Ways to Celebrate National Poetry Month During Distance Learning in 3-5th Grades

During the month of April, I love sharing poetry with students! We study figurative language and write and read engaging poems to learn more about this mode of writing. Distance learning doesn’t have to put a damper on your poetry celebrations with your students. In fact, there are so many ways to celebrate national poetry month during distance learning!

Create Comics

Have your students create figurative language comics! This is a perfect way to review different types of figurative language before analyzing how they appear in poems.

First, review the following types of figurative language with targeted reading passages with your students:

• similes
• metaphors
• personification
• idioms
• hyperbole
• onomatopoeia
• alliteration

Your students will see examples of figurative language comics before they create their own! Have your students submit their comics via Google Classroom or another online learning platform. Showcase student work by sharing them during Zoom sessions or adding them to a Google Slide presentation to share.

Read Aloud

Choose some of your favorite poems to share with your students. Record a screencast or video or have a Zoom or Google Meet session with your class. You may invite parents or your students to share their favorite poems as well. This is a great way to jump into a poetry celebration. Start by sharing some of the practice poems for the figurative language distance learning pack! This pack includes the following engaging poems along with comprehension questions and activities.

• “My Brother’s Not a Werewolf” by Ken Nesbitt
• “Hope is the Thing with Feathers” by Emily Dickinson
• “The Rainbow” by Christina Rossetti
• “A Red, Red Rose” by Robert Burns
• “The Bells” by Edgar Allen Poe

Read Independently

Poetry appreciation comes with understanding! Teaching your students how to read a poem is so valuable. Share poems along with figurative language filled prose passages to help your students gain a greater appreciation of poetry!

The lessons also focus on non-literal (figurative) versus literal language. Everything is ready to be shared to Google Classroom from your Google Drive with these interactive Google Slides. A printable version is ready-to-go for your students without internet access.

Share these amazing poems with your learners!

• “The Bells”
• “Meal Landforms”
• “Rise and Shine”
• “Picture Day”
• “Have You Got a Brook in Your Little Heart”

Create and Write!

Your learners will want to creatively express everything they’ve learned about poetry and figurative language. Challenge them to write poems using each type of figurative language you’ve studied throughout the month of April (and beyond)! Even short, few line simile poems are a great way to get started. Here are a few prompts you can share with your students:

• Write a personification poem using a computer. (Perfect for distance learning!)
• Write a hyperbole (exaggeration) poem about what you will do when social distancing is over.
• Write a simile poem about yourself. What are you “like”?
• Have every student write a line of alliteration with a different letter of the alphabet. Put them all together to form a silly poem!

Let your students share their own ideas for writing as well. A final poetry party via Zoom or Google Meet is the perfect way to share poems aloud!

Enjoy National Poetry Month with your elementary students during distance learning by using these fun and engaging activities and resources!

Looking for More Poetry Distance Learning Strategies?

Check out my National Poetry Month & Distance Learning for 2nd Grade blog post for ideas on how to integrate National Poetry Month for lower elementary students.