Poem of the Week…A Three Part Series PART THREE

In Part One and Part Two, I talked about how I’ve been doing a poem or song of the week for my entire teaching career (mostly First Grade) and I gave the basics of where this fits into my day, how it works in my classroom, and what we do each day of the week.
If you missed those posts, check out…

Part One-The “Who, What, When, Where, Why, How” of Poem of the Week!

Part Two-The Daily Activities for the Poem of the Week!

Today, brings us to Part Three-Response Activities! I touched on these a bit in the other posts, but today, I’ll tell you all about our different response activities and I have a link to a FREEBIE to get you started!

Friday is our Read and Respond Day in our Poetry Journals. First, I’ll talk about the journals a bit. For years, mine have had a simple cover and then about 20 pieces of blank copy paper stapled into a booklet and the kids glued weekly poems in. Now that I’ve made a ready-to-go poetry pack, I use pronged folders. Each Friday, I hand out the poem with a response space, the kids put it in their binder, and then begin drawing or writing for their weekly response. For littler ones, you could use the poems with clipart and they could color the picture as their response.

My new Poem of the Week pack has poems with and without a response space (as well as one with colorful clipart for classroom or centers display), so check it out if you’re in need! There’s no right or wrong way…do what works for you and your students!

Are you in need of poems and activities?

Get this Poem of the Week Bundle with 61 poems and daily activities!

On Friday, we read the poem again and discuss it at our meeting spot using our Poetry Response Starter Stems, which are posted on a small poster at our meeting spot.

I use these as a guide for verbal responses from Week 1.
Later in the year, I have my 1st graders move to written responses
using these same stems.

We do both turn and talk with a partner and also have several students share aloud. During this time we are working on speaking in complete sentences and using connecting words to expand our answers. Students also work on responding to friends by agreeing or adding on to their answers. We also work on asking questions about people’s ideas or thoughts.

As I mentioned before, on Fridays at the beginning of the year, after our whole group discussion, my students glue the poem into the Poetry Journal and then draw a picture to go with it. Some choose to highlight or color words in the poem.

Later in the year with first graders, I distribute a smaller copy of our starter stems for them to glue at the beginning of their journal. I ask them to write one sentence or more as a written response, using the starter stems. Many choose to write more than that, some need a little more encouragement! They can still draw or highlight words when they finish their writing and most still love to do that! Their journals are always in their book boxes, so they can read them or work in them during literacy stations each day, too.

Another awesome response activity that we do is perform a “Poetry Jam” for parents. Sometimes, we also perform for the Kindergarten classes! This is usually a spring performance and is really kid-driven. Kids choose a few of their favorite poems to perform. They usually work in pairs or small groups…I’ve had a few brave souls choose to do a solo before, too!!

I give students time during literacy stations or at the end of the day to practice. I type up the program and invites when they tell me what they’re doing, but other than that, they are planning the performance. Students add props, body movements, and all kinds of awesome little routines…it’s really cool to watch them problem solve, collaborate, and perfect their performances!