This post details how to teach poetry writing for kids. It describes the steps to teaching this style of poetry, from the discussion to the planning, to the display piece — a lesson for your primary classroom for poetry month or during your poetry unit.
How-To Teach Biography Poetry to Kids
You might wonder why it is beneficial to teach poetry writing to kids. I ask why not? Children are never too young to be exposed to poetry. I have childhood memories of my father reading poetry nightly, and I still vividly remember the poems and how they made me feel.
Poetry allows us to have new experiences and to make sense of our emotions. It can connect children to literature that other resources cannot. Studying poetry has turned a struggling reader in me into a lover of literature who still reads, shares, and actively teaches poetry today.
Table of Contents
- How-To Teach Biography Poetry to Kids
- Introduction to Bio Poetry Writing for Kids
- Poetry Writing for Kids Resources
- More Poetry Ideas and Activities
Why teach poetry writing to kids?
Poetry teaches children to visualize and experience things in their imagination. Poetry geared for children often rhymes and is fun to read. It is crucial and can be used to teach children to read, write, listen, and speak.
Chanting poems together with a class can be an enjoyable experience. I teach a different poem of the week that we repeatedly read to build our reading fluency. We discuss the lyrics, how they make us feel, and what thoughts they provoke. Read more about our poem of the week activities and the poems and activities we use throughout the year.
Poetry writing helps children who may find creative writing difficult. Poems follow patterns and have a structure that children need and find comforting. After building confidence through poetry writing, it can be a gateway to different styles of writing. It also allows children to develop their vocabularies, word use, and grammar.
Introduction to Bio Poetry Writing for Kids
Before teaching a specific style of poetry writing, I like to share poems from my favorite children’s poetry. I have collections of poetry on display from the authors Shel Silverstein, Jack Prelutsky, Denis Lee, and many more. My absolute favorite children’s poem of all time is Alligator Pie. I learned it as a young girl and taught it to my class each year.
To start our bio poetry writing lesson, I read a book by Jamie Lee Curtis called ‘Today I Feel Silly & Other Moods That Make My Day.’ This book is excellent at eliciting character trait vocabulary. We share our connections and brainstorm the different words on a chart.
Planning Bio Poetry
To teach kids the style and form of bio poetry writing, I created an anchor chart to complete together. We went line by line, giving and sharing ideas with our neighbors on the carpet and then orally to the class. I wrote down one idea as an example. This chart is helpful for students needing extra support with their writing.
Biography Poetry Writing for Kids
Students get a blank planning sheet to write their bio poems. They write about themselves at their desks using the template seen below. This template is available for free at the end of the post.
Before the initial activities, stories, and examples, students are relatively confident and independent in writing their poetry drafts. For a lot of writing with young children, usually, one draft is enough, but with poetry writing, I like to have a way of writing a polished, edited piece and creating a display.
Creating a Bio Poetry Display
As a display for our bio-poems, we re-wrote our poems on a folded white tagboard to look like an envelope. To create the same look, cut large squares in heavier card stock and fold the corners inward. Students are taught to use a ruler to draw straight lines of the appropriate length. They copy their edited poems on the lines inside of their envelope shape.
After re-writing their poems, they trace their writing with skinny markers. They decorate the outside of the envelope shape with designs of their creativity.
It creates a unique display when they are up on the bulletin board. The bio poetry writing display is titled ‘Who I Am!’ and invites readers to take a closer look inside.
Students feel great success and see themselves as poets after this activity.
Poetry Writing for Kids Resources
Free Biography Poetry Activity
Try a biography poem in your classroom with this FREE Biography Poem resource! It includes everything you need to teach bio poems, including brainstorming, drafting, & writing sheets.
Click the image below to grab a copy.
Poetry Writing Unit
Try the Poetry Writing Unit by Proud to be Primary. Easily teach over 20 poetry vocabulary terms and 13 different types of poetry with this all-in-one resource for teachers! Find helpful planning sheets, practice pages, engaging templates, and posters!
If you like this resource, you’ll love my poetry activity mats and poem of the week.
More Poetry Ideas and Activities
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FREE Poetry Email Series
Sign up for the poetry email series filled with tips to get you started, strategies for success, and tons of FREE poems and poetry writing tutorials you can access right away. Everything you need to have fun and build reading skills with poetry!
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