National Poetry Month: Part 1

First of all, I LOVE co-teaching classes with the computer lab teacher. It makes projects like these run so much more smoothly.

For National Poetry Month, I wanted to incorporate Poem In Your Pocket Day and have students write their own poems. Our students have been working very hard this year on keyboarding skills: using home row typing and for younger grades, letter identification on the keyboard. We took all students to the computer lab for this part of the activity since I only have 12 student computers in the library.

Kindergarten students typed our school motto with a little added flair (mostly because it rhymed). After students completed the short poem, they were allowed to change the font! This was a huge incentive for students to work hard so that they would finish. They *love* getting to use "pretty" or "cursive" typing.



West is Best,

Better than the rest!

Each first grade class typed a nursery rhyme. Again, after they finished typing, they were allowed to change the font style and size.

For second graders, they have progressed a little further in their typing and spelling skills, so they created a Monster Poem using an online generator. We discussed adjectives and similes. The website provides examples next to the generator. When printed, there was a grayish box behind the poem. We decided to copy/paste the poem into a Word Document, and then students were able to change the font style and size.

Third and fourth graders worked within their Google account to create an acrostic poem. They utilized thesauruses and dictionaries to help them find describing words. Many used one word per line, but some students got creative and used rhyming phrases!

For fifth and sixth grades, we used Tagxedo, an online word cloud creator. Our tech club has also used Tagxedo to create a "digital footprint" and online safety posters. For National Poetry Month, students chose a shape and typed 10 adjectives or phrases that would describe their shape. There were so many creative and thoughtful concrete poems! I was truly amazed at what the students created.

Abe Lincoln

Coffee (he knows me too well)

Big Foot

 Batman

 Flower

 The lightning bolt took me a minute to figure out. 

 The Flash

 Aquaman

 Chess Piece

Cinderella

Rubber Ducky

This was one of my favorites.

Africa

This shape was difficult to see once printed, but after the student illustrated, it looked amazing!

I always ask students if they enjoy our lessons. Every student with whom I spoke said that it was one of their favorites.

Be sure to follow up in a few days for Part 2 of this project!