Top Ten Poetry Centers

I’m sure you all know that April is National Poetry Month. I want to share with you my favorite fun poetry centers that you might want to add to your April library centers. Stations or centers are a friendly way to engage students in learning more about poetry.

1) I love Mrs. Lodge’s super easy poetry center! Look at all that colorful student poetry! Follow the link to see how she did it with butcher paper, a photo for inspiration, and colorful markers.

2) Copy some short poems, put out pencils and colors and let students draw a picture of what they see in their imagination when they read the poem (mental images–a reading strategy!) They can glue the poem to the page and take it with them, if you make enough copies. Or make a big mural on butcher paper to share in the hall or on a bulletin board.

3) Copy some shape poems from a book like Doodle Dandies: Poems That Take Shape by J. Patrick Lewis. Let students write their own shape poems on individual pages or butcher paper.

4) Copy poems that rhyme, put out the scented highlighters, and let students highlight the rhyming words.

5) Glue the parts of a wonderful poem on sentence strips, and have students put them in order in a pocket chart.

6) Magnetic poetry–you can buy a kit of actual magnets or create on the SMART board with Storybird, after creating a free teacher account.

7) Display great poetry books with the whisper phone and let students read the poems quietly to themselves. Or display the poetry books with stuffed animals for students to read the poems to. Or create special “Poetry Glasses” (decorate dollar store sunglasses in some special way) for students to read poems with.

8) Check this poets’ website to find the date of Poem in Your Pocket Day this year. Let students copy short poems onto special (fancy) paper to carry with them, to read to each other and their families, or to use as a bookmark.

9) Set up a Poetry Listening Center. Have you ever heard Jack Prelutsky read his own poems? Hilarious! Your students will love them and gain a new appreciation for poetry. The Epic app has poetry read-to-me books which read the words and show the words at the same time. If you’ve got devices in your school library, you can let students read AND listen to poetry with the Epic app.

10) Display examples of acrostic poetry, like African Acrostics by Avis Harley. Encourage students to write their own name down the side of the page, then fill in each line, describing themselves.

I hope that these quick and easy poetry centers help you celebrate poetry with your students. Happy poetry reading!