Recycled Poetry
Grade Levels: 3 - 6
Objectives
- Students will write "found" poetry.
Materials
- Old newspapers and magazines
- Scissors
- Envelopes
- Paper
Procedures
- Before beginning, explain to the children that they will be writing a poem.
- Explain the "blank verse" and read the example below.
- Then explain the procedure.
Step 1: Clip interesting words from magazine ads and article titles.
Step 2: Put the strips in a box or large manila envelope.
Step 3: Arrange the children into pairs or trios.
Step 4: Have one child in each group take a pinchful of strips.
Step 5: Use the strips as the foundation of a blank verse poem. Let the word strips suggest a topic.
Step 6: Use a process approach to write and publish the poems. They usually solicit awe from readers who don't know how they were created.
Example:
Given the words:
blast, risk, hunting down, corners, beasts, brain, safety
*******************************
My brain was once a place of safety.
Now it is filled with risk.
I must begin hunting down
The beasts in the corners of my mind
and blast them from the shadows.
– A fifth-grade boy
Excerpted from Themes Across the Curriculum.
