Rhyme Time: National Poetry Month Activities for Students
‘Twas the first day of April when all through the halls, teachers read rhymes that bounced off the walls. They introduced their students to National Poetry Month activities and cheered at how easy it was to plan the festivities.
The students were eager, sitting up at their desks, while teachers shared curated articles, videos, and text sets. The lessons were perfect and the students engaged. Your class can be too, just try it today!
Explore the wonderful world of poetry
Use the month of April as a chance to help students dive deeper into the intricacies of rhyme with Newsela’s ELA poetry collections:
Poems by type and form
Explore the different types and forms of poetry with selections from classic and contemporary poets, like:
Haiku: “Fog” by Carl Sandburg
Limerick: “There Was an Old Man with a Flute” by Edward Lear
Lyric poem: “Autumn” by Emily Dickinson
Narrative poem: “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe
Ode: “To Autumn” by John Keats
Sonnet: “Yet Do I Marvel” by Countee Cullen
Assign a haiku project
After your students read about the different types of poetry, have them practice writing their own! Assign a haiku project to get them thinking like poets:
Share an article about the history of the haiku and its significance to Japanese culture.
Use the resources included to teach students how to write a haiku poem and follow the 3-5-7 syllable rules.
Provide sample themes to spark students’ interest as they write. Common haiku topics include friendship, loss, challenges, love, and courage.
Poems by literary device
Teach students about the language that makes poetry creative and unique with selections that feature literary devices like:
Alliteration: “Nothing Gold Can Stay” by Robert Frost
Couplets: “A Visit From St. Nicholas” by Clement Clarke Moore
Figurative language: “Dreams” by Langston Hughes
Hyperbole: “Picking Words from the Dictionary” by Mary Quattlebaum
Metaphor: “March” by Jennifer Cole Judd
Onomatopoeia: “The Bells” by Edgar Allan Poe
Personification: “Because I could not stop for Death” by Emily Dickinson
Simile: “A Red, Red Rose” by Robert Burns
Repetition: “We Fish” by Herman Melville
Rhyme: “Sympathy” by Paul Laurence Dunbar
Rhythm: “Drifting Flowers of the Sea” by Sadakichi Hartmann
Playing with language in poetry
Poetry can be one of the most playful types of writing. Teach your students more about the different types of wordplay and forms poems can take:
Explore how poets play with language through mood and tone, shape poems, and similes and metaphors in song lyrics.
Discover the different forms poetry can take through well-known works like William Shakespeare’s sonnets or “The Great Colossus” narrative poem inscribed on the Statue of Liberty.
Give examples of silly, wild wordplay with funny poems like Lewis Carroll’s “Jabberwocky.”
Famous poets
Teach your students about the people behind the rhymes by introducing them to famous poets and lyricists like:
Langston Hughes
Edgar Allan Poe
Phillis Wheatley
Joy Harjo
Bob Dylan
Emily Dickinson
Gloria Anzaldua
Exploring identity through poetry
Students can learn a lot about poets from their biographies but also from reading the works they write. Use these resources to explore the concept of identity through poetry:
Watch interactive videos to learn more about the lives of poets like Maya Angelou and Emily Dickinson.
Discover how musicians can also be poets by reading about Bob Dylan’s Nobel Prize in literature.
Read about former National Youth Poet Laureate finalists and what their experiences and identities contribute to the field of poetry.
The impact of poetry
Many poets use this craft to express their thoughts and feelings when going through challenges. Teach students about the impact poetry has on people and society as a whole by:
Watching poet Cleo Wade’s TED Talk to see how bravery, expressed through poetry, can change the world.
Seeing how poet Naomi Shihab Nye has used her passion for environmental activism to create art.
Discovering young people like Alyssa Gaines and Amanda Gorman, who are changing the world with their words as National Youth Poet Laureates.
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Connecting poetry and nature
Nature is a popular poetry topic thanks to its beauty and cycle of change. Teach students about the connections writers make between nature and poetry:
Share poems with key nature themes like “Season of Change” by C.L. Clickard or “On a Rainy Night” by Jill Esbaum
Take a critical look at the interpretations of Robert Frost’s popular nature poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.”
