Poetry writing is...a piece of cake for kids!
All you've got to do is give them the rapturous recipe, and they'll cook.
Teach them to free-associate, use delicious adjectives and adverbs, repetition, alliteration, and a host of other poetic devices.
Then teach them how to go deeper, and explore the heart and personal emotions of their theme. Yes, even a five-year-old can go there...
Red/ Fire truck shiny honk/
Apple is/ a juiciest/ sweetest/ tastiest treat/ lipstick red it/ is sticky and
shiny/ perfumed chemical!
...and when they do, they'll see poetry everywhere, and share their glittering new world with you.
If you'd like 16 writing lessons that reveal the inner jazz in your kids, it's here: Free Verse Creative Poetry Lessons.
Teachers are poetry, too--despite long, hectic days of planning and showtime, tests and grading, working lunches and behavior glitches...or maybe BECAUSE of them, we NEED poetry.
Rebecca Gettelman is featuring teacher's poems on her blog--including yours truly, on April 15th and 24th.
I'm wishing you a world of poetry every day!
