Fifth Grade Poetry Workshop

โ€œYour poetry workshop was by far the most successful event we’ve had in the library this year.โ€

โ€” BridgePoint Elementary Librarian

We love doing school workshops!

This one was for a great group of 5th graders at BridgePoint Elementary. We had the students discuss what a poem is, walked through the spontaneity and freedom of on-the-spot poem creation, then had the kids write their own for each other! And of course, they loved the typewriters almost as much as the poem fun. ๐Ÿ™‚

One of the coolest things was when we got a poem suggestion (“sugar, Nutella, elephants” — three words from three different students), then started making the poem up LIVE ON-SCREEN — with the typewriter displayed on the doc-cam! The kids loved it, and ended up saying the poem out-loud as each word came out. Talk about on-the-spot creation!

Follow-along poetry creation! ๐Ÿ™‚

We also read each poem we created out loud, then discussed the thought process for each, what worked and why, and the beauty of making mistakes.

Poem topic suggestion: “The Beatles”
Discussing thought process of creating “Beatles” poem

At the end, the kids paired up and wrote each other on-the-spot poems. Poetry fun for the win! โœ๏ธ๐Ÿ˜€

โ€œYour workshop was wonderful preparation for our fifth graders, who then hosted their own Typewriter Rodeo, creating on-the-spot poems for students in the younger grades. These two experiences were by far the most successful events we’ve had in the library this year, and we got a ton of positive feedback from students and staff alike.โ€

โ€” Kate Richter, BridgePoint Elementary Librarian

Leave a Comment

  • (will not be published)