Learn more about how poet and teacher Naomi Shihab Nye inspires young people to explore nature and the everyday world around them through poetry.
Poetry in the world
Poetry exists in places beyond the page. Use these resources to explore other places your students may find poetry in the world:
Introduce the concept of “found poetry,” which encourages people to look for poems in everyday writing like recipes and receipts.
See how South Korean poet Moo-Dae has been sharing his public poetry on Korean streets and subways for over 30 years.
Explore how Texas poet Robert Blanco combined city murals and poetry to speak up about racial injustice in his state in 2019.
Novels in verse and narrative poetry
Not all poems have to be short, four-line rhyming stanzas! Introduce students to narrative poetry and novels in verse with these novel study selections:
“Love That Dog” by Sharon Creech
“Solo” by Kwame Alexander
“The Crossover” by Kwame Alexander
“The Poet X” by Elizabeth Acevedo
“Madeline” by Ludwig Bemelmans
“The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros
“The Canterbury Tales” by Geoffrey Chaucer
“The Iliad” by Homer
“The Odyssey” by Homer
Connect with emotions through poetry
One of the reasons poetry is so popular is because of its connection to and expression of emotions. Use these Newsela SEL lessons as add-ons to Newsela ELA to help your students learn how to express what they’re feeling through words and art:
SEL and poetry
Turn your poetry lesson into a four-part social-emotional learning course for elementary, middle, and high school students:
Session 1: Help students learn how to use poetry as a social-emotional tool to identify their emotions and take responsibility for their feelings and behaviors.
Session 2: Analyze how poets use their craft as a means of self-expression and what poems share about the writer’s identity.
Session 3: Explore the lives and works of socially aware poets and how they use that social awareness as inspiration for their art.
Session 4: Investigate the ways poems can raise awareness about social issues and become voices for change.
Building community through slam poetry and emotional voice
Slam poetry is a special type of poetry that incorporates writing, competition, and performance together to create the final product. Use this lesson to:
Learn about WordSpeak, a teenage spoke word poetry program in Miami, and how it helps young people develop their craft.
Compare and contrast elements and development of slam poetry with other types of poetry students have learned about, like novels in verse or haikus.
Host an in-class poetry slam event that encourages students to share their work and express themselves through art.
Discover historic eras of prolific poetry
Poetry has always been a popular creative outlet. But it’s been more popular in some eras and with some cultures and subcultures than others. Get into your Tortured Poets era with Newsela Social Studies and find text sets on topics like:
The Harlem Renaissance
In the 1920s, the Harlem neighborhood of New York City was buzzing with great artists, musicians, writers, and poets. Build background knowledge about the rise of poetry, especially Black poetry, during this era with resources like:
Seeing how the end of World War I changed the way Black Americans saw themselves and their future, and how it led to an artistic boom during the Harlem Renaissance.
Discovering how the Harlem Renaissance developed the community atmosphere necessary to create and produce such a large body of artistic work.
Learn more about jazz pioneers like trumpeter Louis Armstrong and how the rhythm of jazz music wove its way into the poetry of this era.
Literary works of the 1920s
The Harlem Renaissance boasted many different types of creatives, but writers and poets were a special group of their own. Explore more about the literary works of these and other 1920s writers with resources like:
A biography about writer and poet Zora Neale Hurston and her role as a central figure in the Harlem Renaissance.
An interactive video about poet Langston Hughes’ contributions to art and literature.
An article that explores how the opening of the National Museum of African American History in 2016 brought Langston Hughes’ poem “I, Too, Am America” back into the spotlight.
There’s more to explore with Newsela ELA
You don’t have to save all your poetry lessons for April. With Newsela ELA, you can explore these and other great resources any time during the school year. Not a Newsela ELA customer yet? Sign up for Newsela Lite and request your free trial to get a taste of Newsela’s premium differentiated content, engaging formative assessments, and real-time data.