Tag: Writing Prompt

Interested in poetry?
Learn about alliteration using this poetry activity for kids, adults, and everyone in-between!

A. Introduction to Alliteration:
Have you ever tried to say a tongue-twister? Can you say this one?

She sells seashells by the seashore.

Think it’s difficult to say this singularly silly saying?

When two or more words start with the same letter or sound, it’s called an alliteration.
(I just adore amazing alliterations! Don’t you?)

Here are some more examples:

1. Alexander the armadillo ate absolutely amazing apples and ants.
2. Beehives buzz and babies blow bubbles.
3. Caroline cried because she couldn’t catch cantaloupes.
4. Daryl didn’t do anything daring, did he?

These are silly examples, but alliteration can also be used beautifully in poetry to make it sing.

B. A Sunny Alliteration Poem
Our activity today will use alliterations to write a poem about the sun.

1. Write down all the words you can think of that have to do with the sun. For example:
   hot
   big
   shines
   beautiful
   etc.
   Bonus points if you think of “s” words!
2. Now see if any of those sun words can be changed to a word that starts with “s.” For example, the word “hot” can become “simmering,” and the word “beautiful” can become “spectacular.” Change as many as you can without help.
3. (optional) Now see if you can change even more by using a thesaurus!
   What’s a thesaurus?? A thesaurus is a big book full of words that helps you find a different word that means the same thing. If I wanted to find another word for hot, I would look it up in my thesaurus and I might find words like scorching, sizzling, or boiling. If you don’t have a thesaurus on your bookshelf, you can use an online thesaurus. Type in your word and see what you find!
   http://www.thesaurus.com/
4. Okay, do you have your list of s words that have to do with the sun?
   It might look a little like this:
   

   
   hot               scorching, sizzling
   beautiful    spectacular, superb, stunning
   big               substantial

    

5. Now we write the poem!
   A few notes:
   
   ~This poem doesn’t have to rhyme or have a meter. It can just be free-form (See my example if that didn’t make sense. Notice how my poem doesn’t rhyme?)

   ~In this kind of poem, the first word of each line does not have to be capitalized. Use capital letters the way you would use them in a normal sentence.

   ~Each line can have one word, or many words. Play with the spacing! You have complete freedom.

   ~Not every word has to begin with “s.” If you need a few extra words to tie it together, that’s okay!

    

6. Below is an example of what your poem could look like. Mine is pretty short, having used a short word list, but feel free to make yours longer! You could make it silly, super simple, or more serious. Experiment with different groups of words too. The sky’s the limit!

Sun
Spectacular,
striking,
sizzling,
stunning,
shining on
my skin,
shining in
my soul—
sun.
~Hannah Spuler

Pleased with your poem? Share it in the comments or post it on my Facebook page so we can all read and enjoy them!

 

Hungry for more? Check out this week’s…

Poem Study: Bear in There, by Shel Silverstein

Advanced Poetry Lesson: Ballads, (Week 1 of 2)

 

Interested in poetry?
Combine rhyme and meter using this fill-in-the-blank poetry activity for kids, adults, and everyone in-between!

A. Review: Rhyme

Remember the lesson about rhyming?
These are examples of words that rhyme:

stop, hop, lop, plop

Need a refresher on rhyming? Click here.

B. Review: Meter

Remember the lesson about meter?
Here are two lines that have four beats, or stresses:

Twinkle, Twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are.

Need a refresher on meter? Click here.

C. Fill-in-the-blank poem

Below is a fill-in-the-blank poem where the basic idea and structure is there and you get to fill in the blanks! This poem has a strong meter as well as an AABB rhyme scheme (lines 1 and 2 rhyme with each other and lines 3 and 4 rhyme). If the word is at the end of the line, make sure you keep the rhyme scheme. Give it a try!

(Title)

My       (noun)       is/are cold
And my       (noun)       is/are old.
My       (noun)       is/are hot
But my       (noun)       is/are not.

My      (noun)       is/are blue,
My      (noun)       too,
But not my       (noun)     ,
Because it’s/they’re       (noun)        .

I have a       (noun)       
And he/she/it has a      (noun)      .
I/We        (verb)       outside
But I/we        (verb)       inside.

My      (noun)        is tall,
My      (noun)        is small,
And that is all,
My friend.

The End.

 

Simplified definitions:
Noun: a person, place, thing, or idea
Verb: an action word

Hungry for more? Check out this week’s…

Poem Study: The Brook, by Alfred Lord Tennyson

Advanced Poetry Lesson: Odes, Week 2

 

Interested in poetry?
Combine rhyme and meter using this activity for kids, adults, and everyone in-between.

A. Introduction: Nursery Rhymes
Can you finish this phrase?

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great—

Did you get it??
Okay, now how about this one?

Jack be nimble, Jack be quick,
Jack jump over the candle—

And this one?

Little Boy Blue, come blow your horn,
The cow’s in the meadow, the sheep in the—

How did you do?
If you grew up with nursery rhymes, you probably could have filled in all those missing words in your sleep, and even recited the rest of the rhyme. If you grew up speaking English, chances are, you knew at least one of those nursery rhymes.

You also probably knew that nursery rhymes were made for children. But have you ever stopped to think about why they are so easy to remember?

Any guesses?
(Drumroll please…)

They rhyme! (Probably why they’re called nursery rhymes.) Take the first example…

Jack be nimble, Jack be quick,
Jack jump over the candlestick.

They also have a simple meter:

Jack be nimble, Jack be quick,
Jack jump over the candle stick.

(Not quite sure you understand? Look at these past lessons: rhyme, meter)

B. Write your own nursery rhyme!
Let’s use some classic nursery rhymes and change them slightly to make them into new poems! During this activity, watch for the rhyming words and the meter!

1. Read the poem
2. Fill in the blanks to change the meaning and make it as silly (or serious) as you like
3. Make sure you keep the beat (stresses) the same as the original poem or may end up sounding a bit funny!

Original:
Hey Diddle Diddle, the cat and the fiddle,
The cow jumped over the moon.
The little dog laughed to see such a sight
And the dish ran away with the spoon!

Fill in the blanks to write your own poem!
Hey Diddle Diddle, the _______ and the fiddle
The __________ jumped over the moon
The little __________ laughed to see such a sight
And the __________ ran away with the spoon

Original: 
Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow?
With silver bells and cockle shells, and little maids all in a row.

Fill in the blanks to write your own poem!
________ _________, quite contrary, how does your ________ grow?
With silver ________ and _________  ________, and little _________ all in a row.

Pleased with your poem? Share it in the comments or post it on my Facebook page so we can all read and enjoy them!

C. Extra Challenge: A Nursery Rhyme From Scratch
To write a nursery rhyme, come up with either:
1. A lesson to teach children (aka, How to Count, or Why Kids should Eat Their Veggies) or
2. A simplified story from history  (aka, The Noble Duke of York)

See if you can come up with four lines of the poem, where the first two lines rhyme and the second two rhyme. See what you can create, and don’t forget to share!

Hungry for more? Check out this week’s…

Poem Study: My Shadow, by Robert Louis Stevenson

Advanced Poetry Lesson: Odes (Week 1 of 2)