Poetry - End of Year Reflections Poetry Writing lesson

Hello friends,
It is Term 4 down here in New Zealand and we are all winding up the end of our year with final assessments due soon, Term 4 reports to write and wrapping up our year in general. Two years ago I came across a poem in this School Journal.

This great reflection poem by Maria McMillan, jumped out straight away as a creative way to sum up our year.

And here is a close up of the words:

Aren't they great - you can just picture the year's learning events unfolding through the words. I decided to use it as a model text for my Year 4's and reflect on the year that was. Everyone published their poem digitally as I was teaching a 1:2 digital class at the time. Once we finished, I printed a copy of each poem for the kiddies to take home in their portfolios, and a copy for the wall too. This way, when my new class arrived at the start of the new year, they had these awesome poems from the previous class to read and think about what lay ahead for them.

Here are a few samples from my kiddies (Dec 2011).

These kiddies were all 9  at the time.

I didn't teach this poem again last year because I was changing levels and moving up to Y6 and my new Y6's wouldn't want to know what my Y4's learned about last year. But now that I am about to complete this year, I will do them again with my 10/11 year olds. Simply dying to see what they produce and hope to post samples for you.

If you would like to have a go at writing these great poems with your students, I have written a lesson for it which includes instructions, graphic organisers and teacher models. Student handouts are in both UK/US spelling, where needed. 

These lesson guides are available from both my TPT store - One Teacher's Journey HERE,

and from my website - Help Me Learn HERE

Thank you for visiting,

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Poetry - Write Colour Poems lesson plan

Hello friends,
This next poetry unit on Colour Poetry compliments this art unit I wrote for inquiring into the Element of Colour

This is part of a series on the elements of art which also includes Element of Line HERE and Element of Texture HERE

Colour Poetry is a fun way to explore metaphors and abstract thinking. By comparing colour to objects, actions and ideas, children extend their thinking to encompass poetic concepts.

This unit supports quality writing with graphic organisers in both US and UK spelling, that makes it easy to create quality imagery.

Each student will create a unique poem because they relate these images to their personal lives and experiences. For this reason, it can also work well when combined with portraiture art, like these lessons available HERE

 

Writing frameworks are provided and teacher models with a poem exemplar are all there to guide you through.

 You can grab your very own copy of Colours Poetry over at my TPT store - One Teacher's Journey HERE

or on my website at Help Me Learn HERE

What other teachers have said about Metaphor Poems about Colour/Color!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ "A high quality resource. Visually appealing with all related content displayed in an accessible way."

Thank you for visiting,

Poetry - This Is Me poems for back to school

Hello Friends,

My poetry unit called, This Is Me, works really well hand-in-hand with either of the following 2 art lessons.
One year, I tried the half portraits inspired by Kathy Barbro of Art Projects for Kids Here are some more of the portraits drawn by my Y4 kiddies at the start of the year.

I just love how these turned out !

The second one is my back to school portrait unit - This Is Me! inspired by the art of Eden Gosier. You can get this comprehensive lesson tutorial from my TPT store One Teacher's Journey - HERE.

It is also available from my website - Help Me Learn - HERE

What other teachers have said about This Is Me!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ "Excellent, easy to follow instructions with beautiful examples to inspire."

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ "This was comprehensive and easy to use. Thank you!"

I also use by Biography poetry lesson early in the year as we all get to know each other. It's a great way to become familiar with our differences and to see how unique we all are. Also, to identify the things that we have in common.

This Is Me poems provides an extensive framework that students fill in easily, as its all about themselves. By extending their ideas and exploring synonyms, they edit and improve the images through a 1-3-6 conferencing model. Finally, they select and reject lines to form and publish their unique poems. I have used this model for several years now and always with great success, which is why I wanted to share this idea. Hope you enjoy using it too :)

This comprehensive poetry writing guide can be up shared on large screen with your students as you work through the steps to write great and personal poetry. A teacher model poem is included, one I wrote as a model about my daughter a few years ago, when I first taught this to my class. 

