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Poetry Family Night: Amazing Acrostic Poems

Thanks to its partnership with publisher Eye on Education, EducationWorld is pleased to present this family activity idea from Family Reading Night by Darcy J. Hutchins, Marsha D. Greenfeld, and Joyce L. Epstein. Students and parents alike will enjoy creating Amazing Acrostic Poems.

Students and their families will complete an acrostic poem together. At the end of the time period, the teacher-leader will ask for a few volunteers to share their poems.

family reading activity
Materials


Skills Reinforced

  • Building vocabulary
  • Writing poems


Poetry Family Night

  1. Prior to Poetry Family Night, select one classroom or grade level for students to write original poems. Teachers may guide students to write different kinds of poems.
     
  2. Different classes (or grade levels) may study different forms of poetry and write original poems (e.g., haiku, limerick, cinquain, ballad, diamante).
     
  3. Display students' poems in a Poetry Gallery on the evening of Poetry Family Night. Include a definition or a description of the type of poetry for parents and guests to see. This Web site has definitions and examples of different types of poems.
     
  4. Choose one student from each participating grade level to explain one type of poem that they studied and to read an original poem for the audience on Poetry Family Night.
     
  5. After you have concluded your poetry gallery, begin the Amazing Acrostic Poems activity by explaining what an acrostic poem is: a word, name, or phrase written vertically on a paper where each letter begins a new line of the poem and the poem keeps to the theme suggested by the word.

    For example, an acrostic poem about reading might use the letters R-E-A-D to start each line, as shown here:

    Reading makes me smart.
    Enjoyable entertainment.
    Adventure books are my favorite--
    Don't skip a page, or you will miss something!
     
  6. Hand out the Family Page: Amazing Acrostic Poems and Family Page: Poets Planning to get families to begin writing their acrostic poems together!


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