Poetry Unit
UNDER CONSTRUCTION!
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This is a quick easy introduction to poetry for fifth graders. It shows one poem, and then some test style questions. The ideas is that it is for bell work or quick assignments to practice reading responses.
This poetry unit is designed for students to learn different forms of poetry, such as Haiku and Limerick, but mainly to be able to read and understand poetry. If you want some poetry examples for learning personification and metaphors, check out the Poetry page. It is simply a list of my favorite poems: some have vidoes to go with, some are just in PDF form. This page is designed for you to teach different forms of poetry in about twenty minute blocks per day. It is designed with the same format so you can skip around as needed.
Basic Conventions of Poetry
Before you teach this unit, your class should have a firm grasp on identifying syllables in different words, long and short. Also, they should be able to identify some rhyming patterns. So, I have a few activities here, with some historically significant poems, that can practice these skills with before we officially dive into poetry. These poems and lessons are provided by Mensa for Kids, a gret reference for both teachers and parents.
Biography
What a great way to start the year! Or have a nice display for a Back to School night or open house! Maybe have the kids write one in September and then one in May and display them both! I gave one fun example of Steve from Minecraft, one more serious example from my own life and one historical one (well, Elon Musk).
Limerick
Limericks are a very elementary way to start. I use some basic nursery rhymes to teach, but there are some more advanced limericks added at the end for fifth grade fun! Click on the link on the right for the full activity.
Couplet
A couplet poem is another eas\y way to start: It is one of the common forms of poetry across the world. There are eight pages here and two poems. This is designed so that a teacher can choose to do all in one day or one page per day. (At the end, you can choose to have the students write their own couplet, but I didn't include pages for that. This unit is all about reading poetry.)
Diamante
Diamante basically translates to "diamond." In other words, this is a shape poem as it will resemble a diamond when you are done.
Haiku
For the Haiku, there is a drawing of a cherry blossom at the end. The whole point of Haiku is to be simple: the power of minimalism. Here is even a guided drawing video if you wanted to take that route.
Renga
For the Renga, you first must teach Haiku. Renga is a partner Haiku. One person starts with a Haiku. The next person add two more lines of seven syllables each. Now it's a Tanka! The next person writes another haiku along the same theme and the next person adds two more lines of seven syllables. All the authors should have the same theme.
Cinquains
Cinquain poems were first develop by the American poem Adelaide Crapsey. (Yup. that was her real last name. Let the kids giggle.) So the Cinquians I use as the example is the first cinquain by this poet!
Free Verse
This section showcasing different ways to create rhythm.
Sonnet
These are bit more difficult and not exactly meant for fifth grade. However, that doesn't mean we won't try!
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