Find this lesson plan in  my TPT store One Teacher's Journey - HERE.

It is also available from my website - Help Me Learn - HERE 

These 2 items are now also available as a bundle from TPT - HERE

What other teachers have said about the Bio POEMS teaching guide

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 'Great for start of the year writing.'

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 'This was a great resource for our poetry unit. Students enjoyed it!'

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 'Awesome product, thanks.'

Thank you for visiting,

http://www.helpmelearn.co.nz/


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Writing Feelings Poetry about Emotions with Elementary Students

Hello friends,

Poetry is one of my favourite writing genres to teach. But how can we support students to write quality poetry? And something that is new and different from the same old, same old.
My secret is this.
When you find a poem you like, analyse it. What has the author done? There is always a pattern that is identifiable.
Over the years I have had great success by using this method and I am always impressed by the strength and variety that my students deliver.

Poetry is a great way to start the year because it really looks closely at language choices. Also its a  fun way to close out the year as well.

I have started compiling my poetry strategies into units that make it easy-peasy for you too.

 

Emotion Poems is my first unit.  This is one type of poetry I have used when exploring feelings and emotions with my students. It's a great way to help children understand that we need to talk about our feelings, to own them and to understand them, when you address the topic through writing. 

To understand that we all have feelings and we may not feel the same about things or experiences as someone else, is helpful.

Emotion poems pair an emotion with a colour and then analyse it through the senses, using similes. All steps are clearly laid out and student graphic organisers have been created to make it easier for younger students. 

Of course UK and US spelling has been accommodated where needed on these. Share the presentation up on on your large screen, so that your students to follow easily .

Perhaps even model the process by writing your own poem, alongside your students. 

This 28 page unit is available from my TPT store - One Teacher's Journey - HERE

and also from my website - Help Me Learn - HERE

Many teachers have enjoyed using this resource and I hope your enjoy writing poetry with your students too :)

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ "I was amazed at the depth and quality of work that students produced when I used this. Amazing! The best result was the pride they had in what they achieved!"

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ "After teaching my poetry unit, I felt that I need an assessment piece that would demonstrate what students had learnt. I explicitly taught each and step of the feeling poem template and all students produced a wonderful poem that I made into a class book. This is such a wonderful resource."

Thank you for visiting,

Timea

Art Lesson - Back to School Portraits Project for Upper Elementary

Hello friends,
I hope you have enjoyed following our Calendar Art unit, which I called 'This Is Me,' as it developed over last term.

I have now compiled all the photographs and instructions into my latest, comprehensive, step-by-step teacher support resource. 
Are you looking for the perfect back to school self-portrait art project to create with your students in the first weeks of school? Your students will love working on this engaging Portrait Art lesson as they include personal ideas in their artwork and make unique self-portraits to share with the class. Also included is an introduction to US contemporary artist, Eden Gasior - who inspired and endorsement this comprehensive teaching guide.

I have sent all our orders off to the calendar company and look forward to seeing the final products.

✅ This resource is great way to create self-portraits at the start of the year, for getting to know each other, or end of the year to summarise student's growth over the year.
In creating this art project, your students will explore how to use the art elements of LINE and SHAPES when composing artwork and creating patterns or TEXTURE. You will also learn about the innovative ideas and artwork of Eden Gasior.

✅ This lesson has tons of built in choice for differentiation, while keeping the skills taught consistent across the class, to save your sanity.
But you don't need to take my word for it, see what teachers say about the added value they gained from this product.

PRAISE for the SELF-PORTRAITS teacher resource from other teachers

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ "Excellent, easy to follow instructions with beautiful examples to inspire."

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ "This was comprehensive and easy to use. Thank you!"

I hope you give it a try and create beautiful artwork with your students too :)

Thank you for visiting,

Timea