Tanka Time

Activity Overview

This activity continues our practice with poems, this time focusing on tankas. Like haikus, tankas give students a framework to write their poems and continue their practice with syllables. Providing a structure for students’ writing can be helpful, especially when writing poetry. The tanka takes skills the students have been practicing and applies them to a more complex structure. This activity also gives students a moment to reflect on their learning. Metacognitive work at this age is powerful in preparing students to become more reflective learners.

What You Need

• Taking Time by Jo Loring-Fisher on Epic

• Tanka Poem Template

• Markers, crayons, or colored pencils (paint and pastels are not recommended for this activity)

• Scissors

• Brads, hole punch, and yarn –or– stapler

• Optional: highlighter

Steps

1. Read Taking Time by Jo Loring-Fisher on Epic. Think about the rhythm of the poem. The rhythm is created by the author’s attention to the sounds in the words, the way the words “taking time” repeat, and the way the author has made the words rhyme.

2. Think about images that you have of a favorite memory. Have a discussion using the guiding questions.

3. Using some of the ideas you have discussed about your special memory, print the Tanka Poem Template to write your own tanka poem. If you would like to review syllables and how to count them to write each line in the tanka, try the Word Patterns activity first. To scaffold the writing task, consider doing just one or two lines each day. Grownups may want to use a highlighter to write the words that students want to use, then have students practice letter formation by tracing over the highlighted letters.

Note: If your student does not follow the tanka syllable structure exactly, that is perfectly fine! What is more important is giving your student the opportunity to find joy and humor in the creative process and exposing them to their persona as poets.

4. Stack each page of the template in order to create a book. Staple together or hole punch and use string/yarn or brads to keep the pages together. Cut the top section of instructions off so that only the student work remains visible. Illustrate the “blank sides” (the back of each page) to represent the lines that describe each part of the memory.

Guiding Questions

• How does the rhythm of the poem feel, and how does it make you feel? (soft, sleepy, peaceful, happy)

• What is a special memory that you have? How did you feel at that time?

• What is a keepsake? Why do we represent memories, and feelings of memories, with images or objects?

• What was the keepsake that each child kept? Do you have a keepsake from a special memory?

• Can you still feel the same feelings you experienced (even though that time has already happened)?