Valentine's Day is a great excuse to change up your language arts lessons a bit. By having your students begin a unit on poetry and introducing some creative writing exercises, you will capture your their attention and bring a bit of Valentine's Day fun into the classroom.
Teaching Poetry for Valentine's Day
Valentine's Day is a great change to teach the students poetry. Many students think that poetry must rhyme. This is not true, and there are many fun types of poems that you can teach your students. One fun poem to write, is the Name poem. Take the child's name, and for each letter, write a line of the poem. So for example:
Sue
Smartest girl in the fifth grade
Understanding even the difficult topics
Easy going with lots of friends
You can also teach students to write a Haiku. This is another type of poetry that does not rhyme. A Haiku is a Japanese form of poetry that describes something. The first like has five syllables, the second line has 7 syllables, and the third line has 5 syllables. An example of a Haiku is:
Valentine's Day Candy
Sweet and colorful
Chocolate and candy hearts
Treats for my sweetheart
A third kind of poem that is great to teach students is the Diamente Poem. This poem has five lines. The first line is a word that tells what the subject of the poem is. The second line contains two adjectives that describe the subject. The third line contains three action words relating to the subject. The fourth line is two more adjectives describing the subject and the last line is another word for the subject, or a synonym. An example of a Diamante Poem is:
Valentines Poem
Candy
Sweet, Chocolate
Tasting, Eating, Enjoying
Sugar, hearts
Treats
Creative Writing Exercises
When the students arrive at school on Valentine's Day, have a large paper heart on their desk. For students who need a modification for writing, draw lines on the heart to guide their writing. The morning assignment can be whatever simple writing prompt you decide to use. Here are some writing prompts that relate to Valentine's Day. Use these paper hearts to decorate the classroom.
With a shoebox, create a mailbox in the classroom. Decorate the shoebox with wrapping paper and cut a slit in the lid so students can slip papers into it without opening the box. Then tell students that they are to write a positive note about each student in the classroom over the next week and place their note anonymously in the box. You may have to teach them what it means to be anonymous. Then, either read all the notes during a class meeting on Friday, or spend a few minutes each day the next week to read a few.
Valentine's Day is a holiday celebrating love. Poetry is the language of love, and thus it is the perfect time to teach a variety of forms of poetry in the classroom. Use the opportunity to also come up with other creative ways to get your students to write more. Any activity that has students practicing their writing skills will be helpful.
You may be interested in other Valentine's Day Activities.
Jennifer Wagaman - Jennifer is a mother of 2 and has both public, private and administrative experience in the education field.
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