
Line 5 – one noun that relates to the noun in the first line

An Example

An athlete *
Strong and sweaty
Pivots and shoots
Swiftly
Competitor

* This would be an excellent opportunity to talk about when to use "a" and when to use "an"  before a noun.

Parts of Speech Poem 2 

 
The Structure

Line 1: NOUN – whatever the poem is going to be about

Line 2: Three ADJECTIVES separated with commas that describe line 1.

Line 3: (3x) VERB ending in “–ing” and ADVERB describing what line 1 does, separated with commas.

Example: running quickly, jumping fluidly, racing urgently

Line 4: Three PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES, separated with commas

Line 5: INTERJECTION written with either an (!) or nothing if not as strong

Line 6: Free line with at least one PRONOUN in it

Line 7: Free line with at least one CONJUNCTION in it

Line 8: NOUN – write a synonym (word that means the same thing) for the noun in line 1.

An Example

God
Omnipotent, wise, gracious
Reigning gloriously, directing specifically, loving faithfully
Over all the earth,  before there was time,  at my right hand
Awesome!
My Creator and Sustainer
The One who made Heaven and Earth
Jehovah

Diamante

If your student wants to write a synonym diamante, the nouns at the beginning and end of the poem should be synonyms.

The Synonym Structure

Noun
Adjective, Adjective
Verb, Verb, Verb
Noun, Noun, Noun, Noun
Verb, Verb, Verb
Adjective, Adjective
Noun

An Example

Mother
caring, kind
nursing , assisting, guiding
teacher, adviser, counselor, caregiver,
leading, molding, supervising
tender, understanding
friend

If your student wants to write an antonym poem, the nouns at the beginning and end of the poem should be opposites, all the words in regular font referring to the first noun, all of the words in italics referring to the second noun. (Of course, the difference in font is only for clarity; the final poem will not have italics.)

The Antonym Structure

Noun
Adjective, Adjective
Verb, Verb, Verb
Noun, Noun, Noun, Noun
Verb, Verb, Verb
Adjective, Adjective
Noun

An Example

square
symmetrical, conventional
shaping, measuring, balancing
boxes, rooms, clocks, halos
encircling, circumnavigating, enclosing
round, continuous
circle

For a change of pace, you may want to let your student use this online tool for writing the poem.

Cinquain

The Structure

a one-word title (a noun)
two adjectives
three -ing participles
a phrase
a synonym for your title (another noun)

****

An Example

dessert
cold, creamy
eating, giggling, licking
cone with three scoops
ice cream

A graphic organizer and sample poems, including the one above, can be found here.

I'd love to see your students' poems in the comments!