How did last week’s poetry writing challenge go for you? We were very casual and one evening around the dinner table we made up similes about our day. I had hoped to get the boys to write down their acrostics, but instead we turned them into songs! Let me tell you, my youngest was ecstatic about singing a song about himself!
If you are new to the poetry writing challenge, you can find the introductory post about how it works in last week’s post here. And in case you are in any doubt about how flexible the “writing” part of the challenge is, re-read the opening paragraph of this post.
If you prefer a poetry reading challenge, or wish to double down on poetry awesomeness, you can find the entire reading challenge from last year in this post.
Poetry writing exercise #1
Write a sentence using alliteration.
What is alliteration? Alliteration is when closely connected words begin with the same letter or sound.
The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,
The furrow followed free;
– Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”
And one your kids may already know:
Luke’s duck likes lakes. Luke Luck licks lakes. Luke’s duck licks lakes. Duck takes licks in lakes Luke Luck likes. Luke Luck takes licks in lakes duck likes.
– Dr. Seuss, Fox in Socks
Extension activities:
- Remember, you don’t have to do any physical writing. Alliteration is a great oral exercise and even toddlers and preschoolers can get involved.
- Read or recite nursery rhymes and look for alliteration.
- Read a few favorite rhyming books and have the kids point out alliteration examples. Once kids start looking they will be amazed at how often it is used!
- Walk around the house or the neighborhood and describe objects using alliteration. “Big building.” “Green grass.” “Peculiar pet shop.” Challenge older kids to come up with more elaborate phrases.
- Print out our lunch bag note tongue twisters (which use alliteration).
Poetry writing exercise #2
Write a 5 senses color poem.
Choose a favorite color and write one line for each of the five senses. For example:
Yellow looks like sunshine.
Yellow smells like ripe bananas.
Yellow tastes like lemon drops.
Yellow feels like fuzzy chicks.
Yellow sounds like crunching corn.
Extension activities:
- Illustrate your poem.
- Challenge older kids to create longer descriptive lines, using alliteration. “Yellow tastes like luscious lemon drops lazily melting in my mouth.”
- Memorize the poem and recite it.
- There are many ways to write a color poem. Check out these ideas from The Measured Mom’s color poem, Pragmatic Mom’s 2nd grade color poem, and these wonderful color poetry books at Sturdy for Common Things.
MORE:
- Non-boring poetry books to make you love poetry
- 8 ways to use poetry to bring joy to daily life
- 14 poetry writing ideas
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