Everyday is a good day to incorporate poetry into your high school English classes but there’s no better time than April, which is National Poetry Month. Here are 20 poetry activities for National Poetry Month including poetry creation and poems that work with that poetry form. Use them as bell ringers or group together a few ideas for a Friday station set-up. These options can get you through the whole month!
Download your free copy of the calendars with links for activities and all poems.
Day 1
Alliteration and “The Letter A” Darren Sardelli
Introduce poetry with this option. Use it for a collaborative activity – get students up and moving to add a next line on different pages hung around the room.
Day 2
Haiku and “Haiku” Frank Lima
And extend the activity by exploring tanka as another form of poetry that moves a few steps past haiku!
Day 3
Writing from a Word List and “Anatomy Class” Betsy Franco
This is a great activity to adapt with vocabulary from an upcoming unit!
Day 4
Boil It Down and “The Cremation of Sam McGee” Robert Service
Use this to introduce summary practice!
Day 5
Chain Poem and “At the Fair” Edith Sitwell
Another option for some collaborative work. Getting students to work in groups and need an icebreaker that’s not cringy? This is it!
Day 6
Limericks and “There Was an Old Man with a Beard” Edward Lear
Explore more of the form and structure, plus the history of limericks with this option that’s not just for St. Patrick’s Day!
Day 7
Phone Number Selfie and “Madam and the Phone Bill” Langston Hughes
This is ideal for a create character profile. Check out more options for character activities in this post.
Day 8
Animate the Inanimate and “Fork” Charles Simic
I love using this as writing lesson with grammar at the same time. Get students to shift from passive to active voice with this activity that gives life to an object of their choice.
Day 9
Concrete Poetry and “Fingers Remember” Marilyn Nelson
A childhood classic that can be quite contemporary and fresh! Base it on a character and have students write the shape into the structure and content of a new poem of their own creation.
Day 10
Engage the Senses and “Senses” C.H. Manuel
I like this one to kick-off a creative writing unit such as a writing memoirs. When you want students to ‘paint’ the picture rather than just telling, this activity can get their brains in gear!
Day 11
Sandwich Poem and “Four Sandwiches” Martin Espada
Introduce random poems with this activity. It includes some options for great first and last lines but send students off to a site like poets.org where they can search up poems based on keywords. Then use their own found poems as starters and closers for a new poetry option.
Day 12
Found Poem and “Found Poem” Howard Nemerov
Friday afternoon? Infuse a bit of a write-the-room option with this one. Offers a fresh perspective on what students see. Take it outside if weather permits and have students write “that room” too!
Day 13
Blackout Poetry and “Newspaper Blackout” Austin Kleon
This is a classic for a reason! I love it for informal book reviews of students’ independent reading choices. Read about it and a few other ideas at this guest post on Samantha in Secondary all about poetry activities for ANY novel!
Day 14
What’s That You Say? and “Telephone Conversation” Wole Soyinka
Another option to explore character but this time between two characters. Make connections between different characters in one text or add a level of difficulty by connecting characters from two distinct texts. What would Offred say to Montag? What would Beneatha from A Raisin in the Sun say to Starr from The Hate U Give?
Day 15
Ekphrastic Poem and “Ode on a Grecian Urn” John Keats
I love to use this as a vocab activity inspired by random images I find on pixabay.com or pexels.com.
Day 16
Blazons and Sonnet 130 William Shakespeare
Use this for an SEL-focused activity. A blazon is basically a complimentary poem. Students could write this about themselves highlighting their best selves! Extend it into a full lesson with this background reading, scaffolded instructions, and display option.
Day 17
Modified Exquisite Corpse and Random from Space and Time
While I use this during April on an ongoing basis there’s a topic and paper on my door for students to add lines of poetry (I monitor to make sure it doesn’t get out of hand!), it’s also a staple throughout the school year too. I use as a way to check-in with students – picking topics that are as simple as a title questions asking “how are you?” or to introduce a new unit so I can get a baseline assessment of student knowledge. For either of these options I might just do it as a sticky note so students can add “their line” without sharing with the whole class. I ask them to put a star in the corner if they don’t want it added to the full class poem as a way to provide security and safety with the task.
Day 18
Copy Change and Love That Dog Sharon Creech
A student was chatting with their parents about this activity we’d done in class and then sent along a copy of Creech’s book. I immediately fell in love with it! The play on poems like The Red Wheelbarrow by William Carlos Williams is reason enough to add a copy to your classroom or teacher library. Grab a copy here.
Day 19
Pop Sonnets and “LXXXIX – Adele Hello”
Music is always a win for a poetry activity or unit. Take it to another level by getting students to turn their contemporary songs into class sonnets.
Day 20
Poetry Slam
No National Poetry Month should end without students sharing their work. Set this up as a celebratory café-style performance space. Students can sign up in advance or just ask for volunteers on the day of performance – you know your class best in order to recruit the most performers for the day.
Download the 2023 FREEBIE calendar with all of these links in one spot. And if you want all of these activities ready-to-go for National Poetry Month in April or to use throughout the school year, then grab this mega bundle of activities in digital and printable formats and make your National Poetry Month a breeze!
For more activity ideas, check out these poetry-related posts:
2 Responses