Poems

Last year my students got a weekly poem to glue into their language arts journal that they would have to do different things with. One year I had them write a sentence or two about the poem, last year I had them practice visualizing what was happening in the poem and draw or describe it in their journal.  During summer school I saw how powerful poems are with teaching students reading and fluency. 

This is our first poem that we added(also our calendar time song) to our journal. Because it is only week one, I only had my students glue it in their journal and color the days of the week. 

This year I decided to make my poem a part of my daily language arts routine.  Each day of the week, my students will be responsible for working with the poem in different ways.

Monday: glue in journal, read the poem 3 times to practice the words and rhythm of the poem

Tuesday: write about the poem in their journal. Students will make connections, describe their favorite part, write what they learned, ect.

Wednesday: fill in the missing words, letters, punctuation (depending on the week and lessons during the week)

Thursday: students will draw a picture to illustrate the poem ( to practice visualizing and understanding)

Friday: practice reading with fluency and expression

I am hoping to get this weekly schedule started by the end of September. This stand is a bathroom shelf stand that worked perfectly for holding my poems on chart paper. I decided to use both sides of these,f to hold my poems. On one side there is a math poem and in the other side, it is a holiday poem or a reading poem.  This is something new that I am trying in my class this year.