While learning about haikus I introduced the concept of syllables to students. We learned how to separate words into syllables using the clapping method and we had a class discussion about syllables. I also chose to show students this video which showed the way in which words are separated by syllables. Adding in a visual and audio video alongside my teaching allowed students to follow along with the video and view the way we separate words into syllables. |
After introducing the concept of creativity with my students we began to enter into what poetry is, and how we can use words to express our creativity and uniqueness. I encouraged students to use their poetry eyes when writing poetry in order to have the ability to look at things using their eyes, heart, and mind; something that poets do. After introducing the idea of using poetry eyes or poetry lenses when writing poetry we had a class discussion about ways this poetry lens will help us be our most creative selves. To engage our poetry eyes we read The Best Part of Me: Children Talk About Their Bodies in Pictures and Words by Wendy Ewald. After reading The Best Part of Me I told students that we would be re-creating this poetry book and writing poems about the favourite parts of our bodies. I chose to start my poetry unit with this book as many of the poems do not rhyme, so it gave students the chance to understand that poetry does not always need to rhyme or follow specific rules. This gave students the opportunity to experiment with words and write down their true feelings, without feeling the need to adhere to specific rules. I encouraged students to do their best work, as this is one of the poems that will be going in our final poetry portfolio that will be presented to our families at the end of our unit. By giving students examples of poems as well as giving them high standards to reach all students were able to write beautiful and creative poems about what they love about themselves. Prior to parent teacher interviews I created this bulletin board for parents to see. It was great watching parents read their children's poetry that was so personal and true.
After reading The Best Part of Me we read another book, Rock What Ya Got by Samantha Berger, illustrated by Kerascoët. I chose to read this book to students while they were still completing their Best Part of me poems, as I felt it was important to incorporate and teach self-love to students. Rock What Ya Got encourages students to be proud of their creativity and uniqueness and to appreciate and respect the differences we all have. It also teaches students that not everything is perfect, and if they are using their creativity and their poetry lens they will be able to write beautiful, creative and unique poetry. |
This is one of the two bulletin boards I created for my LA poetry unit in my PSII. While writing limericks I gave students leafs to write their poems on to create our poet-tree. This was one way I encouraged students to do their best work when writing their poems as this would be displayed for the whole school. It was great to hear the funny limericks students were able to write. |
While writing haikus we wrote a class haiku in order to introduce students to syllables, how to properly count syllables, and how to follow the haiku rules. This is the poem we created as a class. Prior to brainstorming we looked outside our window and wrote down different things we saw outside. We then used individual whiteboards to write down the words we saw prior to sharing possible haiku lines. It was great to work together and see what types of things the students thought of.
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