"Animal Poems"
Objectives
1. The students will learn what an acrostic poem is.
2. The students will see examples of acrostic poems and
be excited to write their own.
3. The students will be able to use vivid and colorful language.
4. The students will develop their creativity to write the poems.
5. The students will be able to apply information from one subject
to another.
Content
-In this lesson, the students will understand what an acrostic
poem is by looking at examples in the book Animal Acrostics.
The students will then use the information they have learned
about the animals they are researching in Social Studies class to
write an acrostic poem about that animal.
Resources
1. Book, Woodsong
2.
Book Animal Acrostics
Strategies
Activity 1
1.Let the students draw a game card for the racing game.
Have them move their game pieces accordingly.
2. Give them time to journal about how they are doing in the
game.
Activity 2
1. Read from the book Woodsong for about 20
minutes.
Activity 3
1. Ask the students if they know what an acrostic poem is.
Have them share their ideas.
2. Read the book Animal Acrostics to the
students.
3. After reading, complete their definition of an acrostic poem
by asking them if they having anything new to add after
reading the book. Make sure they fully understand what an
acrostic poem it is. Visit these websites for more
information. http://home.earthlink.net/~jesmith/Acrostic1.html
or
http://www.holycross.edu/departments/socant/dhummon/acrostics/acrostics.html#bychild
4. For practice, have the students write an acrostic poem using
their name. Encourage them to share these poems with a
partner.
5. The students have been researching animals that live in
Denali National Park in Social Studies (which was the
subject before Language Arts). Have them use the animal
they researched to write an acrostic poem. Encourage them
to use vivid and interesting language like David Hummon does
in the book Animal Acrostics.
Closure
1. Ask the students to share their poems with the class. Many
of them may not be finished with them, but encourage them
to share what they have completed.
Assignment
-Students will finish their poems at home and hand them in
tomorrow. After checking the rough draft of the poems, hand
them back so the students can write their poem on white paper.
Then have them illustrate their poem and hang in on the bulletin
board.
Extension
- Have students visit the websites listed about to find more
examples of acrostic poems. Encourage them to write a couple
more poems and send it in to a local magazine or newsletter to
be published.
Evaluation
- Check the rough
draft of the poems by checking to see if the
students used vivid language in their poems, creativity and correct
spelling in their poems.
- Give them a grade for their final draft. Check to see if they made
the necessary corrections, if the poem was creative, and if they
added a colorful drawing to go with the poem.
Lesson Plans Unit Outline Language Arts Lessons