Getting Children to Write Poems About Themselves

Getting Inspired

• Brainstorming is an important first step in any writing project. There are several different activities you can do with children to help them generate ideas for a poem about themselves. Try looking through family photos and talking about the memories that come up. Or have your child show you the three or four most important treasures in their bedroom. Is it the raggedy teddy bear your daughter has cherished since birth? Or the baseball cards your son collects? After they've decided what they want to write about, you can help them make a list of descriptive words about that topic. Encourage them to think of words that engage the five senses: touch, taste, sight, smell and sound.

Haikus and Tankas

• If you want to combine some mathematical thinking with poetry, have your child try writing a Japanese haiku or tanka poem. They might write about a favorite activity or memory that came up during brainstorming.

  A haiku is a three-line poem with five syllables in the first line, seven syllables in line two, and five syllables in line three. Tankas follow the syllable pattern 5 -7-5-7-7. So to write a tanka, you just need to write a haiku and then add two additional lines with seven syllables each.

Try an Acrostic Poem

• An acrostic poem provides a straightforward form for young poets to follow.
  Children can write an acrostic poem by first brainstorming words or phrases that describe themselves. Encourage them to think of words that begin with the letters in their name. Next, they should write the letters of their name vertically down the left side of their paper. Finally, they will use each letter to begin a line in their poem, drawing from their list of descriptive words. Bob's poem might say:

  Boy who loves soccer
  Orange is my favorite color
  Born in Seattle

Make it concrete

• A concrete poem takes on the shape of its subject, offering a fun opportunity to combine poetry and art. To start, ask your child to choose an object that is meaningful to him. This might be a favorite animal, musical instrument, food or piece of sports equipment. Then have your child draw an outline of the object on a piece of paper. Make sure the image is large enough that your child is able to write inside of it.

  Now the poetry can begin. Inside the outline, have your child write about the object. Here's an example of a concrete poem about an apple:

  An
  apple,
  red and juicy.
  My favorite fruit.
  Use it for juice
  or a pie.