Fifth Grade Is Fun: April 2011

We love to party around here so when we finished our state assessments and did quite well, I decided it called for a party. I was tired of all the same old parties we have had over the years...movies...games...extra recess etc. I decided that since all these kids talk about are video games and music then we should celebrate that by having an electronics party. I allowed the kids to bring any handheld games they had as well as games for those systems to school. They could also bring i-pods, i-pads, cameras or Wii games (this was thanks to a parent that hooked up their Wii to a dinosaur of a TV we have in our hallway). The only thing I wouldn't allow was a cell phone, I didn't want to mess with texting and they were completely fine with that. I have a parent that works at a movie theatre and one that works for Hostess so we had popcorn and snack cakes to eat, played games, listened to music and according to the kids, it was the best party ever! I will definitely be doing this again. I must also add that I am the reigning Just Dance 2 champ in the classroom...just sayin...

Since we just finished our state assessments I decided to take a break from the norm (which lately for us has been preparing for the tests) and do some poetry. It is National Poetry Month after all. We are also pulishing books and I thought it would be fun to make them poetry books.
When I went through my poetry file I picked my favorite poems and worked it out so that we did one or two a day so that they have a lot to choose from for their books. Here's what we did.

Who am I poem? This is a twist on a biopoem and a great way to start. I did biopoems at the beginning of the year so this was something different. I plan on making this the first poem in their books.
If I Were in Charge of the World. I take this poem by Judith Viorst and we make our own version of it replacing most of the nouns with things that pertain to themselves. It is fun and easy.
Acrostic. I know, I know, they have done a million acrostics, but since I was having an "All About Me" poetry day, I decided to have them make an acrostic poem about themselves. It turned out nice and I think that next year I will have them make an acrostic poem about another classmate as well.
Cinquains. These are easy, fun and something loved by all. I let them choose any topic they wanted just as long as it followed the rules of the number of words for each line.
Couplets. I gave them the topic of "food" for their couplet poems and told them it had to be at least 6 lines. We did one together where I showed them how to use the Rhyming Dictionary (if you don't have on of these, they are a MUST for any classroom). Then, to display them I had them create the food using construction paper and write their poem on top of it. They look great displayed in the hall. P.S. this takes a long time to do. Which can be a good thing. :-)
Haikus. These are super easy once you get the kids to get away from making each line a complete sentence with a subject and a predicate. They did a good job focusing on nature and making sure the three lines had the appropriate number of syllables I just had to send a lot of kids back to fix lines that sounded too much like a story. They are so used to making everything perfect it is hard to break that habit...temporarily. When we were done writing, I let them paint a picture to go with their haiku with water colors and after it dried, they wrote their poem on the painting. This wasn't in my lesson plans, but they turned out great and make a great display in the room.
Preposition Poems. These poems consist of nothing but prepositional phrases except for the last line which can be anything they want. We did these when we learned about prepositions, but they are so easy to write I am going to have them write one for their books.
Feeling Poems. I didn't get to these and I am a little disappointed. But they are easy to write. They just choose a feeling and then the first line they relate that feeling to a color then they use similes and compare that feeling using each of the 5 senses and the last line is what that feeling/emotion feels like. (see sample below) It is also super easy. Next year.....

I love doing poetry. It is a good way for the kids to be creative and you can learn a lot about them by reading what they write about. We are working on our books this week so that I can send them off to be bound next week. I can't wait to see the finished products. Below are some samples.

Couplet Poems