Teaching Poetry in 3rd Grade

Poetry in the classroom can be such a fun and engaging topic to teach and talk about! Today I am going to share with you a few poetry activities that will make students interested in poetry and the analysis of it.

The Introduction to Poetry in 3rd Grade

Introducing poetry can be quite fun with this simple activity! 

Students have heard about poems before, but they may not know all the elements or types. What you will do to introduce this concept is tell the students they have 15 minutes to write a poem. You don’t care what it is about or how it goes. You can have them do this alone or with a partner.

Then, you will actually talk about the elements of poetry and find those elements within their poem. If they don’t have them, they can add them.

Teaching the Elements of Poetry 

The different elements of poetry are essential when it comes to students understanding how to analyze poetry. But doing this is so easy! All you need to do is show an anchor chart of all the elements and explicitly teach them each element by reading a poem to them (Shel Silverstein is always a great place to start).

Then, allow them to read poems on their own and find the different elements throughout the poem!

Check out this book on EPIC to show students the different elements of poetry!

Teaching Poetry by Analyzing Real Poems

Once they know the elements of poetry it is time to teach them how to analyze and understand poetry. I like to give them the checklist in the picture below.

Then, we read through several poems together going over our questions.

Write Your Own Poems

You have to let kiddos write poems. They get so creative when writing poetry.

I like to have them start the week by writing a biography poem. But free verse poetry is the best way to let kids write poems. They can get so creative!

After allowing them to write a poem, partner them up and allow them to analyze each other’s poems with the checklist! 

Looking at Different Types of Poems to Teach Poetry 

The last part of teaching poetry is to look at all the different types of poems. There is a GREAT book on EPIC that teaches this for you!

I love for the students to do some independent teaching here. What they do is read through the book “How to Write a Poem”. Then, it tells them to write a poem at each stopping point. They can read the book and write the poems. When done, you can share their poems!

Find the book here!

The Poetry Party!

The best poetry activity there is, is the poetry party! 

• Students will have to prepare a poem for the poetry party.
• Allow each student to read aloud to the class the poem they created. Ask for donations of refreshments and pastries for students to enjoy while they listen.
• After each student has shared their poem, have them partner up. They will practice analyzing each other’s poems using the strategies that they learned throughout the week.
• Do this several times with different partners.
• Additional ideas: Add engagement by turning your room into a coffee shop and having a real life poetry slam. Let students use technology to type their poems and add pictures, make a class book of the poems and leave them in the library, invite parents in to listen to the poems, or go read the poems to a younger group of students.

Want this poetry week prepped and ready to go for you? Head here!