Pumpkin Shape Poetry - Concrete Children's Poetry

We worked for quite a while with concrete poetry, or shape poetry, yesterday. Shape poetry, is when a poem takes the shape of the object it describes.

The girls wrote simple poems about pumpkins. On a blank sheet of paper, they drew the outline of a pumpkin shape, with a dark colored marker. Then placed another sheet of paper over the first, and using the pumpkin outline, underneath, as a guide, they rewrote their poems, following the pumpkin shapes.

For younger children, it can be fun to do the same thing with descriptive words, instead of a full blown poem. Ask them to help you brainstorm words that describe pumpkins (or leaves, or apples, or owls...), lightly print them out around the shape, and let the children trace the letters in an appropriate color.

My oldest son, who is always looking for a short cut when it comes to these sort of projects, asked if he could just write a pumpkin haiku instead.

My response was - "Do you know how to write a haiku?"

To which he answered, "I think so."

"Where did you learn about haiku's?" I asked.

I'm pretty sure we've never done a lesson on Japanese poetry.

"Veggie Tales," he answered.

And, that was that.

It's great to be a homeschooler.