I love poetry!!!!

I love poetry in the classroom! Poetry does not have to be a separate unit of study, confined to one part of the school year.  Infuse it into everyday classroom routines to enrich learning!!

This post is about how I use a poem a week in my room.  I have been doing my poetry like this for 3 years and it works like a charm!!  Very predictable, which both teacher & students like!!

Each week, my team and I selects a word family and word chunk to focus on.  I choose my word chunks from my "Chunking Words" pack.

Next, I get out my 2 nifty poem books:

I decide which poem I want to use (wd. family vs. chunk).  Next, I go to my sentence strip boxes (where I keep all my poems) and find what I need.  I have 2 boxes...one for word families & one for phonics chunks.  I love these boxes by Trend, bc they come with dividers.  I divide my word family poems by vowels.  No wasting time scrambling for a poem!

I put up the poem on Friday after school.  One of my boards holds this poetry pocket chart all year.  

On Monday, I introduce the new poem during phonics and we talk about new vocabulary.  We also look for rhyming words with highlighter tape.  I like the wide kind for sentence strips.  I read the poem aloud to students on the first day.

As the week progresses, we re-read our poem every day.  The kids know when they have free time, they can grab a pointer and practice.  

On Friday, I give out individual copies (from the poem book) and students "butter" or highlight chunks, word families, sight words, etc...and color the picture.  As they are  doing this, I walk around and ask students to read their poem to me.  *I obviously don't get to hear everyone every week, but that is ok!*

Once finished, students put their poems into their poetry folders (3-prong folders with about 10 plastic sleeves inside).  These are kept in their book baggies and are taken out for practice during quiet reading time.  Click here for some free poetry folder labels to slap on the front!

As part of my writing curriculum, I do teach a poetry unit (typically in April).  It's appropriate for K-2 and is Common Core-based.  Click the cover pic to take a peek!!!  I hope you enjoyed my post!!

You can purchase all of my writing workshop units in a discounted, bundled set by clicking the cover below.  

xo
Megan