United StatesFall Acrostic Poem
Grade Levels: 3 - 5
Objectives
- Students will create an acrostic poem using autumn-themed words.
(An acrostic poem is a poem that uses the letters of a word to begin each line vertically. Off of each vertical letter, another word or phrase is written that begins with the same letter)
Materials
- Fall word list
- Large pieces of fall-colored construction paper
- Felt-tip pens
Procedures
- The class creates a list of descriptive words that deal with the subject of autumn. This list can be written on the board or on a piece of poster paper to allow the students some visual help if they are having difficulty deciding on their own fall vocabulary words. Words can be the months of fall or descriptive words dealing with the sights and sounds of fall. The words should be at least six to eight letters long.
- Next, the students decide on one main fall word and write it vertically
on their paper. Then they choose other descriptive fall words that begin
with each of the letters in the main word, writing them horizontally,
as shown here.
F alling temperatures
A utumn activities
L osing leaves
L eaving summer behind - When this is complete, the students write their fall-based word vertically on the construction paper in large, dark letters.
- They write their fall words horizontally in another color pen.
- The students can decorate the construction paper with fall decorations, which can be fall stamps, cut-outs from construction paper, or just drawings in marker or crayon.
Variation
- Have students choose a fall word and write it vertically on their paper.
- Have them draw symbols horizontally that start with the letters of the main word. (This could also be done in the first lesson for your limited English students.)
- Using the main "letter" as a hint, let the students try to guess what words or ideas the symbols represent.
