Description
What our Poetry (Grades 1-3) lesson plan includes
Lesson Objectives and Overview: Poetry for grades 1-3 engages the imagination of young students while developing reading comprehension and critical thinking skills. At the end of the lesson, students will be able to read various forms of poetry and identify rhyme and structural elements of poems, identify descriptive and figurative language in poems that create word pictures for readers, create rhyming poems, acrostic poems, and bio poems, and use descriptive language to compose a poem that creates a word picture.
Classroom Procedure
Every lesson plan provides you with a classroom procedure page that outlines a step-by-step guide to follow. You do not have to follow the guide exactly. The guide helps you organize the lesson and details when to hand out worksheets. It also lists information in the green box that you might find useful. You will find the lesson objectives, state standards, and number of class sessions the lesson should take to complete in this area. In addition, it describes the supplies you will need as well as what and how you need to prepare beforehand. The supplies you will need for this lesson are writing utensils, paper, the handouts, materials for reading, art supplies, sample poems, markers or chalk, chart paper, and decorations and snacks for the closing of the lesson. To prepare for this lesson ahead of time, you can gather the supplies and copy the handouts.
Options for Lesson
Included with this lesson is an “Options for Lesson” section that lists a number of suggestions for activities to add to the lesson or substitutions for the ones already in the lesson. The suggestions for this lesson provide a guide for which parts of the lesson you can administer on which of the three days scheduled for the lesson. For example, for day one, it suggests having students learn the format and key points of persuasive essays. Students will also work through an outline one day one.
Teacher Notes
The teacher notes page includes a paragraph with additional guidelines and things to think about as you begin to plan your lesson. It notes that poetry can be challenging and intimidating for students. This lesson focuses on learning not only the format of poetry, but also its purpose and how to enjoy writing and reading it. This page also includes lines that you can use to add your own notes as you’re preparing for this lesson.
POETRY (GRADES 1-3) LESSON PLAN CONTENT PAGES
The Poetry (Grades 1-3) lesson plan does not include any content pages. Rather, it provides a very detailed lesson plan, found on the three Classroom Procedure pages.
POETRY (GRADES 1-3) LESSON PLAN WORKSHEETS
The Poetry (Grades 1-3) lesson plan includes four worksheets: two activity worksheets, a practice worksheet, and a homework assignment. You can refer to the guide on the classroom procedure page to determine when to hand out each worksheet.
RHYMING WORDS ACTIVITY WORKSHEET
For this activity worksheet, students will first create lists of rhyming words for a selection of words (ham, light, fish, fly, hairy, and sleep). Next, they will choose one list of words and create a four line poem using rhyming verses.
WORD PICTURE ACTIVITY WORKSHEET
This activity worksheet asks students to create their own word picture. The worksheet includes an example poem. Students will choose a topic from a given list, complete five sensory brainstorming boxes, and then write a short poem that helps readers “see” the place they’re describing.
ACROSTIC POEM PRACTICE WORKSHEET
The practice worksheet asks students to create an acrostic poem using a word that has between five and twelve letters. The worksheet includes an example acrostic poem. Students will choose their own word and then will write their acrostic poem, where the first letter of each line spells the word they chose and each line relates to the topic.
POETRY (GRADES 1-3) HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT
For the homework assignment, students will create a bio poem and a self portrait. They will use the provided template to plan their poem, and then will write the final version on the blank lines. They will also draw a self-portrait and include a photo of themselves. The template includes prompts like “Your first name” and “Child of: (Write your parents’ or guardians’ names)”.
Worksheet Answer Keys
This lesson plan includes answer keys for the activity worksheets, the practice worksheet, and the homework assignment, though all of the answer keys simply note that students’ answers will vary. If you choose to administer the lesson pages to your students via PDF, you will need to save a new file that omits these pages. Otherwise, you can simply print out the applicable pages and keep these as reference for yourself when grading assignments.
