How to celebrate world poetry day
World poetry day is fast approaching and it’s time for teachers to think of poem-based activities they can do with their class to celebrate it. World poetry day is on the 21st of March. The aim of the day is to celebrate poetry and inspire people to involve themselves with poetry. However, it can be quite difficult to think of ways to get children involved with poetry, especially with younger pupils.
To help you, we have given some tips on how to celebrate world poetry day that you can try out with your class.
Read rhyming books
This is a perfect activity for all pupils but especially for the younger ones. Pick out a few favourite rhyming books to read every day in the lead-up to the day. Doing this will introduce poetry to your pupils as they grasp the concept of how rhyme works, which is used in many poems. For younger pupils, choose 5 books to read on the week leading up to the day from our pack of 10 rhythm and rhyme books. You can let your class choose their favourites and leave the best to the day for something for children to look forward to.
Learn a poem
Challenge your class to pick a poem and learn it to recite back to the rest of the class. Memorising and reciting poems is a great skill for pupils to learn. It develops their memory and helps them to understand the meaning of the poem which prepares them for secondary school English. Encourage the shy pupils to memorise and recite a few lines. Let them know they aren’t alone as everyone is participating. Reciting poems is the best way to boost your pupil’s confidence too.
Read poetry as a class
A great way to celebrate world poetry day is to read poetry as a class. You can read some on the lead-up and on the day. Reading poetry together gives children an appreciation for poetry whilst learning how poetry works. Make sure to select various types of poetry. This helps your pupils to grasp how different types of poetry present themselves. They can also learn the characteristics of poems and can discover how to identify the type of poem from these.
Use our poetry bundle for pupils and yourself to choose from with various type of poems to read and learn from.
Create acrostics
The perfect way to start involving pupils in poetry is by creating acrostics. You can start with the word class, and for each letter in the word, pupils can find an adjective to describe their class. They can even do this with their name, choosing words that they feel best describes them. When they get into the swing of acrostics, challenge them with harder words to describe. By doing this, it builds up a little portfolio of different acrostics.
Write your own poem
One of the best tips on how to celebrate world poetry day is to get children to write their own poems. This can be a free-style poem where they can express their feelings and thoughts. They can also can base it around any subject they want. Allowing this lets them develop their imagination and creativity whilst providing an outlet for their emotions. You can create a poetry wall display where you can pin all the poems created to show off children’s work and give them a sense of pride. Doing this may start an interest and passion in poetry within some pupils.
Make a shape poem
Introduce your pupils to a different style of poetry through shape poems. These types of poems are written in the shape of the subject, so are visually appealing and adds some art to poetry. For example, if the poem was about butterflies, the words will be arranged in the shape of a butterfly. Or if it was about football the words will be arranged in the shape of a ball.
Show some examples of shape poems and allow children to have a go with a subject they love. For children struggling with the shape, they can use the examples and prompt them with easy shape subjects such as pizza. When they get used to shape poetry, they can then try their own subject and challenge themselves.
Create a poetry performance
Get children celebrating poetry by working together and putting on a performance together based on a poem. Split your class into small groups and assign them a different poem each. This allows children to socialise with other members of their class and develops their teamwork skills. Support each team with creating a performance based on the poem.
A great place to start is by discussing how they will perform the poem, such as each pupil taking on a role within the poem and acting the poem out. Or children can use the poem as inspiration and create a free-style piece. Once they have each practiced their pieces, get them to perform their poetry performance in front of the rest of the class.
Make a handprint poem
Pair poetry with some fun art by making a handprint poem. Children can write a poem based on their hands, such as describing them or about growing up. They can then dip their hands into some paint and transfer their handprint onto the paper. They can then decorate a border around the handprint and poem so that it can be displayed in the classroom.
Another way to do this is to transfer a handprint in the centre of the paper and the children can write a poem on the handprint. It can be about themselves as a person and how they see themselves in the future.
Compile a mini poetry book
This activity is a super fun way to celebrate world poetry day. Get pupils to create their own mini poetry book that they can write their own poems on each page. Give them some sheets or paper that they can fold over into a small notebook and staple together.
Over the week leading up to world poetry day, children can write a poem each day and illustrate it with colouring pencils. When the day arrives, they can share their poetry book with the class. You could read the poems out from each book or get the pupils to read them out.
Want some more creative tips for children to broaden their English skills whilst having fun? Check out our ‘creative writing tips for kids’ blog.