Give the Gift of Poetry

In my ebook, 101 Hands-On, Tried & True Homeschool Curriculum Ideas You'll Love! I devote a lot of space to creative writing and other types of writing activities. This is because it is vital for children to be encouraged to write whenever possible so that they learn to communicate effectively, and thus develop an essential, lifelong skill.

One area of writing that is often overlooked (or avoided intentionally) is poetry. Parents (even those who write) may feel ill-prepared to teach poetry writing, and children often have preconceived ideas about poetry: rhyming is too hard, poetry is silly, I don't like to read poetry, etc. It's time to rethink poetry, and begin to use poetry writing as a regular part of your writing program! Why? Here are just a few good reasons:

1) Poetry can be written about anything at all.
2) Poetry is short (compared to other types of creative writing, anyway), and therefore can take less time to write and to read.
3) Poetry doesn't have to rhyme, and often doesn't!
4) Writing poetry is fun!

The best way for children to learn to appreciate poetry is to read it to them! Start young with simple Mother Goose rhymes, which all children love. As a child, my favorite poem, read at bedtime of course, was Winken, Blinken, and Nod. Your children will also love Shel Silverstein's "Where the Sidewalk Ends," and "A Light in the Attic," and "The Giving Tree." Jack Prelutsky's "Something Big Has Been Here," and "The New Kid On the Block" will have them giggling and learning their favorite silly poems by heart.

Once your children have become familiar with poetry, they will likely have selected their favorites and, with a little encouragement, be willing to try writing similar pieces of their own.

To get started with poetry in your homeschool, find several great online teaching activities, strategies, lesson plans, and tools from poets like Jack Prelutsky and Jean Marzollo at Scholastic.com's Writing with Writers.

There are many different styles of poetry, inluding ballads, Haiku, limericks, sonnets, shape poetry, tongue twisters, and free verse. For some children, it's fun to select a few of these and try their hand at them, such as Haiku, odes, and especially limericks! In our case, we embarked upon a two-family book project:

We wrote and illustrated an entire book of silly limericks, which we called "Where the Sidewalk Begins" and dedicated to Shel Silverstein. After typing up all of our limericks and illustrating in black ink, we made enough copies of all pages (back and front) to make 20 or so books. Then we bound them in hard covers, onto which we had glued a crazy-fabric design, and we gave away the finished books (and sold a few).

Here is the dedicatory poem at the start of the book:

Shel

There once was a poet named Shel

Who had funny stories to tell

Of toothaches and sidewalks,

And battles and yippiyucks,

Which suited the children quite well.

Most of our limerick's subjects were family members and the special characteristics that made them stand out:

The Slop

There once was a boy named Nate

Who spilled every time that he ate.

At his home in the town

Paper towels abound

And his mother blots slop until late!

This was a wonderful project in so many ways! In all, our book contained 19 limericks. It was collaborative, so everyone of all ages from both families contributed writing and/or artwork. We learned book layout so that backs and fronts of pages would match up (tricky!). After copying all of the pages, we learned how to create a hard-cover bookbinding that wouldn't fall apart, found just the right fabric design to glue to the outside cover, and then we constructed the books, assembly-line style. The children were excited about "publishing" their own book, and had fun giving them away as gifts.

This brings me to the subject of Gift-Writing. In our last issue of the Hands-On Homeschooling Newsletter, I discussed the idea of presenting writing to others as a gift and several fun ways to do it. One year, my eleven-year-old, anti-poetry son finally relented and agreed to try his hand at poetry-writing. He decided from the beginning that all poetry must rhyme, so free verse was out of the question. I thought he was just making the project more difficult on himself, until, after a lot of hard work, writing and rewriting, and reassurance ("does this sound okay?"), he produced a wonderful poem, The First Christmas. It had to be shared! We typed it up and printed several copies on special Christmas stationary. Then he rolled them up (like a scroll), tied each with a red ribbon, and gave them away as gifts. His poem was even published in a local newspaper!

The best book I have ever found for kids learning to write poetry is Gonna Bake Me a Rainbow Poem: A Student Guide to Writing Poetry, by Peter Sears. It is a step-by-step guide to poetry writing that includes only poems written by students.

To get a copy of the complete article, "Gift Writing," as well as many other terrific hands-on ideas delivered free right to your mailbox, subscribe to Hands-On Homeschooling. Just click here and fill in your name and email in the left sidebar.

I hope this article has inspired you to include poetry-writing in your homeschool curriculum. My sponsors have helped to make this weblog possible:

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