Objective - Students will listen to various poems on tape or CD in the poetry center and follow along with the poem or anthology to increase reading fluency.

Summary- Add a tape player with headphones to your poetry center. After students have completed the activity at poetry, then give them the option to listen to poems on tape or CD. Start with some of the funny poems, like "Giant Children." These funnty poems on tape will hook your students on poetry and motivate them to finish their work so that they can listen to some hillarious poems.

Implementation - My students have really enjoyed this. They even want to listen to poems when they have free choice centers. We have only been in school three weeks, but the word is starting to get around, about the funny poems that are in the poetry center. Soon I expect them to start asking to share their funny poems thereby increasing fluency.

Objective - Students will fluently read the poem with a partner, and alternate reading lines and act out the lines.

Summary- Find the book "Poetry Party" by Bruce Lansky and the poem "Say What?". Students will practice reading the poem over and over again. Then, in front of the class, they will alternate reading the lines in the poem and try to act it out also.

Implementation - The students loved this activity. They laughed and had a good time and read the poem very well in front of the class.

Objective - Students will read a poem as a class and in small groups unitl it is read fluently.

Summary - From the book Daily Poetry" and other poetry sources poems are copied on an overhead. These are read by the class on a daily basis for the week. The number of times read a day depends on the difficulty of the poem. Poems are chosen to go with seasons and holidays. Specific poems are also chosen to go along with topics in social studies or science. Specific skills can be picked out such as punctuation or rhyming words.

Implementation - Students enjoy reading the poems aloud. After a few days students are also able to and tone and inflection to their voices and follow the punctuation.

Objectective For the students to increase fluency skills and gain an appreciation for poetry.

Summary I began the year with a poetry journal. We write about all kinds of topics. Sometimes it has to do with holidays,sometimes we do haikus and sometimes what we write a poem about what we are studying. The children share their poems with the class at the end of the day.

Implementation My greatest reward is that the children enjoy reading their poems over and over again. they share them with classmates, reading buddies and parents. I think when we are done with this at the end of the year the children will actually keep this book.

Objective - Students will choral read a nursery rhyme Big Book or chart to gain accuracy in fluent reading.

Summary - Materials:  Big Book or large chart, nursery rhyme on printed on a worksheet. The teacher reads a nursery rhyme in a Big Book or on a large chart. Students choral reread theEa nursery rhyme. At centers the students decorate the nursery rhyme worksheet with art materials. Each day the students reread the poem, and learn a new poem. Use the poems for transition activities.

Implementation - The students compiled the five worksheet poems into a poetry book. The books were displayed and given to parents at OpeI n House. Parents were asked to have their children read the poetry books to them at home.

Objective - Students will develop fluency and expression by choral reading poems each day.

Summary - Begin each morning by choral reading two or three poems.   I display familiar poems on charts, the overhead, or document camera for the kids to read as they come into the classroom.   We read them together (with great gusto!) and each Friday morning add one or two more of the poems we are now quite familiar with to a notebook of favorites each child keeps.  Each child then creates a border around his/her poem with colored pencils.  Borders are mini pictures of details from the poem and I use that to reinforce finding the main idea and supporting details as well.  We conclude our notebook time by taking requests for favorites and reading them aloud once again!  Notebooks go home once a week so that each child can read and share poems with family. 

Implementation - We giggle, wiggle, exclaim and clap when reading poems!  Poetry reading is one of the best ways to develop confidence and fluency in young readers.  We also use it to reinforce many of the other five elements of reading.  By years end, each child takes home a collection of most loved poems for summer reading.  I have former students come back to me with their notebooks after having read selections to classmates in their current classes.   

Objective - Students will develop listening skills and practice visualization in poetry.

Summary - I read poetry daily as a part of my Morning Message.  I read Stanley the Fierce and told my students to think about Stanley and if they knew anyone like him.  When it was time for reading group I handed out copies of the poem and we read the poem together.  We brainstormed adjectives to describe Stanley, and we practiced reading the words.  I placed a large print copy of the poem in my Illustration Station along with colored pencils and crayons and border paper.  Each child was directed to go to the station when it was his/her turn and to draw a picture of Stanley.

Implementation - The results of this exercise was absolutely hillarious!  The students could not wait to have their turn at the Illustration station and everyone seemed to have a good story about a "Stanley" in their lives.  We will follow up with writing about the "Stanley" in our lives using the Process Approach.

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Objective - Students will use the fluency skills, expression and prosody, to read a poem to a partner by using different voices to convey feelings.

Summary - A poem with dialogue was placed on the projector. We used poem titled "The Missing Cookie". The poem was read aloud to the class. The class then practiced as a whole group. Students were then paired in partners and asked to take turns reading the poem with a different emotion or character in mind.

Implementation - This was a fun activity that naturally lent itself to a discussion of prosody and how punctuation really guides how we should read new and unfamiliar texts.

Objective - Students will use poetry to improve fluency and prosody.

Summary -Model reading poetry to the students. Choose examples from various authors. Students choose a poem and practice with a partner. Tape record each child reciting a poem. Students share the tapes and even check them out to take home.

Implementation - The students loved this activity. Exchanging the tapes was fun.

Objective - Students will read a sentence that contains an idiom and try to use context clues to figure out the meaning of a word.

Summary - As a morning eye opener, I have displayed two idioms for the day that we've studied. They have been able to solve the figurative meaning of the idiom by using the vocabulary strategies that we also use with Open Court words. We discuss the meaning and the origin of where the idiom actually came from. (I use the Idiom book from Scholastic--great book!)

Implementation - The children love doing the idioms. I know it's not poetry, but it is figurative language, which poetry can incorporate. They have gotten really good at using the clues to figure out the meaning and I've noticed that they are also getting better at using context clues with our Open Court Vocabulary words that they wouldn't know otherwise. I think it helps them to feel more comfortable guessing the meaning of a word without feeling pressured to be right.

Objective Develop students' understanding of synonyms and antonyms.

Summary Students pick a short song and rewrite it using as many synonyms and antonyms as possible.

For example: Twinkle, Twinkle, Litttle Star could be Glimmer, Shimmer, tiny star. Students share their songs.

Implementation This was a fun activity. The students even enjoyed singing their songs. Since they identified if an antonym or a synonym was changed in the song, they could better distinquish the two.

Objective - Students will incorporate their knowledge of descriptive words

in the writing of limericks.

Summary - Introduce the concept of limerick and identify the characteristics of a limerick (1st, 2nd, and 5th lines end in rhyming words, etc). Instruct students to use adjectives to make their limericks more descriptive. Reinforce with several examples of limericks, highlighting the previously discussed characteristics. Provide a list of possible limerick beginnings, but encourage students to develop their own if possible.

Implementation - I did this activity with sixth graders, and they were very

enthusiastic. The humorous nature of limericks was appealing to them. It

was helpful to have a list prepared of possible limerick beginnings. That

helped avoid the block that some students develop when they have difficulty

getting started.

Objective - Students will work in pairs to memorize and present a poem

Summary - Students will be divided into groups of two (or three where necessary).  Each pair will be assigned a "bug poem" from the book Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices.  I will have typed each poem on a sheet for the students, and the poems are clearly split with lines for each person, some alternating, some in chorus.  Students will have several days to practice together, not just memorizing the poem, but planning how to present it dramatically with inflections and gestures.

Implementation - We had fabulous presentations from this lesson.  I was pleasantly surprised at how even seemingly shy students were willing to ham it up.  Perhaps having a partner helped.

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