Photograph of person writing "I am a writer."Connecting Reading and Writing: Poetry

Goals:

  • Develop ideas and vocabulary for writing
  • Draft a haiku from your ideas

Today we will work on developing some of the ideas you added to the Heart Map you have created.

We will take one idea from your Heart Map – expand this idea, and then write our own haiku.

Follow these steps to create your own haiku using an idea from your Heart Map.

1. Pick a topic from the Heart Map you created.

(e.g. walking in the park)

2. Brainstorm and write down things that are connected to your topic – these can be single words or phrases. Write down as many ideas as you can!

(e.g. summer, boardwalk, sun reflected in water, swan, laughing, skipping stones, pond, warm, happy, feeding birds)

3. From your list, sort your words and phrases into groups based on syllables:

(e.g. 1 syllable words – swan, pond, warm
2 syllables – summer, boardwalk, laughing, happy
3 syllables phrases – skipping stones, feeding birds
7 syllable phrase – sun reflected in water)

4. Build your haiku slowly. Pick the words and phrases you want to use for your poem from your list. You can add more words to get the right number of syllables in each line:

  • First line has 5 syllables
  • Second line has 7 syllables
  • Third line has 5 syllables
  • Hint: use this syllable counter to help you check your lines

(e.g. a slow summer walk
sun reflected in water
a swan makes you smile)

5. Read your haiku out loud to make sure you are happy with how it sounds. Revise your poem until it sounds just the way you want. When you publish your poem, center it on the page.

The Park
a slow summer walk
sun glittering on water
a swan makes you smile

6. Share your new haiku with a family member.

Other Opportunities: