Hi Friends!
I am a lover of poetry. It can be silly or serious, happy or sad, touching or downright ridiculous!
I love all kinds of poetry. I have incorporated poetry into my daily schedule at school
for many years. I'd like to share one way I use poetry to work on fluency, vocabulary, and
phonics skills. It's a very simple idea, but does take some time to prepare.
I make poetry folders every year for each of my students. I use heavy duty 3-prong folders and
add 34 poems that I have chosen that highlight a different phonics skill each week.
I make these in the summer so they are ready to go.
Next, I write the poem for each week on large white chart paper and add a
picture that goes with the poem. I reuse these year after year, so I don't have to make them again.
On Monday, I introduce the poem. I read it to the class and we discuss the the phonics skill and
any interesting vocabulary.
On Tuesday, the class reads along with me and we add some movements either with our hands or bodies.
On Wednesday, we read it together and I invite some students to come up and point to some words
with the phonics skill we are working on that week. (-at)
On Thursday, we read it together and I ask students to come up and use yellow highlighting tape to highlight words with the phonics skill we are working on that week. (-at)
On Friday, the class reads the poem to me. Then, students go to their desks and find the poem in
their poetry folders. They highlight the -at words in the poem and color the picture.
This magnetic board and word family chart are hanging next to the poem.
Before we read the poem each day, we are building and writing words with -at.
The blue pocket chart holds our spelling words for the week. The words for this week would include
words with -at.
The poems in the poetry folders are read and reread daily for fluency practice prior to beginning my
guided reading groups. My students LOVE reading the poems!! So, if you have a spelling program
that focuses on a particular phonics skill, you might want to give this a try. If you don't, you could
always use holiday poems, seasonal poems, or poems you think your kids would like to read.
Here are a few poetry resource books I've used.
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| LOVE this anthology!! |
